Jul 17, 2026
When you picture AI millionaires, a pair of pig-raising farmers probably doesn’t pop into your mind. But according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, a growing number of farmers are now filthy rich thanks to the AI data center buildout.
For decades, Marilee and David Kiliti were struggling to get by raising hogs on their 89-acre farm in Salem Township, Pennsylvania. They didn’t have much expectation of making it rich.
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That was, until a representative from the Blackstone-owned firm QTS knocked on their door. While snacking on slices of venison sausage, a land developer suggested the Kilitis could sell their property for a staggering $22 million — which they later did.
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And the Kilitis weren’t the only ones to take QTS up on its offer. In total, the Wall Street Journal found that 96 families in Salem Township sold approximately 1,700 acres for $586 million.
An article from Entrepreneur speculated this could just be the beginning of land investment in the area, with a rumored second land deal in the works that could total $1.3 billion.
Can AI data centers depress neighboring home values?
It’s clear that many farm owners are beneficiaries of the AI data center boom. For local communities, however, there are questions over whether these hi-tech hubs will have the opposite effect on their property values.
Although there are many complex, location-specific factors, such as each data center’s impact on electricity, water supply and natural ecosystems, some preliminary findings suggest there isn’t a 1-to-1 correlation between these facilities and average home prices.
Newsweek recently published findings from George Mason University that compared home sales in Northern Virginia before and after a data center was built or permitted. Interestingly, between 2023 and 2024, the average value of homes near data centers increased year-on-year. Even more surprising, the study authors noted that homes farther from the data centers generally weren’t as high as those closer.
But the study’s co-author, Terry L. Clower, was careful to avoid drawing a simplistic correlation between data center proximity and higher property prices. As Clower told Newsweek, he believes the same infrastructure that attracts AI companies (e.g., access to high-voltage power and fiber-optic networks) is also the reason homebuyers bid up prices in these areas.
The real-estate broker Erik Leland expanded on Clower’s point, telling Newsweek that “The data centers did not create the desirability. They locate where it already exists.”
Leland also speculated that the extra taxes data centers pay could help explain these findings. Since data centers pay high taxes and don’t bring in new residents like a housing complex, it means local governments have more money per resident to improve infrastructure or potentially keep tax rates lower. Those improvements, in turn, can make the community more attractive overall, which might support home values over time.
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The AI data center debate rages on
Even though preliminary research doesn’t show a negative association between AI data centers and home values, that probably won’t change many Americans’ views of these facilities.
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According to a Gallup poll, a paltry 7% of Americans say they “strongly favor” building AI data centers in their backyard. By comparison, 48% “strongly oppose” and another 23% “somewhat oppose” building these facilities.
For context, that’s about 8% higher than the all-time high for total opposition to building nuclear power plants near someone’s home in Gallup’s 2001 data.
While some opponents of data centers mentioned issues like their home’s value, that wasn’t the most pressing concern. Instead, the issues weighing on most people’s minds centered around the impact on quality of life and the environment.
When Gallup asked respondents why they didn’t support data centers, 50% cited concerns related to the drain on resources, including the excessive use of water and power.
Unsurprisingly, Gallup also showed a clear correlation between someone’s general opinions on the environment and their opposition to data centers: 78% of adults who said they frequently “worry” about the environment were opposed to data centers, compared with 52% who didn’t express this eco-anxiety.
So, even though investment in data centers has been a boon for some farmland owners, the battle is far from over. In fact, Gallup suggested the “intensity” of negative views on data centers could make it one of the biggest issues at the ballot box.
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Eric Esposito is a freelance contributor on MoneyWise who loves making financial topics accessible and understandable to readers. In addition to MoneyWise, Eric’s work can be found in publications such as WallStreetZen and CoinDesk.
