Artificial Intelligence

Starting January 1, data center projects in designated rural opportunity zones become eligible for expanded federal tax benefits under last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, WIRED's Molly Taft reports. Research by the Searchlight Institute, reviewed by WIRED, found more than 100 rural data centers in development that could qualify. That count comes from a conservative list of under 700 projects, while other datasets put US projects closer to 1,500. Separately, Pew found that 13% of operating data centers are rural, compared with about 67% of planned ones. The program requires capital investment, not jobs. Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon told WIRED they aren't using it. The Joint Committee on Taxation puts the cost of the law's Opportunity Zone provisions at $40.9 billion over 2025–2034, a figure that covers all qualifying projects, not just data centers.

Bottom line (analysis): Two-thirds of planned data centers are headed to rural areas, compared with about one in eight operating today (Pew). From January, those sites can also qualify for a federal tax break, though Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon say they don't use it. In our analysis, because the incentive rewards capital rather than jobs, its local payoff depends on the jobs question the article leaves open. The Joint Committee on Taxation's $40.9 billion ten-year cost estimate covers the whole Opportunity Zone program, so the data center share isn't known.

Amazon said on October 2 it will give more than $1 billion over five years to communities near its data centers, amid local opposition that has stalled some projects. Local residents would decide how the money is spent. Ars Technica's Ashley Belanger reports that Amazon also dropped its use of nondisclosure agreements on new projects, promised data centers won't push up power bills, and set a 2030 target to replace all the water it uses. Environmental group Stand.Earth welcomed the end of NDAs and criticized the rest. It calls the pledge "a drop in the bucket" next to the roughly $220 billion it says Amazon is spending on data centers in 2026, and notes that the plan says nothing about a power plant Amazon is backing in Pecos, Texas, which the group calls the largest single source of climate emissions in the US.

Bottom line (analysis): At about $200 million a year, the community fund is roughly a tenth of one percent of Stand.Earth's estimate of Amazon's data center spending this year. In our analysis, ending NDAs matters more than the dollar amount, because it lets residents and officials discuss deals in public before approval. The blocked projects in the article suggest local approval is now worth tracking alongside chips and power.

Federal prosecutors have arrested Greg Lui, 38, chief executive of Earthmade Computer. They accuse him of using false paperwork to send more than $300 million in servers built on export-controlled Nvidia A100 and H100 chips to China, by way of freight forwarders in Malaysia and Singapore. According to the Justice Department case described by Ars Technica's Ashley Belanger, the scheme ran from October 2023 to August 2026. It included a 27-server order worth about $7.6 million and a 100-server shipment backed by documents from a fake buyer. Lui's firm allegedly took in more than $176 million in 2024 alone. He faces up to 20 years on the conspiracy and money-laundering counts. Nvidia told Bloomberg that less than half of one percent of its products have allegedly been diverted.

Bottom line (analysis): The case puts a number on what one middleman allegedly moved: at least $300 million in AI servers over nearly three years. Nvidia puts diversion at under half of one percent of its products, officials quoted by Bloomberg suspect a much larger shadow trade, and neither side gives hard totals. The article reports that stricter rules are unlikely for now, so any change in Nvidia's own customer checks is the thing to watch.