A recent report from 404 Media highlights how a small research team is quietly mapping the rapid expansion of America’s datacenter infrastructure, using publicly available information and satellite imagery to track facilities often missing from public debate.
The work comes from Epoch AI, a non-profit research institute focused on understanding the scale and pace of artificial intelligence development.
Its researchers use open-source intelligence to identify, analyze, and document datacenters rising across the United States.
By reviewing satellite images, construction permits, and local regulatory filings, the team builds an interactive map that estimates cost, ownership, and power consumption.
The project offers rare visibility into an industry expanding faster than public scrutiny.
Mapping hidden infrastructure
Datacenter construction has become a major flashpoint across the country. The facilities demand vast amounts of electricity and water.
Many communities only learn about them after construction begins.
Epoch AI’s map places visual markers over known sites. Each marker links to satellite views and project details. One green circle appears over New Albany, Ohio.
The marker identifies Meta’s “Prometheus” datacenter complex. Epoch AI estimates the project has cost $18 billion so far. It draws 691 megawatts of power.
“A combination of weatherproof tents, colocation facilities and Meta’s traditional datacenter buildings, this datacenter shows Meta’s pivot towards AI,” Epoch said in its notes.
Users can scroll through a timeline and watch the complex grow. Satellite images show new buildings and cooling systems added over time.
How the estimates work
Much of Epoch AI’s analysis focuses on cooling infrastructure. Modern AI systems generate extreme heat. Datacenters often place cooling units outside buildings or across rooftops.
“Modern AI data centers generate so much heat that the cooling equipment extends outside the buildings,” Epoch AI explained on its website.
The team counts fans, measures their size, and analyzes their placement.
It feeds those details into a custom model to estimate energy use. That power estimate then helps infer compute capacity and construction cost.
“We focus on cooling because it’s a very useful clue for figuring out the power consumption,” Jean-Stanislas Denain, a senior researcher at Epoch AI, told 404 Media.
The model carries uncertainty. Fan speed and configuration vary widely.
Epoch AI says real cooling capacity could be twice as high or half as low as estimates.
What remains unseen
The map remains incomplete. State and local disclosure laws vary. Some projects avoid publicity. Smaller facilities often escape detection.
Epoch AI estimates the current dataset represents about 15 percent of global AI compute delivered by chipmakers as of November 2025.
Zooming out reveals markers across the country. One near Memphis, Tennessee points to xAI’s Colossus 2 project.
Epoch AI notes the company installed natural gas turbines across the Mississippi border, likely to secure faster approval.
“Based on this, and on earlier tweets from Elon Musk, 110,000 NVIDIA GB200 GPUs are operational,” Epoch AI wrote.
Even detailed mapping leaves blind spots.
“Even if we have a perfect analysis of a data center, we may still be in the dark about who uses it, and how much they use,” the group said.
Epoch AI plans to expand its search globally.
The project aims to shed light on infrastructure shaping the future economy, often without public visibility.