In Appalachia, they're putting data centers in movie studios

I went to a Hamilton County Commission meeting about a proposed movie studio in downtown Chattanooga with an Oracle data center inside it. I think this could be a harbinger of what's to come.

I needed some excitement in my life recently, so I did what any mid-30s man does on a Wednesday evening a couple weeks ago and went to the county commission meeting.

Not pictured are the roughly 10-12 people who provided public testimony on the proposed data center

It had been a minute since I’d engaged in the masochistic practice of experiencing local government in action, in person, but it always serves as a reminder to me that Parks & Recreation was closer to a documentary than it was a work of fiction.

And don’t get me wrong, I jest but I genuinely like this stuff a lot and local government is probably the most important in how it affects our daily lives. But I’m also reminded of its…challenges.¹

Shoehorning a data center into a movie studio

I was attending the meeting because I was interested in local organizing efforts around a proposed data center. A very atypical 10,000 square foot data center that was set to be situated in a proposed music and film production studio housed inside of an old county jail (thus, why the county was involved).

In addition to a data center being located right smack in the downtown of Chattanooga, another concern I had with it was the disparaging remarks from the developers about unions (see the video below).

I won’t get into all the nitty-gritty details about the proposed project itself and all the issues surrounding it, because I want to talk about what this means more broadly.

Why in the absolute fuck, you might ask, are they putting a data center inside a movie studio?

Well, their stated reason is to “support the advanced technical requirements of the [studio].”

To support the advanced technical requirements of the campus, Urban Story Ventures worked alongside Golden Acquisitions and STEM, an Oracle partner specializing in sovereign, quantum-ready data storage, processing, and AI infrastructure, and Golden Financial for the deployment of advanced technology capabilities in Chattanooga.

(Source)

I can’t help but point out the eye-roll

STEM’s Chief Technology Advisor and Oracle’s Senior Director of Generative AI, Sanjay Basu, who visited the site says, “By deploying a quantum-safe network with EPB, we are positioning the region as a national model for secure, next-generation digital communications. By combining EPB’s fiber infrastructure with STEM’s AI and Oracle’s cloud and security expertise, we are not talking about future theory. We are delivering a practical, production-grade quantum key distribution network that enterprises and public institutions can trust as the foundation for the next era of secure digital infrastructure.”

(Source)

My speculation, which I want to be clear is just speculation and I cannot yet substantiate this with any hard facts, is this is a two-fold equation:

1. They’re hedging their bets and allowing themselves a soft landing pad to convert the entire operation into a data center if the movie studio doesn’t work out.

2. Oracle is helping with the financing, and in turn is afforded a much easier public approval process for a data center than typical due to it being housed in a economic development engine rather than on somebody’s farmland.

Georgia movie studio is converting to a data center

The point on 1) about hedging bets isn’t exactly unfounded. Athena Studios in Athens, Georgia has seen a drop in movie production demand, and is now considering converting its space into a data center. The studio’s 185,000 square feet of space is, as the owner puts it, well-suited for data center operations. Obviously the owner has an incentive to offload the space into a more profitable venture, but it is telling that this is not just a one-off thing for Hamilton County.

This situation emerged due to a statewide decline in film production for Georgia - something I was honestly not aware was happening.

Film production spend in Georgia has dropped significantly. According to the Georgia Film Office, 245 film and television productions spent $2.3 billion as of June 2025, down by nearly half from the same period in 2022.

(Source: Data Center Dynamics)

Important concessions

When I say I was interested in the organizing work happening, I meant it. Its difficult to see progress when you aren’t deeply involved in it or dialed-in closely to negotiations on things as community-specific as this. I got connected with the folks at Hamilton County 4 Democracy on Instagram, and met up with one of their lead people, Michaela, at the commission meeting.

I learned that they had been working with members of the commission to secure some important safeguards to this project, including making sure that the Oracle infrastructure could not be more than 12,000 square feet in the building. Given the political make-up of the commission, this was a massive win.

My takeaway

I want to be clear: I actually think a movie/music recording studio in Chattanooga could be a good thing.² Midsize cities like Chattanooga deserve to have cultural exports that the rest of the world can see and enjoy, and one of the best ways to do that is through digital arts and entertainment. Yes, the downtown jailhouse studios could have been utilized for much better things, no doubt. All these things can be true.

It just seems a bit sketchy to be throwing a data center into a project where it appears to be wholly unrelated.

To summarize: do I think this is an absolute disaster that will cause havoc on our great Scenic City? No, I doubt it. But I am skeptical that the scope of this data center will only be to serve the needs of the studio. Companies like Oracle should ALWAYS be viewed with skepticism and with a critical eye.

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*No Elegy Needed is an expression of the author’s opinions and observations, and should not be interpreted as a representation of journalism or of original reporting.

1. The first 45 minutes were spent debating whether the commission should change the meeting time to one of three (I think) alternatives. This is a genuinely important issue, because working people deserve to have their commission meet at a time that works for them. However, the commission’s attempts at debating this were extremely convoluted, so much so that one commissioner admitted he had no idea what he was voting on when it finally came time to vote. I am told they’ve been trying for years to change it.

2. As long as its real movies and music, and not an AI slop factory