Interactive Map Tracks Worldwide Data Center Construction and Related Legislation

Isabelle Reksopuro, an Oregon resident and University of Washington student studying connections between tech and public policy, built an interactive map tracking data center construction and AI policy around the world. The map was constructed using information collected by Epoch AI and data scraped from legislation on data centers.

It searches for new sources four times a day, checks them against the existing database, writes a new summary, adds it to the news feed and populates it on the sidebar.

Reksopuro designed the map to be simple enough for anyone to use, including her younger sisters. "I wanted it to be something that my younger sisters could play through and explore to understand what are the data centers in the area and what’s actually being done about it," she said. She hoped to shift their opinions that way instead of through TikTok.

The article was published on May 14, 2026 at 5:40 PM UTC. The project was sparked by controversy in The Dalles, a city near the Washington state border with a population of 16,010 as of the 2020 census. The city of The Dalles sought to reclaim a 150-acre portion of Mount Hood National Forest.

The Dalles claimed it needs access to Mount Hood’s watershed to meet municipal needs as its population grows. Google has a sprawling data center campus in The Dalles that consumes about one-third of the city’s water supply. Critics including environmentalists say the city of The Dalles is trying to secure more water for Google.

Google has denied taking the land in The Dalles. "There’s a lot of misinformation about data centers," Reksopuro said. " Reksopuro said opposition to data centers is one of the few things that unites Americans across party lines.

After the initial construction phase, data centers bring few permanent jobs. Data centers use so much power that residents’ utility bills often rise as a result. Maine passed the first state-level moratorium on hyperscale data centers in April.

Maine's moratorium on hyperscale data centers was later vetoed by Gov. Janet Mills. Texas passed a tax exemption for data centers. Texas gives data centers more than $1 billion in tax breaks each year, The Texas Tribune reports.

Reksopuro is not against data centers but thinks tech giants benefit from a lack of transparency around data center policies. "Right now, it’s this really opaque thing — and all of a sudden, there’s a facility," she said. "I think that if people knew about data centers beforehand, it would give them leverage.

The Verge reported these details. The map aims to address that opacity by making information about both construction and policy accessible. Reksopuro built it to be self-updating since she is also a student.

The tool draws on global data to show that public response to data centers and the policies governing them vary widely by location.