Brookwood Data Center Developer Donates To Senator Tuberville's Campaign for Governor

Applied Digital Corporation based out of Dallas, Texas recently donated $25,000 to Tommy Tuberville's campaign for Governor of the State of Alabama. Applied Digital through its various companies owns land in the amount of 1,300 acres in Brookwood, Alabama and has been mindbogglingly given an environmental permit from the State of Alabama for a proposed hyperscale data center to be built on its property. With the construction runoff from Applied Digital's proposed hyperscale data center set to drain into Hurricane Creek which flows into the Black Warrior River.

The location of Applied Digital Corporation' and its affiliates' proposed two million square feet hyperscale data center is near Brookwood Middle School which has raised heavy concern among locals who are having difficulty getting straight answers with regards to the proposed hyperscale data center from the mayor of Brookwood, Joe Barger, and the city council members of Brookwood: Allen Abston, Lee Ann Teat, Suzanne Smith, Mark Stanley, and Kenny Herring. While the city officials of Brookwood have held public meetings for locals to speak about the project, the mayor of Brookwood has tried to deflect public concern to the Tuscaloosa County Economic Development Authority. Members of the Tuscaloosa County Economic Development authority include the mayor of Tuscaloosa, Walt Maddox, and the Probate Judge of Tuscaloosa, Rob Robertson, among others. Judge Robertson was recently dismissive of public concern with regards to hyperscale data centers at a State of the Community meeting earlier in August. With Rob Robertston stating that all of the concerns with regards to hyperscale data centers echo what was, " . . . said about the horseless carriage."

It should be noted that some of the concerns Americans have with regards to hyperscale data centers include the massive energy consumption that raises power bills for local residents where they are located, the huge amounts of water that hyperscale data centers consume, the polluting of the water by the hyperscale data centers, the twenty-four hours and seven days a week noise that they produce that effects human hearing and wildlife, the air pollution that causes asthma and other health issues, and their ability to be turned into surveillance centers. Another rising concern with regards to hyperscale data centers is their disregard of the law. With data centers throughout the country such as the one in Fayetteville, Georgia last year using water without letting the local authorities know and a New Jersey hyperscale data center operating its generators without the required permit. Observers note that the hyperscale data center industry, " . . . values speed to market more than almost anything else and they seem to believe that it's better to ask for forgiveness than for permission."

While proponents of hyperscale data centers such as Tommy Tuberville consider hyperscale data centers to be an AI race against China. In reality, hyperscale data centers are a boon to China since China manufactures a significant portion of the components used in hyperscale data centers. Tommy Tuberville in his campaign for Governor of Alabama has also referred to hyperscale data centers as economic, "gold mines" for the state. Although, any supposed tax revenue to be gained from such entities is questionable since they are often lured to the state by twenty-to-thirty-year tax abatements. Nevertheless, Senator Tuberville is persistent in his support for hyperscale data centers to be built throughout Alabama. With his campaign for governor accepting the $25,000 donation from Applied Digital Corporation on August 07th, 2026.

Applied Digital Corporation describes itself in its press releases that it, "designs, builds, and operates high-performance, sustainably engineered data centers and colocation services for artificial intelligence, cloud, networking, and blockchain workloads." Applied Digital Corporation currently owns and operates data centers primarily in North Dakota such as the Jamestown Facility and the Ellendale Campus. It is currently working on additional hyperscale data center projects such as the Harwood one in North Dakota; the Delta Forge 1 center near Alexandria, Louisiana; the Adair Facility in Adair, Iowa; and the Toronto Facility in South Dakota.

Residents living within two miles of the Applied Digital data center in Jamestown, North Dakota have reported constant operational noise and light disturbances from the facility. Prompting the Stutsman County Commission to require a strict two-mile setback from structures for future data centers. Locals near the Applied Digital data center project in Ellendale, North Dakota have reported that demand for housing from the construction workers have doubled the monthly rental rates of apartments in the area. Leading to some families moving out of Ellendale because of their inability to afford the surge in rent prices. As locals report that the regular Ellendale residents are not benefiting from the hyperscale data center in the area as much as the local bars are.

Currently, Tommy Tuberville's campaign for Governor of Alabama has over nine and a half million dollars available to finance his campaign according to the Alabama Secretary of State's elections website.