DataBank: Data Center Virtual Tour of ATL1 in Atlanta, Georgia
The short version: DataBank's slick ATL1 tour shows a data center tucked inside Georgia Tech's Tech Square, but skips the power and water math behind the glass.
Our Take
DataBank's walkthrough of ATL1 is a nice reminder that not every data center is a windowless box on a corn field — this one sits inside Georgia Tech's Technology Square, wired into the university's own high-performance computing center and a regional research network. It's a smart marketing move: frame the facility as part of an academic ecosystem rather than an industrial load, and the questions people usually ask about hyperscale campuses tend to fade into the background.
But an urban colo facility still draws real power off the Atlanta grid and still needs cooling, even if the video never mentions megawatts, water intake, or who's paying for the substation upgrades that keep a dense tech corridor like this humming. Georgia Power customers across the metro are already absorbing costs tied to data center growth, and a facility branded as a university partner isn't exempt from that math — it's just better dressed.
We track these builds because the polished tour videos rarely show the interconnection agreements, tax abatements, or utility filings that actually determine who pays. Check our facility map to see what's been disclosed near you, and use our take-action page if you want to push your utility commission for real numbers instead of a lobby video.
This is GridWatch the USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of DataBank, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.