Clinton, Iowa, is topographically(地形上地) flat and economically declining. The sawmills that made the city rich in the late 19th century have been repurposed(改作他用) as a museum. One of the Victorian mansions long since abandoned by the old lumber barons(木材大亨) is open for tours, but tourists are scarce. Clinton has shrunk to about 24,000 people, and the town center, along the Mississippi River, feels nearly empty. On the west side, miles of deep-green corn and soy fields are crisscrossed with transmission wires and zoned(被划为) for heavy industrial use. The city’s economic activity includes corn processing, pet-food production, and methamphetamines(冰毒). With available land and a dire need for(迫切需求) investment, Clinton seems like the perfect place for a gigantic data center.
爱荷华州克林顿市地势平坦，经济日渐衰落。19世纪末让这座城市富甲一方的锯木厂，如今已被改建成博物馆。当年木材大亨们遗弃的维多利亚式豪宅中，有一栋开放供人参观，但游客寥寥。克林顿市人口已缩减至约2.4万，密西西比河畔的市中心几乎空无一人。西侧绵延数英里的深绿色玉米和大豆田里，输电线路纵横交错，土地被划为重工业用地。该市的经济活动包括玉米加工、宠物食品生产，以及冰毒制造。凭借可用的土地和对投资的迫切需求，克林顿似乎是建造巨型数据中心的理想之地。
In January, a Clintonian named Stephen Figg, who owns a small firm that builds technological infrastructure, including for data centers, heard from a customer that a broker was making inquiries about buying farmland on the west side, north of Highway 30.(今年1月，克林顿市民斯蒂芬·菲格从一位客户那里听说，有经纪人在打听购买30号公路以北西侧农田的事。) In mid-February, a father of two girls named Ryan Wisor, who had obtained a residential exemption(住宅豁免) to live in that area, noticed surveyors with boring rigs(钻探设备) working in the field behind the house he’d built. He asked his stepsister(继妹), who sits on the city council(市议会), if she knew of a planned development. Several weeks later, she told him of a proposal for a data center. He learned that the project would border his house on two sides and come to within 65 feet of his well.
今年1月，克林顿市民斯蒂芬·菲格——他拥有一家小型科技基础设施公司，业务包括为数据中心建设设施——从一位客户那里听说，有经纪人在打听购买30号公路以北西侧农田的事。2月中旬，有两个女儿的瑞安·威索——他获得了住宅豁免权，得以住在该区域——注意到测量员带着钻探设备在他自建房屋后面的田地里作业。他问在市议会任职的继妹是否知道有开发计划。几周后，她告诉他有一个数据中心的提案。他得知该项目将从他房子两侧毗邻而过，距离他的水井仅65英尺。
For almost two years, city officials, utility companies(公用事业公司), and a pro-business(亲商的) nonprofit, Grow Clinton, had been in discussions about the construction of a data center in Clinton. It later emerged that an international developer called Quality Technology Services (QTS), owned by the trillion-dollar private-equity firm Blackstone, planned to build one of the country’s largest AI data centers—10 buildings of 500,000 square feet each—on behalf of a client that remains anonymous.(后来人们才知道，国际开发商QTS计划代表一位匿名客户建造美国最大的AI数据中心之一。) Private meetings, nondisclosure agreements(保密协议), and even a code name (“Saturday River”) had kept the plan’s existence quiet until Andy Sokolovich, the president of Grow Clinton, unveiled(公布) the proposal at a county-board meeting on April 27. He had wanted to keep the project confidential longer, but word was getting out.
近两年来，市政官员、公用事业公司和亲商非营利组织“发展克林顿”一直在讨论在克林顿建设数据中心的事。后来人们才知道，国际开发商Quality Technology Services（QTS）——由万亿美元私募股权公司黑石集团拥有——计划代表一位匿名客户，建造美国最大的AI数据中心之一：10栋建筑，每栋50万平方英尺。私下会议、保密协议，甚至一个代号（“星期六河”）让该计划的存在一直秘而不宣，直到“发展克林顿”总裁安迪·索科洛维奇在4月27日的县董事会会议上揭开了提案的面纱。他本想再保密一段时间，但消息还是传了出去。