Powering Progress Ep. 11 | The Incentive Challenge: Navigating the New Tax Landscape for Data Centers

As AI infrastructure investment accelerates, developers, investors, and operators are making long-term decisions based on assumptions about power, financing, and regulation and taxes; but one of those assumptions is changing. For years, states competed aggressively to attract data center investment through generous tax incentives. Today, however, several states are reevaluating those programs, introducing new taxes, pausing incentive offerings, or reconsidering policies that many investors once viewed as stable. So what happens when today's assumptions no longer hold? In this episode, Vinson & Elkins' Chief Innovation Officer Aubrey Bishai is joined by Co-Head of Tax Controversy Kathy Pakenham, to discuss the rapidly evolving tax incentive landscape for data centers. Together they explore why tax certainty has become a strategic issue, how recent developments are affecting project economics, and what owners, developers, and investors should be thinking about as they evaluate opportunities across different jurisdictions.