This Is Server Country
AI, Power, and the Remaking of Rural America
A town spoke. Something larger answered.
About the Book
The Story Behind the Infrastructure
You type a question. Words appear. Between your fingertips and that answer: 1.4 gigawatts flowing through 250 acres of what was, until last year, Michigan farmland.
America is building the largest private infrastructure project in history—and hardly anyone is paying attention. Over $1 trillion in announced investment. 600+ documented projects across all 50 states. More than 130 gigawatts of planned power capacity—enough to power 100 million homes.
This Is Server Country follows the life of a single AI token backward through the entire infrastructure stack: from the moment words appear on your screen, through the silicon that processes them, into the data centers that house them, and down to the power plants and farmland that make it all possible.
Saline Township, Michigan
Every chapter returns to one place: a small Michigan township where a $7 billion project transformed 250 acres of farmland into AI infrastructure. The local board voted to reject rezoning. The developer sued within 48 hours. Three weeks later, it was approved anyway. This is the story of what happens when local democracy meets trillion-dollar capital.
What You'll Learn
- How AI inference works and why it demands unprecedented compute power
- Why data centers choose farmland, not cities—the grid topology that determines where projects land
- The trillion-dollar capital wave: hyperscalers, private equity, and sovereign wealth
- State incentive wars and the communities caught between economic development and local control
- The nuclear renaissance, natural gas reality, and what sustainability promises actually mean
- Export controls, chip wars, and the geopolitics reshaping global AI infrastructure
The railroads opened the West. The interstates created the suburbs. The AI boom follows the same pattern, at faster speed—but to what end, we know not yet.
What You'll Learn
Three Perspectives on a Trillion Dollars
Narrative
One Township's Story
Every chapter returns to Saline Township, Michigan—where a $7 billion project transformed 250 acres of farmland in three weeks. Local democracy meets trillion-dollar capital.
Research
604 Projects Documented
The first comprehensive mapping of America's AI infrastructure buildout. Every state, every major project, every power contract—sourced from SEC filings, utility dockets, and township records.
Analysis
The Farmland Paradox
Despite decades of policy encouraging brownfield reuse, 90% of projects choose virgin farmland. The book explains why: speed, certainty, and power grid access.
The Life of a Token
From Your Screen to the Power Plant
The book follows a single AI response backward through the entire infrastructure stack—14 chapters that reveal what it actually takes to make words appear on your screen.
The Technical Stack
How AI actually generates responses, from silicon to server rack
- The Inference
- The Silicon
- The Data Center
The Energy Reality
Why electricity—not compute—is the real limit on AI
- The Power Constraint
- The Grid
- The Generation
Political Economy
Who decides, who benefits, who pays
- The Land
- The Money
- The Incentives
- The Geopolitics
The Future
Three plausible 2030 futures
- Future Designs
- Future Policy
- Future Scenarios
402 pages · 14 chapters · Prologue & Epilogue
About the Author
Michael J Bommarito II
Researcher and entrepreneur in AI, law, and finance. His research has been published in scientific journals, law reviews, and mainstream media, including Science, Physica A, and the New York Times.
Co-founder of LexPredict (AI for legal analytics, acquired 2018). Part of the research team that tested GPT-4 against the bar exam. Leads the ALEA Institute, a nonprofit focused on responsible AI.
Holds degrees from the University of Michigan in mathematics, political science, and financial engineering. Lives on a small farmstead in mid-Michigan, an hour from where this story begins.
Disclosure — This book was written with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic)—ironically using the very infrastructure it documents. AI assisted with research, drafting, and revision. The author lives on a small farmstead in mid-Michigan, one hour from Saline Township.
Get the Book
Available Now
Read the first comprehensive account of America's AI infrastructure buildout—from silicon to farmland, from trillion-dollar capital to small-town democracy.
ISBN (Print): 979-8-9943457-3-3
ISBN (eBook): 979-8-9943457-2-6