Data centers—the computing infrastructure required to power the country’s AI, on which companies are shelling out nearly $700 billion to build this year alone—are quickly popping up in rural and suburban towns across the country, some of which are more than two times the size of Manhattan’s Central Park. But the massive footprint of these projects may come with an equally massive public cost. At least 36 states currently provide tax breaks for companies to build the facilities, coming at a cost ...