The Next AI Boomtown
The overlooked power markets positioned to attract the next wave of AI infrastructure investment
Every investor is looking at Northern Virginia.
That may be exactly why it’s worth looking somewhere else.
For years, Northern Virginia has been the center of the data-center universe. Loudoun County’s Data Center Alley now contains one of the largest concentrations of digital infrastructure on the planet. Billions of dollars have poured into the region, and the AI buildout has only accelerated that trend.
Success, however, creates its own problems.
Power is harder to secure than it was a few years ago. Grid upgrades take time. New demand continues to arrive faster than infrastructure can be expanded. The market that attracted the first wave of AI investment is becoming a more difficult place to support the next one.
That observation led me to a simple question:
Where does the next boomtown emerge?
Not the next place to announce a project.
The next place capable of supporting one.
The distinction matters because the beneficiaries extend far beyond the companies building data centers. Utilities, generators, transmission owners, equipment suppliers, infrastructure developers, and local communities all participate when a region becomes a destination for large-scale investment.
Hundreds of billions of dollars are expected to flow into AI infrastructure over the coming decade. Some proposed campuses already require more electricity than many cities consume today.
The obvious assumption is that capital will continue flowing to the same places.
The grid data suggests the story may be more complicated.
Over the past several months, I’ve been tracking interconnection queues, transmission plans, utility filings, large-load requests, generation development pipelines, and regional infrastructure constraints across the major U.S. power markets.
A pattern began to emerge.
The regions attracting the most attention are not always the regions with the clearest path forward.
Some highly publicized markets are running into increasingly visible bottlenecks. Others rarely appear in AI headlines despite possessing many of the ingredients developers care about most: available power, development flexibility, existing infrastructure, and room to grow.
The next AI boomtown may already be taking shape.
Most investors simply are not paying attention to it yet.
This week’s research explores where that opportunity may emerge and what the underlying grid data is signaling.
Among the findings:
• PJM continues to dominate the conversation but faces mounting infrastructure challenges.
• MISO is attracting far more investment activity than many investors realize.
• Several regions possess stronger power-delivery characteristics than their reputations suggest.
• Some of the most interesting opportunities may emerge far from the markets receiving the most attention today.
For investors, the goal is not simply identifying where capital is flowing.
The goal is identifying where it may flow next.
If you’re new to AI Grid Report, this is exactly the type of research we publish every week.
Subscribers receive original analysis on AI infrastructure, power markets, grid constraints, transmission planning, utility strategy, and the capital-allocation implications shaping the future of the U.S. energy system.
Our goal is simple: identify the trends that matter before they become consensus.
Whether you’re an investor, developer, operator, utility executive, consultant, or infrastructure professional, AI Grid Report is designed to help you understand where power is moving, where capital is following, and where opportunities may emerge next.
The full report examines the regional data, infrastructure constraints, transmission realities, capital flows, and power-market dynamics shaping the next generation of AI infrastructure development.
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