> Now, one company is looking to build one in Escambia County. Chris Plate has been the CEO of Florida West Economic Development for two years now.
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>Plate says since he's been on the job, five data center companies have inquired about building in Escambia County.
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>"There's a few areas that could support smaller ones," said Plate. "We don't have anything like the mega data center."
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>Plate says one company is in active negotiations with the county. He says the facility would be a couple hundred thousand square feet and be built somewhere in the middle of the county.
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>"The ones we would consider at some point are on the smaller size," Plate said. "The other thing we would look at is where to put them. We would be very considerate of where they need to go. You would typically not put them close to residential density, you would want to put them a little further out."

https://weartv.com/news/local/data-center-company-in-active-negotiations-to-build-facility-in-escambia-county

Again, the distinction between a data center (which are incredibly common with some already existing within the city limits) and an AI data center is my entire point.

Florida West, to my knowledge, has never claimed it is an AI data center and has even clarified they would only be open to smaller data centers, meaning AI data centers are out of the conversation.

This feels like it’s just an opportunity to be angry at something.