AI Data Centers Expand in North Carolina Community

A North Carolina community is watching cryptocurrency mines transform into AI data centers, raising fights over power, water, and local rules.

A once-quiet mountain landscape in western North Carolina is now dominated by a constant electrical roar, as cryptocurrency operations give way to AI data centers—reshaping daily life and reigniting a familiar political fight.

In Murphy, the Lash family has felt the change firsthand since a nearby cryptocurrency mine opened in 2021. Rebecca Lash described how the area’s quiet pastureland—once defined by open space and a sense of calm—came to include an intrusive hum from electric lines and the facility behind them.

The Lashes moved to Cherokee County about eight years ago. hoping to retire while living in view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.. Over time. frustration grew as multiple cryptocurrency mines were established close to their home within the previous five years. tightening the sense that the area was losing control over what came next.

Now. residents say the landscape is shifting again: one of those crypto sites is being converted into an artificial intelligence data center.. Tom Lash framed the worry in human terms. saying communities near large AI and data center operations have faced stories that reflect how such facilities can transform nearby neighborhoods.

Western North Carolina’s experience mirrors what many observers describe as a national pattern.. As earnings from crypto mining have fallen, companies have increasingly repurposed their infrastructure to support the computing needs of AI.. The result. residents and officials fear. is not simply a different business model. but potentially a larger wave of digital infrastructure built on the same heavy physical requirements.

Those requirements include large amounts of electricity. industrial-scale cooling systems. and sprawling buildings capable of housing thousands of servers that run continuously.. The shared infrastructure is one reason crypto operations have become attractive foundations for firms racing to expand AI computing capacity.

In Cherokee County. the change is happening amid local debates over how much rural communities should absorb before they demand clearer limits.. Residents and local officials—along with others across western North Carolina—have raised concerns that massive operations will reshape communities even when land-use restrictions are limited.. As towns and counties scramble to respond. some have adopted moratoriums or considered new regulations aimed at slowing development while plans are formed.

Part of the transition’s appeal to developers is tied to regional conditions that can make both mining and data centers easier to build.. In Marble. a former mining site associated with Core Scientific—once the location of American Thread. a garment-industry operation that closed in 2015—has now become a data center.. The company’s former presence had brought hundreds of jobs and hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual taxes. according to the reporting described here.

The region’s water resources. a mild climate. and a lack of zoning restrictions have also been described as factors that make the area attractive for large-scale digital infrastructure.. Those same dynamics are now central to how communities weigh economic renewal against the environmental and quality-of-life risks residents associate with constant power demand and industrial cooling.

Core Scientific announced plans late last year to merge with CoreWeave, a company that leases computing power to AI customers.. That proposed deal fell through in October. but Core Scientific has publicly indicated it continues converting facilities—like the one in Marble—to handle AI workloads.. Core Scientific did not respond to a request for comment, and CoreWeave declined to comment.

For Marble, the expansion process has been described as extensive.. County commissioners and a public records request filed by commissioner Ben Adams indicated the company submitted a site plan that included more than 170 diesel generators. most intended to serve as backup power.. Records released by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality after an inquiry by Grist stated that the generators were exempt from air-quality permitting requirements because they were classified as backup systems.

The facility itself covers about 250,000 square feet, or roughly seven acres, according to the described records. Officials say the company has been coordinating with neighboring utilities to meet water and sewer needs and has been digging three wells to draw from the local water table.

Water agreements and permitting concerns have also surfaced.. The data center sought a wastewater contract with the nearby town of Andrews. but Mayor James Reid said the request was denied because the company lacked an environmental plan.. Reid also complained that a soccer complex Core Scientific had promised did not materialize. and he said the facility is an eyesore—adding that he would not want the situation repeated in any other county.

Even as residents criticize the visible changes, the financial picture is more complicated.. Tax revenue has returned in some form: the county received $268. 000 in 2024 from the Marble facility’s last full year of cryptocurrency operations. followed by a steep drop in the next year that the report links mainly to data center construction.

County Tax Assessor Teresa Ricks said her office is working with a contractor to appraise the Marble data center and its equipment. aiming to ensure the community receives the full value it believes it is entitled to.. Yet Adams. who ran on an anti-crypto campaign in 2022. argued that the revenue may not offset the disruption he associates with the facilities.

Adams said he wants to attract new business but does not want the county’s rural character to change rapidly.. He also worries the data centers bring noise and pollution.. In January. during a commissioners’ meeting. he urged colleagues to renew a moratorium on crypto mining that expired the previous year and to expand it to include AI data centers.

Other commissioners raised concerns that the federal direction on local AI regulation could make it harder for counties to act. One commissioner said efforts by the Trump administration to discourage local regulation of AI would require substantial resources—money and time—to counter.

In the meeting described here, no action was taken. Even so, Adams’ warnings have echoed across the broader region, where officials are treating data centers as an urgent planning challenge rather than a distant development trend.

Since January. multiple localities across western North Carolina—including towns such as Boone and Clyde and counties such as Swain and Clay—along with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. have adopted temporary bans or moratoriums on new data centers.. In Canton. where a decommissioned paper mill may be repurposed as a data center. a moratorium approved in February drew enough people that the crowd could not fit inside the town hall building.

Many of these temporary bans resemble Cherokee County’s earlier moratorium timeline, which ran from 2024 to 2025.. They are generally intended to give communities time to consider more permanent limits before proposals lock in on sites and infrastructure.. In practice. the report notes that moratoriums can be hard to translate into lasting outcomes—especially when construction continues in the background.

At the state level, lawmakers are also moving.. In April. Democratic state representative Lyndsey Prather introduced legislation intended to scale back incentives for data centers and require them to pay the full cost of their energy use.. Across the country. the political momentum appears to be shifting as well. with lawmakers in Maine considering a statewide ban and similar proposals being reviewed from New York to Oklahoma to Michigan.

Still. the record in Cherokee County illustrates why residents remain uneasy: a moratorium can end without producing a clear result. even as new construction keeps humming.. That tension is part of why Adams says the county planning board is being reconvened to explore limits on new data centers without relying on zoning laws.

Adams described himself as pro-business and conservative. yet said he has struggled to balance economic growth with what he considers a responsibility to preserve the county’s rural character.. He said growth is inevitable. but argued that the community should be able to steer that change while keeping it more aligned with a peaceful setting.

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