Boydton, Virginia, is a typical American small town.
Main Street, Boydton, Virginia. (Source: Town of Boydton)
Main Street in Boydton is a charming snapshot of small-town Americana.
The aged brick buildings have watched over its quiet streets for more than a century.
They’re home to the usual staples of a small town… a cafe, a diner, and a pharmacy. At the heart of Main Street is the old courthouse – a stately granite building with a clock tower looming high above.
Boydton seems untouched by time. A place where everyone knows each other. Divorced from the hustle of modern life.
Most folks wouldn’t stop here for more than topping off their gas tank or a quick bite to eat off Interstate 85.
But beyond its sleepy streets… out in the rolling foothills of former tobacco plantations… lies the key to our artificial intelligence (AI)-powered future.
You see, Boydton and other small towns dotting Virginia house billions of dollars’ worth of cutting-edge technology.
Amazon, Microsoft, and other tech giants have staked their futures on these sprawling foothills.
They’ve built about a third of Virginia’s more than 300 data centers. These process about one-third of the world’s internet data.
And even more data centers are being planned – with blueprints and permits in the works.
Thousands of acres of former tobacco farmlands will transform into AI data centers.
And one company is key to this buildout. Without it, these data centers… and the AI software they make possible… wouldn’t exist.
AI Is an Energy Hog
If you’re like most folks, you probably don’t think much about where your electricity comes from.
Most of us flip a switch and the lights come on. We turn on the oven and it heats up. We can even charge our cars and trucks from the power lines running into our homes.
But America’s energy grid is being pushed to its limits.
The U.S. has more power outages than any other developed nation in the world, according to the International Business Times.
In the last three years, we’ve seen 292 power outages affecting more than 50,000 homes. Between 2000 and 2002, there were only 37 of these power outages.
And it’s going to get even worse… Because one of the biggest users of energy in the years ahead is AI.
According to a peer-reviewed study from the Amsterdam School of Business, AI is expected to use the same amount of energy as Argentina, the Netherlands, and Sweden each use in a year.
That’s why Amazon and Microsoft – two of the world’s largest AI data center providers – have had to think hard about where they’re going to build new data centers.
Per square foot, they use about 10x as much power as the average home.
That means they need abundant power sources. Cost matters, too.
Nuclear power is ideal. It offers large amounts of steady power at competitive rates.
Unfortunately, progress on new nuclear power in the U.S. has stagnated. Over the last eight years, only two new reactors have come online. The average age of the country’s nuclear reactor fleet is 42 years.
So, if you’re building a new data center, you’d better pick somewhere that already has nuclear power… and room to grow.
That’s why I recently recommended a Virginia-based utility company to subscribers of my Near Future Report advisory. It operates two nuclear plants. Together, they power nearly 1 million homes.
And this utility is building a new wind farm to supplement power to the grid. That makes it mission-critical for Virginia’s data center plans.
Power Demand Will Double
Consulting giant McKinsey & Co. says AI is on track to double the total energy demand from data centers by 2030.
Virginia will be home to many of them. Amazon and Microsoft already have building permits for several new data centers, with plans for more to come.
That’s great for this utility operator. And investors stand the chance to double their money on this stock in the coming years.
If you’re already a Near Future Report subscriber, I sent you full details of this company in your January issue. (Paid-up subscribers can read my full write-up here.)
If you’re not subscribed, check out my presentation on the “second wave” of AI that’s set to unfold.
You’ll have the chance to get immediate access to my top recommendations – including the utility provider set to profit from Virginia’s AI data center buildout.
Regards,
Colin Tedards
Editor, The Bleeding Edge