Northern Data data center, Maysville, Georgia

Grading has begun at the Northern Data data center site in Maysville's industrial park, and Rum Group, the company formerly called Rumble that took over Northern Data in 2026, says it will start construction and hiring in late November or December. The site is on the Jackson County side of Maysville, Georgia, at 121 Industrial Drive and on Meeks Road behind it, and residents of the town of just over 2,000 have fought it since spring 2026.

Northern Data announced the Maysville campus in December 2024 as a 63-acre site delivering 120 megawatts of power, with room to expand to 180 megawatts, and fully operational in the first quarter of 2027. The company holds a conditional use permit for two buildings of 125,000 square feet each, and its executives put the cost at $5 billion to $7 billion.

Rum Group bought 85 percent of Northern Data's shares in June 2026, and in August it disclosed a contract worth up to $13.7 billion over six years with an unnamed US cloud customer for GPU services at the Maysville site. The zoning was approved in January 2025, according to the city.

Water is at the center of the fight, because Maysville already struggles to supply its own. "Welcome to Maysville, don't drink the water," Gary Miller of Justice for Water shouted at a May 16 protest across from City Hall. "We might be small, but we are loud. We have no water for our town, so how will we have any for a data center?" The property reportedly backs up to Maysville Elementary School.

At a May 28 meeting a resident asked whether the city's franchise revenue, which Mayor Richard Presley put in the neighborhood of $350,000, was worth their children's potential health; "Yes it is," Presley replied. The city then canceled a special question-and-answer meeting, saying its code "does not authorize additional public hearings for zoning matters that have already been approved."

At a July 28 town hall, Northern Data chief executive John Hoffman and Rum Group chief operating officer Tyler Hughes said the buildings would use a closed-loop cooling system, that no municipal water would be used, and that water would be trucked in from providers within 100 to 200 miles. They offered $15 million through a community benefit agreement, estimated $20 million to $26 million a year in property taxes, and Hoffman said the company would not take tax abatements.

Two council members were not persuaded: "I feel disgusted. I feel like they betrayed our people, and I feel like leadership has let us down," Ward 4 Councilor Brodriche Jackson said afterward, and Ward 2 Councilor Amanda Farley said, "I feel like we're not being told everything."

Residents also pressed on the company's past: European authorities had investigated Northern Data over tax incentives tied to Nvidia chips, and Hughes said, "It's not an excuse. There was previous leadership before us, and we really want to acknowledge where we were."

Noise is the other worry, because a crypto mining data center run by Peak Mining already operates in the same industrial park. "I hear humming all the time," said Peggy Cooper, who lives next to it; Hoffman said Northern Data and Rumble no longer own Peak Mining but agreed to pass on her concerns. For the new buildings the company plans sound barriers inside and outside, and says it has a customer lined up that it cannot yet name.

The city has since put a 180-day moratorium on any future requests, but that does not reach this already-permitted project. Instead the council formed a Community Based Agreement committee, chaired by Darrell Scoggins, to decide how the $15 million is spent; ideas include city water improvements, wastewater treatment and protection for the elementary school.

"With all due respect, I don't want your data center here," Scoggins told Hoffman in September. "If it's going to be built, I will squeeze you for all I can so that the citizens, schools and locals can benefit."

The company says it will present design plans to the Maysville City Council and the public, and construction still needs a building permit. The Community Based Agreement committee meets through October 25 to settle its list of projects, which the company's attorney will then review with the city. Residents who want a say can reach the committee at [email protected].