Shutterstock / harhar38 Ever since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, a torrent of money has flowed into building out data centers to power the AI boom. The efforts reached a fever pitch the day after Donald Trump’s second inauguration in 2025, when a bevy of AI luminaries including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Softbank founder Masayoshi Son crowded into the Oval Office to announce a $500 billion private investment in data centers. But as the public has grown jit