AI data centres are propping up small-town America – but can the boom last?

For decades, small-town America’s biggest exports were potatoes, boredom, and ambitious kids who couldn’t wait to leave. Then the machines came.

In Umatilla, Oregon — a dusty town once known for its prison and chemical weapons depot — Amazon arrived with a server farm the size of an airport. The locals called it “Area 51.” Overnight, the strip clubs gave way to strip malls, and the daughter of Mexican farmhands became a real estate star, selling homes to out-of-town contractors and coders.