This op-ed originally appeared in the St. Louis Business Journal.
St. Louis is standing at one of the most important economic crossroads in modern history.
For decades, our region has worked to reverse the effects of population decline, stagnant taxable growth, aging infrastructure costs and the slow erosion of national relevance. We have extraordinary assets, world class universities, a rich industrial legacy, a globally significant geospatial sector, advanced manufacturing capabilities, healthcare innovation, financial institutions and one of the strongest inland logistics networks in America.
Yet for all of those advantages, too much of our growth has remained incremental. The next chapter will not be built incrementally.
It will be built digitally.
Artificial intelligence infrastructure, hyperscale data centers, advanced computing, cloud architecture and energy innovation are rapidly becoming the economic backbone of the modern world. The regions that understand this first will dominate the next generation of economic growth, talent attraction, startup formation and taxable investment.
The regions that do not will spend the next 20 years wondering how they got left behind.
A recent analysis from the Brookings Institution made a striking observation: “The AI goldrush roars on.”
That simple phrase captures the reality facing every major American region today.
Across America, communities are debating whether data centers are worth pursuing. Concerns about electricity demand, water usage and land use dominate headlines. Those conversations are fair, and communities deserve transparency and accountability from developers.
But St. Louis must approach this conversation strategically, not emotionally.
Because the reality is this: Few industries have the ability to generate the level of large-scale taxable investment our region needs more than hyperscale digital infrastructure.
Not retail. Not speculative office development. Not small industrial projects.
We are talking about billions of dollars in investment capable of materially changing the trajectory of local government revenues, school funding capacity, infrastructure modernization, and regional competitiveness.
Brookings also noted that “the faster the firms have sought to scale, the faster they have needed to strike deals with communities to build massive computing facilities.”
That urgency creates opportunity for regions willing to compete intelligently.
St. Louis already possesses many of the ingredients required to become a major AI and digital infrastructure hub.
We have abundant water resources compared with many western markets. We sit at the center of America’s transportation network. We have existing utility infrastructure built for a region substantially larger than the population we currently serve.
We have access to technical talent through institutions like Washington University, Saint Louis University, Harris Stowe State University, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, our community colleges and technical schools, and others.
We have one of the nation’s most important concentrations of geospatial intelligence capabilities surrounding the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
And we have an opportunity to align advanced manufacturing, defense technology, agtech, bioscience, cybersecurity and AI development in ways very few American regions can replicate.
That opportunity is enormous, but it requires leadership.
Too often, the national discussion treats data centers as isolated real estate projects instead of what they truly are: foundational infrastructure for the future economy.
Brookings correctly argued that regions should stop treating these projects “as isolated real estate transactions” and instead see them as “ecosystem-shaping moments.”
That is exactly right.
The conversation should not simply be about buildings filled with servers. It should be about what gets built around them: high-wage technical careers, research partnerships, startup ecosystems, AI commercialization, advanced energy innovation, workforce training, cybersecurity expansion, defense technology acceleration, and next-generation manufacturing.
The communities that win will not merely host infrastructure. They will build entire innovation ecosystems around it. That is where St. Louis has a chance to separate ourselves.
We should also be honest about the competitive reality America faces.
China is aggressively expanding AI infrastructure while America debates whether we should build ours. The global competition for technological leadership is accelerating daily, and digital infrastructure is now directly connected to economic strength, national security and geopolitical influence.
This is no longer simply a technology conversation. It is one of economic survival.
That does not mean communities should hand over blank checks or abandon environmental responsibility. Quite the opposite. Smart communities negotiate from strength. They demand long term partnerships, workforce investments, energy innovation, educational collaboration and community alignment.
The best projects should strengthen regions beyond construction jobs alone.
The public conversation often ignores these realities.
What is also ignored is the scale of economic impact at stake.
For regions like St. Louis, data centers represent one of the few opportunities capable of generating the kind of tax base expansion required to reverse decades of slow growth and underinvestment. This matters for roads. It matters for schools. It matters for public safety. It matters for parks, infrastructure, and quality of life.
Growth solves many problems; stagnation solves none.
Brookings concluded with a warning that regions are beginning to realize their “land, approvals, infrastructure, water, and electricity are invaluable.”
St. Louis should recognize the same thing.
The future economy will belong to regions willing to think bigger than the next election cycle and bigger than the next headline.
America once fought to attract railroads, ports, manufacturing plants and interstate systems because leaders understood infrastructure determines economic destiny.
Today, digital infrastructure is the new industrial infrastructure.
And St. Louis has every opportunity to lead if we choose vision over fear.