In War for Jobs, St. Louis Must Compete for Data Centers to Win | Opinion
Date Posted: March 17, 2026
Posted In: Environment/Sustainability, Workforce,
by Ron Kitchens, Managing Partner, Greater St. Louis Inc.
From St. Louis Business Journal: Across America right now, something remarkable is happening.
The infrastructure of the next economy is being built at extraordinary speed. Billions of dollars are being invested in facilities that power artificial intelligence, cloud computing, digital commerce and the modern global economy.
Not Guessing Future, Building It
The communities attracting that investment are not guessing about the future. They are building it, which raises an important question for St. Louis: Will we compete for the infrastructure of the digital economy, or will we watch other cities build it?
For years I have written about the war for jobs.
The War for Jobs
It is not fought with armies. It is fought with strategy, infrastructure, talent and courage. Cities and regions compete every day for investment, innovation and opportunity. Some communities lean into that competition; others hesitate, and then watch opportunity move somewhere else.
And every year, one lesson becomes clearer.
In the war for jobs, the communities that build the infrastructure of the future win.
Railroads, to Airports, to Digital Infrastructure
In the 19th century that infrastructure was railroads. In the 20th century it was highways, ports and airports.
In the 21st century, it is digital infrastructure.
Data centers power cloud computing, artificial intelligence, financial systems, logistics networks and nearly every digital service we use every day. They are, quite literally, the factories of the digital economy.
The regions across the country that are growing already understand this.