The STEM Practice Company, a Texas-based AI infrastructure and solutions company, today announced plans to expand its network of community-based AI data centers across North America. Following the midterm elections, STEM is highlighting its approach designed to address community concerns about data control, electricity demand, and development while creating opportunities to participate in the AI economy.

STEM focuses on adapting suitable existing buildings, including properties previously used as data centers, to bring cloud and AI services closer to businesses and their data. Its planned deployments include sites of approximately 10,000 square feet with power requirements starting as low as 500 kilowatts, depending on the workloads and configuration.

Compared to mega data centers that use 100s of MW of power and 100s of thousands of square feet in building space, STEM’s approach distributes cloud and AI capacity across several smaller locations, with each deployment sized to customer demand and available power, cooling and connectivity. This allows communities to develop infrastructure incrementally as local demand grows.

“AI is here to stay, and communities should have a meaningful way to participate in this economy,” said Bernie Alen, founder and CEO of STEM. “We bring AI infrastructure closer to where businesses operate and data already lives, using suitable buildings that communities already have. We move infrastructure to data, not data to infrastructure.”

Reusing existing facilities can reduce construction requirements and shorten deployment timelines where power, connectivity, and cooling are suitable. STEM evaluates these capabilities before selecting sites, with attention to efficient operation and local resource constraints. The objective is to match each deployment to the community’s capacity and needs.

Local deployment can help customers meet data residency requirements and reduce latency for AI applications. STEM combines infrastructure with access controls and data governance, designed around customer requirements and applicable laws, supporting greater control over where data is stored, processed and accessed.

The company’s community model aims to support local businesses, technical employment and education partnerships that prepare students and workers for AI-related roles. Bringing underutilized properties back into productive use can also create opportunities for additional local tax revenue. STEM is seeking relationships with property owners, community leaders, and businesses interested in developing these capabilities.

About STEM

The STEM Practice Company develops community-based cloud infrastructure, AI platforms and applications to help businesses use their data and communities participate in the AI economy.

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