The global race to build domestic artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure has placed AI data center (AIDC) investments at the forefront of this competition. Yet, policymakers commit capital to AIDCs before fully assessing the potential impacts. Driven by competitive pressure and fears of being left behind in technological development, governments are committing capital under conditions of deep uncertainty. This paper develops a framework to estimate the net impacts of AIDCs, the social net present value (SNPV).
