Aligned Ashburn (IAD-01) data center, Ashburn, Virginia

Aligned Data Centers runs an operating data center called IAD-01 at 21890 Uunet Drive in Ashburn, Loudoun County, Virginia, on a 26-acre campus it shares with a second building, IAD-02. Aligned says it built the site to handle heavy cloud and AI computing loads, with backup power that can run it without the electric grid.

On September 15, 2026, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted 7-1-1 to have staff draft a resolution pausing new data center applications for 12 months. Leesburg's Kristen Umstattd voted no and Catoctin's Caleb Kershner abstained; the county attorney said an indefinite moratorium would not be legal. The pause would apply only to new applications, not to IAD-01, which is already operating; Loudoun County has 233 data centers, the most of any county in the country. Residents have complained about health problems from living near data centers, while construction industry supporters say the projects are good for local employment, and some neighbors object to the high-voltage power lines the sites need near homes and schools.

Aligned changed hands in July 2026, when a group made up of the AI Infrastructure Partnership, BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners and Abu Dhabi's MGX completed a $40 billion purchase of the Dallas-based company from Macquarie Asset Management, the largest data center deal on record. Chief executive Andrew Schaap and his team stayed on after the sale.

The Board of Supervisors still has to take a final vote on the pause, expected in October 2026.