Site selection for AI infrastructure is no longer an optimization problem with multiple good answers. It’s a constraint problem with no clean solutions. Power availability, fiber access, water resources, permitting timelines, and community acceptance are now tightly coupled variables—often in direct conflict. Every site presents tradeoffs, and the margin for error is shrinking.

At the same time, developers are beginning to invert the traditional model: siting infrastructure around energy availability itself and leveraging behind-the-meter strategies to open new regions.

This panel explores how site selection is actually happening today:

• Where projects are advancing—and why those locations clear the constraint stack

• Where projects are stalling on power, water, fiber, or community opposition

• How entitlement risk, zoning, and policy reshape “viable” vs. “theoretical” sites

• Which compromises developers are willing to accept—and which are fatal