Contributed Article: By Contributed Article: By Deven Soni, Vertical Data CEO

Deven Soni Argues Criticism of Mega Data Centers Overlooks Opportunities to Revitalize Properties, Create Jobs and Strengthen Local Infrastructure

As communities across the United States debate the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure, Deven Soni, CEO and founder of Vertical Data, is offering a nuanced perspective on the growing political pushback against AI data centers.

Soni, whose company provides GPU servers, data center colocation and GPU financing to enterprises scaling their compute capacity, acknowledges that concerns over electricity consumption, water usage and the impact of large-scale facilities on local communities can be legitimate.

“There’s a lot of merit to the pushback on mega data centers,” said Soni. “When a project drains a county’s grid and water and gives nothing back, that criticism is fair.”

But Soni cautions against treating every data center project as the same.

“The backlash is throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” Soni said. “Data centers became a hot-button topic because they’re an easy David versus Goliath story. Now every project gets treated like the Goliath. That ignores the local development and community investment these projects can actually bring.”

Turning Underused Properties Into AI Infrastructure

According to Soni, one aspect of the data-center expansion receiving insufficient attention is the reuse of existing commercial and industrial properties.

A growing number of projects can be developed in abandoned office towers, shuttered factories and vacant shopping centers—properties that may already have significant electrical infrastructure but are no longer serving productive economic purposes.

“That’s not the farmland or backyard data center argument,” Soni said. “These sites can turn blight into tax dollars and highly skilled jobs.”

Soni argues that repurposing existing properties can also provide communities with an alternative to leaving large commercial sites vacant for years while generating little or no economic activity.

Keeping Compute Close to the Communities It Serves

Soni also points to the potential local benefits of distributed AI infrastructure. Rather than viewing compute capacity solely as a resource for large technology companies, he argues that locally deployed infrastructure can support hospitals, municipal services and businesses.

“The compute also often stays local—powering hospitals and city services, making roads safer and giving local businesses connectivity,” Soni said.

As AI infrastructure becomes more efficient, Soni expects technological improvements to further change the economics and physical footprint of data centers.

“As the technology improves, these sites need less power and less land over time while still putting dead buildings back to work,” he said.

Data Centers and the U.S. Power Grid

The rapid growth of AI computing is also creating new demand for electricity infrastructure. While that demand has generated concern about grid capacity, Soni argues that it can also create an opportunity to finance long-overdue improvements.

“The revenue from these centers is also funding upgrades to the U.S. grid, which is sorely needed and wasn’t getting paid for any other way,” Soni said. “Newer lines mean fewer wildfires and fewer outages.”

Soni believes the national conversation should therefore move beyond a simple question of whether communities should accept or reject data centers. Instead, policymakers and developers should distinguish between projects that impose costs without meaningful local benefits and those that responsibly reuse existing infrastructure, create economic value and contribute to improvements in the communities and power systems they rely upon.

ABOUT DEVEN SONI & VERTICAL DATA

Deven Soni is CEO and founder of Vertical Data, an AI infrastructure company providing GPU servers, data center colocation and GPU financing to enterprises scaling their compute capacity. Soni began his career as an M&A investment banker at Lazard before joining the technology private equity teams at Goldman Sachs and Highland Capital Partners. He has co-founded and led multiple companies across technology and digital assets, including Wired Investors, Snowball Industries and Acquira, directing acquisitions and post-merger integrations across sectors. He also served as founding COO of Tokens.com.

At Vertical Data, Soni leads the company’s strategy to make enterprise AI compute infrastructure accessible and financeable at scale. He holds a BS from the University of California, Berkeley. For more information, visit https://verticaldata.io.

Opinions expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Biz Tech Journals