现实中，资料中心在 2025 年「破圈」成公共焦点。美国资料中心建设爆发式增长，科技巨头投入「数千亿美元」兴建「数十座」；美国现有超过 5,400 座。麦肯锡估算为满足 AI 需求，未来 5 年科技公司几乎需要投入 7 兆美元。

企业宣称带来施工与长期就业、税收支持教育与基建，但社区愈发怀疑：反对者称今年已阻止「数千万美元」投资，担忧耗水耗电、污染、野生动物受损、噪音与房价；谈判时常要求 NDA 使对象不透明。同时资料中心题材推动股市大涨，也被警告可能是泡沫：若 AI 收益无法覆盖巨额资本，泡沫破裂或引发连锁衰退；它们也被影视作品当作监控与同质化的象征，形成「离不开却更憎恶」的矛盾。

The piece uses Ari Aster’s 2025 pandemic satire Eddington to frame data centers as more than plot props: they become a symbol for algorithm-driven distortions that can turn ordinary people into antagonists. Although the film is ostensibly about Covid-era polarization, it casts the data center as the true villain.

In the real world, 2025 is portrayed as the year data centers entered broad public consciousness. US construction surged as tech giants poured “hundreds of billions” into dozens of facilities. The US now has more than 5,400 data centers, and McKinsey projects tech companies may need to spend nearly $7 trillion over the next five years to meet AI-driven demand.

Promised benefits—construction work, ongoing jobs, and tax revenue—collide with rising skepticism. Opposition groups reportedly helped derail investments worth tens of millions, citing local water and power constraints, pollution, wildlife impacts, noise, and property values; secrecy via nondisclosure agreements fuels distrust. Data centers also helped drive a major stock rally, but some warn of a bubble: if AI revenues can’t repay the buildout, a crash could spill into the wider economy, making data centers both recession buffers and potential triggers.