The energy-intensive buildings have spread rapidly in northern Virginia, driving up electricity demand and cost.

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers introduced a series of bills Tuesday at the General Assembly aimed at regulating Virginia's data center industry, which is particularly robust in Northern Virginia and parts of Central Virginia.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a set of bills that would set limits on data centers amid a major spike in development.

Australia's Macquarie on Tuesday agreed to take a 15% stake in Applied Digital's high-performance computing business and invest up to $5 billion in the company's artificial intelligence data centers amid booming AI demand.

Shares of Applied Digital were trading sharply higher after the operator of artificial-intelligence data centers announced it would be receiving up to $5 billion from Macquarie Asset Management. Applied Digital stock gained 25% to $9.