AI boom has put several of the biggest American universities are under ‘physical threat’, George Washington University’s sale of its Virginia campus is an example

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is creating a new pressure point for American universities. This comes as demand for data centers increases the value of large properties with access to electricity, water and fiber infrastructure. American universities that have traditionally used such land for classrooms, laboratories and research facilities are increasingly competing with AI infrastructure projects, creating what former George Washington University professor Ellen Scully-Russ described as “a physical threat” to higher education resources.

The George Washington (GW) University’s sale of its roughly 120-acre Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, to Amazon Data Services for $427 million is one example of this shift.