PERSPECTIVE: St. Louis Needs Data Centers or It Will Fall Behind
Date Posted: September 23, 2025
Posted In: Discussion,
From St. Louis Business Journal: St. Louis is a region that needs to grow, and our innovation community is working every day to make that happen. Technology, entrepreneurship, cutting-edge research and skilled workers are central to attracting new ideas, new people and new investment to the St. Louis region.
The innovators, builders and educators across our region are aligning their work to make St. Louis a place where technology drives transformative economic growth and opportunity for all. And that technology – whether health care, finance, geospatial, biosciences or any other growth sector – relies on data.
As leaders of organizations focused on driving innovation and growth here in St. Louis, we have come together to say that for our region to grow and increase opportunity for all, we must build the infrastructure that supports the increasing amount of data upon which our current and future economy is being constructed.
For years, the organizations we lead have been laying a foundation for this ecosystem. We have developed programming to support homegrown entrepreneurs while opening doors to outside innovators. Industries of the future like biosciences, agtech, geospatial and advanced manufacturing have been dutifully cultivated here and are primed for growth. We’ve trained thousands of St. Louisans to fill high-demand technology roles. From startups to community partners, we’ve invested deeply in cultivating the talent and collaboration that fuels next-generation industries.
But for St. Louis to compete with other regions across the country, we also need the infrastructure that powers modern innovation. Data centers, broadband and other digital assets are the unseen foundation of today’s economy. They enable the cloud services, artificial intelligence, and emerging technologies that entrepreneurs are using to launch companies and that corporations need to stay competitive.
Much like the railroads, highways, and other critical infrastructure on which we’ve come to rely for the past century, the regions that saw where the economy was headed and invested in infrastructure and systems reaped the benefits adding people, jobs, and investment, while the regions that did not were left behind.