75th Edition

✍🏽 This Week on Landon in the Loop:

🏢 Economic Growth from Data Centers

📊 Chart of the Week

💬 Drive Portfolio Asks

📆 Events Around the City

🔙 Previous Newsletter Editions

🏢 Economic Growth from Data Centers

Alderman Gilbert Villegas of the 36th Ward is circulating a proposal to convert vacant land in Chicago into data centers as a way to boost property tax revenue for the city.

I’m meeting with the Alderman to discuss this initiative, and I want to keep you in the loop on the plan:

The Methodology

• Transforming vacant land into data centers could generate over $100m in property tax revenue for Chicago over the next decade.

• The proposal is inspired by Loudoun County, Virginia, which successfully increased tax revenue through similar data center developments.

• Attracting private investment is a key objective, with companies seeking direct access to compute resources likely to be interested.

Chicago's Current Position as a Data Center Hub

• Chicago is the third-largest data center market in the US, with over 136 centers and a 7% vacancy rate.

• We achieved "tier one" data center hub status in 2022, driven by $4.2B in investments and over 8,000 new jobs.

• Chicago’s competitive edge includes lower power costs, a cooler climate, decarbonization efforts, and reduced natural disaster risks.

Local Data Storage

• The proposal includes a mandate for more city data to be stored locally, enhancing both technological and economic benefits.

• An interdepartmental working group will focus on sustainability and data center development to oversee this initiative.

• The initiative aims to use local data as a tool for economic development and innovation, similar to the goals of the Chicago Data Portal.

Why This Matters

• Expanding data centers in Chicago could create high-paying jobs in construction, operations, and IT sectors.

• There’s potential to colocate data centers with nuclear power plants, leveraging Illinois’ nuclear energy, which supplies over 70% of the state’s electricity.

• Colocating with nuclear plants could reduce wind and solar energy waste by over 80%, boosting efficiency and sustainability.

AI has represented about 20% of new data center demand over the last year nationally, and it’s growing. We should consider colocating nuclear and data centers.

📊 Chart of the Week

This chart shows how Chicago's share of 2024 graduates exceeds its population share, highlighting the city as a key destination for new talent.

💬 Drive Portfolio Asks

Here are a few asks from companies in our portfolio:

Thoughtful Automation is looking for a software engineer focused on Applied AI. Learn more.

Architect Health is looking for a senior software engineer for the digital health aggregator platform. Learn more. 

Doohickey recently announced their most recent funding round. Learn more.

If you want more information, you can follow up with the company directly or reply to this email, and I'll get it.

Stronger together!

📆 Events Around the City

Founder Fireside with Farmer's Fridge

• Hosted by 1871

• Monday

• RSVP

Operators Guild Chicago September Dinner

• Hosted by OG Chicago

• Tuesday

• RSVP

Founder Night Out

• Hosted by FL

• Tuesday

• RSVP

Real-world Examples of Implementing Generative AI at Scale

• Hosted by Databricks

• Monday

• RSVP

Inside the Loop Biweekly Coffee

• Hosted by ITL

• Thursday

• RSVP

The Compute Collective

• Hosted by Jump Capital

• Thursday

• RSVP

XRP Ledger Chicago Meetup

• Hosted by XRPL

• Thursday

• RSVP

Industry Disruptors - Jon Hirschtick

• Hosted by mHUB

• Thursday

• RSVP

Show Her The Money

• Hosted by Wells Fargo

• Thursday

• RSVP

🗞 Previous Newsletter Editions:

#74 - The Illinois Energy Economy

#73 - Chip Growth in Chicago

#72 - Illinois 2024 Economic Plan

#71 - Salary Shifts in Chicago

👋 See you next week!

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