Florida could lead AI data centers … just not the way Tallahassee thinks

Florida is having a loud debate about AI data centers. Power prices. Water use. Land. Transmission lines. Who pays. Who benefits?

It is a familiar fight. And like many familiar fights, it may already be aimed at the wrong target.

In Tallahassee, the question is where to put AI data centers. In Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando, and Miami, the question is whether the grid can handle them. Florida Power & Light and Duke Energy are part of the conversation. So are ratepayers.

Those are fair concerns. But they are not the biggest question Florida should be asking.

The bigger question is beyond whether the future of AI data centers needs to be built on Florida soil at all. Perhaps Florida has something better to offer the data center discussion, and it’s beyond our soil. That sounds like science fiction. It is not.

The real limit on AI today is not talent or software. It is physics.

Every AI model runs on chips that turn electricity into computation. Physics tells us something unavoidable. Almost all of that electricity eventually becomes heat. The more powerful the model, the more heat it produces. On Earth, heat is the enemy.

It must be removed continuously; otherwise, systems fail. That means massive cooling equipment, significant water demand, and substantial electricity consumption to remove heat from machines. It also means more power plants, more transmission lines, and more stress on already crowded grids.

In Florida, that stress shows up directly in conversations about FPL and Duke. New generation takes years to build. Grid upgrades are expensive. And those costs ultimately flow back to customers.   There is also another physical reality layered on top of all of this.

Hurricanes.

Every large data center built in Florida must assume power interruptions, grid instability, flooding risk, wind hardening, backup generation, and fuel logistics during storms. Cooling systems depend on electricity that may not be available when hurricanes make landfall. Even short interruptions can damage sensitive equipment.

Storm hardening adds cost. Backup systems add complexity. And every hurricane season reminds us that Florida’s grid, no matter how well run by FPL or Duke, is exposed to forces no zoning decision can eliminate.

So every new data center raises the same worry. Will regular customers subsidize big tech? Will neighborhoods bear the risks? Will the grid hold up during the next major storm?

Florida is not alone in facing these limits.

But Florida has something most states do not.

A launchpad.

In space, the physics change. Solar energy is available almost all the time. More importantly, heat behaves differently. Instead of fighting to move heat through air and water, systems can radiate heat directly into the cold vacuum of space. Cooling becomes simpler, cheaper, and far more efficient.

And there are no hurricanes.

No flooding.

No wind damage.

No storm-related outages.

No long recovery cycles.

Picture what that future looks like.

Small, modular data centers orbit the Earth as satellites. Solar panels collect sunlight while Florida sleeps. AI systems running overhead while communities below board up windows and prepare for storms.

New computing power arrives by rocket, not by bulldozer.

This is why orbital data centers are no longer a fringe idea. As AI demand grows every few years, grid upgrades take a decade, and climate risk increases, physics starts to favor space over land.

Recently, an AI model was trained in orbit using advanced computer chips. The model itself was not the point. The location was. It showed that high-powered computing does not have to live where power politics, weather risk, and local permitting collide.

Once you see that, Florida’s current debate starts to feel incomplete.

We are arguing about where to site AI data centers, assuming they must be placed here in the first place. Florida’s real advantage has never been cheap land or cheap power. If that were the case, Texas or the Midwest would already own this space.

Florida’s advantage is access to orbit.

The Space Coast, from Cape Canaveral to Merritt Island, is the busiest launch corridor in the world. Rockets launch so often that they barely make the news. Space infrastructure already supports daily life, from GPS to communications to weather forecasting.

This infrastructure was not built for AI.

AI is simply discovering it.

In a future where data centers can be launched rather than built, Florida does not compete with other states on land use or electricity prices.

It competes on physics, resilience, and access to space.

That is a very different game.

The most important places in Florida’s AI story may not be office parks in Orlando or industrial sites outside Tampa. There may be communities along the Space Coast that help launch, service, and manage the next generation of digital infrastructure.

Orbital data centers will not replace land-based ones overnight. But they will shape investment decisions this decade. They reduce exposure to grid failures, water shortages, and hurricane risk while easing pressure on utilities like FPL and Duke.

History shows how this works. When systems hit hard limits, technology does not argue. It finds another path. Shipping containers reshaped trade. Satellites changed navigation.

The internet rewrote the media. AI infrastructure is next.

Elon Musk often says, “The future should look like the future.”

Right now, Florida is still arguing about plugging into the past.

The future of AI data centers will not be decided only in zoning meetings, rate hearings, or hurricane preparedness plans.

It will be decided on the Space Coast.

Because the future should look like the future.

And in Florida, that future is launched, not plugged in.

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Jeff Brandes is a former Florida State Senator known for his leadership in transportation innovation, criminal justice reform, property insurance modernization, and technology-forward public policy. He is the founder and president of the Florida Policy Project and a national voice on autonomous mobility, infrastructure modernization, and the future of transportation in Florida.