Powering Innovation: Data Centers, Compute, and U.S. Competitiveness
Center for Strategic and International Studies | August 11, 2026
The rapid expansion of AI, cloud computing, and digital services is transforming compute into one of the most important strategic resources of the twenty-first century. Meeting this demand is fueling unprecedented investment in datacenter infrastructure across the United States. This growth has generated significant debate in communities across the country, with concerns about electricity demand, water consumption, land use, and the broader impacts of large-scale facilities on local quality of life. These concerns are real and deserve careful consideration, particularly as datacenter development accelerates.
Missing from much of this discussion is the strategic role data centers play in enabling innovation. Just as electricity became a general-purpose input to twentieth-century economic growth, access to compute is becoming a foundational input to innovation in the twenty-first century. Data centers provide the computing capacity that supports AI development, advanced manufacturing, scientific research, financial services, and an increasingly digital economy. As access to compute becomes more important for innovation and competitiveness, policymakers face a key challenge: addressing legitimate community concerns while building the infrastructure needed for regions to innovate and support future economic growth.
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