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AI Bubble Bursts as Data Center Plans Stall in Prince George’s County

MIT data shows almost every generative-AI dollar is still underwater, and residents are pushing back against the power-hungry server farms that were supposed to pay off.

Stay Woke Gazette · · 2 min read · 457 words ·Environmental justice / Data centers / AI hype
AI Bubble Bursts as Data Center Plans Stall in Prince George’s County

LLMs have become resource sucking, community polluting, investment nightmare. Three years into the hype cycle the models still can’t code without a human babysitter, electricity grids are wobbling, and companies returns on AI are next to nothing.

In Prince George’s County, Maryland, residents caught wind of a 90-acre slice of abandoned land being flipped into yet another 200-megawatt data cathedral. They packed out council chambers, flooded inboxes, and forced a 180-day pause. The project isn’t dead, but for the first time a local government is officially asking, “What does this warehouse of servers cost us in asthma, water bills, and blackouts?”before the concrete is poured.

In 2025, elected officials listened to a majority-Black constituency instead of the real-estate donor class. That story needs to go viral because the server farms are still hunting zip codes where land is cheap and lungs are already over-burdened. That is great news we don’t get that often so take a moment.

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The LLMs these centers were built to power are losing their shine. Goldman, Amazon and even OpenAI execs now whisper “AI bubble”, They oversold the AI dream. MIT’s latest industry survey shows 95 % of generative-AI projects have yet to return a single dime. Meanwhile LinkedIn is crawling with “vibe-code cleanup”, I wish that was a joke.

By the numbers :

  • $110 B poured into U.S. AI startups in 2024—12× China’s spend.

  • Global data-center electricity demand is on track to double by 2027.

  • One average hyperscale campus guzzles as much water as 50,000 households—daily.

So the bubble isn’t just financial; it’s ecological. And it’s landing on the same communities that always catch the toxic tailpipe.

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Use these bullets when the next zoning notice shows up in your mailbox:

  1. “Economic development” ≠ data center; server halls create 50-100 permanent jobs versus 5,000 in a comparable warehouse district.

  2. Diesel generators on site are exempt from most county air-quality rules—ask why.

  3. Tax abatements routinely exceed the lifetime property haul—make them show the spreadsheet.

  4. Water-use contracts are locked in for 30 years—during a megadrought.

  5. If AI ROI is basically zero, the public is subsidizing a speculative sandbox, not a growth engine.

PG County cannot be the only headline. Every region being targeted for a data center to move into your community. Use these talking points, bring the receipts, and refuse to let your resource be wasted on someone arguing with Grok in a twitter thread.

Stay woke,

Loc

Sources:

  1. "Prince George’s County Lawmakers Halting Data Center Development," FOX 5 DC, updated 12 June 2025, https://www.fox5dc.com/news/prince-georges-county-lawmakers-halting-data-center-development.

  1. "Prince George’s County Council votes 180-day pause on new data-center applications," Baltimore Sun/Archive snapshot, 11 June 2025, https://archive.md/bdi7b.

  2. Loc (Cody Lockyear), "Look Who Moved into the Neighborhood," Wake & Think (newsletter), 18 June 2025, https://wakeandthink.substack.com/p/look-who-moved-into-the-neighborhood.