Michigan residents sue AI data center emitting noise 24/7 — company fined for industrial noise ordinance violations, offers to buy homes from residents

Residents of Dowagiac, Michigan, just filed a lawsuit against a data center that allegedly generates a high-pitched whining sound — and has done so 24/7 for the past two years.

The data center, which is owned by Alliance Cloud Services LLC, a subsidiary of Hyperscale Data, used to be an industrial building that sat behind a row of pine trees across the street from the most affected residents, according to ABC-affiliateWXYZ. The site started development in 2018 and was eventually turned into a cryptocurrency mining center in 2021. But in 2024, something changed drastically when the building started emitting noise pollution around the clock. Residents say it sounds like a vacuum cleaner in their living room, and the company has offered to buy up homes from unhappy residents.

www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/it-sounds-like-someone-set-up-a-vacuum-like-in-your-living-room-michigan-residents-sue-ai-data-center-emitting-noise-24-7-company-fined-for-industrial-noise-ordinance-violations-offers-to-buy-homes-from-residents

Hyperscale Data CEO William Horne told the residents directly in a special council meeting that the site is pivoting away from cryptocurrency operations towards AI computing and advanced robotics, and that it’s spending $100 million to achieve this.

Why would anyone outside the business give a shit about this? Why would the CEO think anyone outside the business gave a shit about this?

Why aren’t the datacenter owners ever willing to spend, say, $10 million on making the data center actually quiet instead?