Data center companies and industry groups are expanding outreach to US schoolchildren as communities challenge the power use, tax incentives and local impact of new computing campuses. Their efforts include student field trips, classroom materials, coloring pages and children’s books that explain data centers in favorable terms.
The nonprofit 7x24 Exchange International promotes an “International Data Center Day” and encourages supporters to pitch it to school administrators. It offers high schools information about training programs and gives elementary schools activities such as drawing the cloud or a “data superhero.” The organization has also participated in at least six K–12 events this year, including a Minnesota trip to a diesel-generator facility.
WIRED counted at least 11 companies and industry groups that have hosted student visits to data centers since 2025. In Virginia’s Loudoun County, a regional trade group distributed Memorial Day activity kits and cards describing the industry’s economic contribution to 3,100 first graders across 37 schools. Supporters frame these programs as career awareness for infrastructure that underpins online services. Education researcher Alex Molnar argues that industries with public-image problems have long used schools to tell their preferred story. The key issue for schools is whether sponsorships clearly distinguish technical education from advocacy about contested local development.