en.Wedoany.com Reported - QTS, a data center operator owned by Blackstone, announced on July 2 that it has terminated its data center project in Virginia, USA, and withdrawn all related filings, putting the construction plan for the world's largest data center campus on hold.

As demand for data centers continues to rise with artificial intelligence and cloud computing, Virginia once experienced a peak in data center construction. QTS had originally planned to build a 850-hectare data center campus in Prince William County, Virginia, under the project name "Digital Gateway," aiming to create the world's largest "technology corridor."

The project's power demands, as well as its impact on land, water resources, and the environment, drew attention from local residents and regulatory agencies. Last year, a Virginia circuit court ruled that the project's zoning approval documents were invalid due to non-compliant public notice procedures. In March of this year, the Virginia Court of Appeals upheld the ruling, and the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and its partner developers subsequently decided not to appeal. Bloomberg reported that in response to the ruling, Compass, a data center company and QTS's partner, decided to withdraw from the "Digital Gateway" project, leaving QTS as the sole developer.

Insiders revealed that after Compass's withdrawal, the costs for retrofitting supporting infrastructure such as water and power networks for the data center campus were no longer shared, and QTS determined that continuing would not be cost-effective.

Some analysts believe that QTS's abandonment of the world's largest data center campus project reflects growing resistance to the U.S. data center construction boom. A survey released in May by polling firm Gallup showed that 71% of Americans oppose building data centers near residential areas, with concerns primarily focused on energy and water consumption, environmental pollution, and noise.