Google is spending $70 billion this year on artificial intelligence (AI) data centers although experts are terrified the AI bubble will burst. What also can't be ignored is Google's sci-fi-looking data center in the fields off South High Street, not far past 270 and next to the casino – a data center that just recently came online.

The AI gamble could tank the economy and marginalize an entire generation, as all of these types of bubbles have done before. A lot of money is going in and no one has much of a clue what could come out.

Ironic is how Google's 500-acre Far South Side data center was built on a former "snake-oil farm" owned by Dr. Samuel B. Hartman, who grew grapes for a "medicine" known as Peruna during the early 1900s. He claimed it was a miracle cure for congestion, but the only miracle was the "buzz" it offered. Nearly a third of each bottle was ethanol.

At one time it was also the largest cattle farm in Ohio, but Columbus is long past being a "cowtown." It's now a massive "data center farm." The region ranks second in the nation for hyperscale facilities (data centers) run by Google, Amazon, and Meta.

Google claims its Far South Side data center will be critical for powering its AI. The site was chosen "for access to robust fiber, skilled labor, and low natural disaster risk." What they never spoke to was that one of Columbus's largest aquifers lies underneath Hartman Farm that the City uses as a water supply source. 

Besides creating 20 jobs and having an insatiable thirst for electricity and water, this data center will feed at the local tax-abatement buffet. Columbus City Council spared Google from paying property tax for 15 years, saving them $54 million.

"The Far South Side Area Commission did object," says Bruce Miller who once served on this commission, "and were ignored."

The Columbus Landmarks Foundation also objected, as did others.

“20 jobs for a $54 million (!!!!!!) tax benefit," wrote former Columbus City Council president pro tem Elizabeth Brown at the time to a staffer, "I don’t understand." She voted to approve anyway and also voted to change the farmland's zoning from residential to limited manufacturing district.

Miller was forced off the Far South Side Area Commission by unapologetic City officials after he spoke out against City plans to bulldoze the Great Southern Shopping Plaza and replace it with high-end mixed-use density. He remains an activist for all of the South Side, nonetheless. 

"Hundreds of thousands of dollars in new computers, job training and cash donations are flowing to the win-win district, not Columbus City Schools," says Miller, referring to Hamilton Local Schools, near the data center. 

To be fair, Google gave Columbus City Schools $100,000 in 2023 for career development. In 2025, they donated $1.1 million to Central Ohio nonprofits and schools, giving $150,000 to the Columbus Urban League and $14,700 to the Southwest Licking School District, for example. 

But one question now being echoed across the state is, “Who's going to pay to power all these data centers?” Electricity bills in Ohio increased on average by nearly 15 percent this past summer.

At Google's Far South Side data center, American Electric Power (AEP) spent $1.7 million to install larger "power towers" and a new substation to deliver the energy the data center requires.

"They had to rip out all the [older] power towers and demolish people's front lawns in the process. Rip out their landscaping. Rip out their fences. And by the way, they didn't replace the vast majority of that. I was involved in the negotiations, but after I left, AEP reneged on the deal," said Miller.

The Hartman Farm was on the National Register of Historic Places, but removed in 2022 not long after Google went public with its plans. The history of these fields, however, could be far more significant and ancient than a fake miracle cure for phlegm. A Franklin County map drawn in 1914 (pictured above) shows locations for Native American mounds and past dwellings, and this area was prominent for both. And according to many media reports announcing Google's plan for Hartman Farm, they mentioned the existence of Native American burials.

Did Google's outsourced construction company self-report any findings? The answer is almost certainly a “no.” Ohio is one of three states which allows the owners of private property to do as they please with human remains if dug up during construction on their property.

"[We] have not been made aware of any recent reports made to us from the broad area you are describing," said Neil Thompson, spokesperson for the Ohio History Connection.

Back in 2020, Save The Hartman Farms Historic District group repeatedly warned about the Native American burials on their Facebook page. But like many red flags raised for this data center, no one who could do something paid any attention or they ignored it all together.

Always a lively topic on the Columbus Reddit page, perhaps this post best sums up where Columbus and its addiction to data centers is headed.

"Maybe now (sadly) people will believe me when I keep shouting that we don't want ANY f-ing data centers here. None. They do NOTHING useful for us. They eat power, they consume water and land, they employ just a handful of people with full-time jobs and they're not even very good jobs.

Tell your local idiot politicians to stop subsidizing these f-ing things or this town will look like it does in Ready Player One."