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This article was originally published by The Lever, an investigative newsroom. If you like this story, sign up for The Lever’s free newsletter.

Three days after a prominent artificial intelligence investor and his wife donated $1 million to a political action committee boosting Nevada Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s reelection campaign, Lombardo publicly endorsed the state’s booming data-center buildout. A week later, the PAC collected another $1 million from the wife of a developer building those facilities in Nevada, according to campaign finance records reviewed by The Lever.

The revelation comes as the driest state in the nation grapples with data centers’ enormous resource demands. Fueled by $340 million in state tax abatements since 2021, Nevada has roughly 70 data centers in operation, under construction, or being planned. But amid new research suggesting the industry’s expansion could triple the state’s energy demands and consume as much water annually as roughly 150,000 households, cities and counties across the Silver State have begun issuing moratoriums on new data centers.

The matter could become a pivotal election issue. Lombardo’s Democratic opponent, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, has criticized the incumbent’s stance on data centers and just sued the federal government over cuts to its already strained Colorado River allocation. (Lombardo also supports the lawsuit.)

“Now we know why Joe Lombardo says he’s ‘wholeheartedly in support of data centers: He’s bought and paid for by them,” Ford told The Lever in response to the data center-related donations. “Taking care of his and Trump’s ‘billionaire friends’ at Nevadans’ expense is standard operating procedure from Lombardo. I’m running for Governor to pause and audit........

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