In the 1990s, the big spending in technology produced giant factories for personal computers and lots of underground tunnels for fiber networks.
A decade ago, that heavy spending was for flat TVs, which led to display-panel factories bigger in square footage than skyscrapers, and for smartphones, which led to plants in places like Vietnam that had never seen high-tech production.
Today, billions are being spent to build mega-size data centers that form the backbone of the internet.
And this time, it looks like Minnesota will get some of the action.
Xcel Energy Inc. disclosed Thursday that it is negotiating for Google Inc. to purchase about 300 acres near the Sherco power generating station, the state's largest, in Becker, Minn., to build a center that consumes about 300 megawatts of electricity and will cost at least $600 million.
Several dozen such large facilities, called "hyperscale" by tech and real estate professionals, have been built by the top U.S. tech companies — Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft — in the last decade. Midwest travelers can spot giant centers by Google, Microsoft and Apple looming next to interstates in Iowa, with another from Apple now under construction in the state.
The five companies spent about $50 billion in 2017 building giant data centers, consulting firm McKinsey reported, and are expected to have spent more last year. Apple last year announced plans to spend $10 billion over five years on data centers.
Even so, many analysts believe the industry is still in the early stages. "For North America, we're in the top of the third inning," said Pat Lynch, senior managing director of data-center solutions for CBRE, a commercial real estate firm. "We continue to create massive amounts of data."