Universities sell land for AI data centers: report
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES — George Washington University sold its 120-acre Virginia science campus to Amazon Data Services for $427 million to convert to artificial intelligence (AI) data center use, while the University of Michigan committed $1.25 billion to a new computing center, as universities across the United States pivot land assets toward AI infrastructure development.
Universities pivot campus assets to AI infrastructure
Ellen Scully-Russ, a former professor at George Washington University’s Virginia Science and Technology Campus, said “Universities are large landholders, and there is a land grab going on with the data centers these days.”
As Fortune reported, GW sold its 120-acre Virginia campus to Amazon Data Services for $427 million, with Scully-Russ saying the sale came with “no transparency” for those affected.
The $427 million proceeds will fund a university quasi-endowment for research, teaching, and student financial aid, with GW retaining use of the property for up to five years while it relocates.
The GW campus sale and the University of Michigan’s $1.25 billion computing center represent a structural transfer of academic physical assets to AI infrastructure developers.
AI land rush raises higher education accountability questions
Scully-Russ said “I think it’s just a short-term bubble,” characterizing the university land rush as a speculative moment in AI buildout rather than a durable shift in institutional strategy.
The University of Michigan approved purchases of 26 acres in 2024 and authorized 124.7 additional Ypsilanti Township acres in 2025 for a computing center projected at $1.25 billion and 50 to 100 megawatts of power draw.
Amazon has committed $35 billion to Virginia data center development by 2040, making the GW campus acquisition part of the largest data center concentration in the United States.
Scully-Russ said universities are “chipping away at our higher ed resources to make room for this technology to expand without any accountability,” raising questions about long-term institutional capacity for the same knowledge workers hyperscalers plan to train with AI.
Universities are trading long-term academic infrastructure for near-term AI revenue, with GW and Michigan together committing more than $1.6 billion in campus assets to the transition.
The scale of capital flowing into AI infrastructure creates staffing and operations demand that offshore technology service providers are positioned to absorb, as hyperscaler buildouts require managed workforces operating across multiple time zones and cost structures.
Business process outsourcing (BPO) operators supporting hyperscaler infrastructure clients through data operations, technical staffing, and managed IT services are positioned within the same capital flows that are turning university campuses into data center land.
Leading BPO operators with technology infrastructure service lines are positioned to supply the operational talent Amazon’s Northern Virginia expansion and comparable data center markets will need as construction accelerates.
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