No place on Earth hosts more data centers than Virginia — and the state has now informed its own officials that they may no longer sign secrecy agreements covering them.
That clause in Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s Executive Order 22 deserves a second read. The AI task force exists, yes, but the NDA prohibition is the headline underneath the headline.
Loudoun County and the counties around it turned into the world’s data center capital in part because agreements showed up already negotiated, and in part because residents typically learned what was coming only once the paperwork had been filed. By forbidding executive branch officials from signing nondisclosure agreements tied to data center projects, Spanberger’s order knocks a leg out from under that setup.
What the order does beyond the headline
Executive Order 22 additionally calls for expedited noise regulations and a review of the backup-generation operations that data centers depend on. Anyone who has stood beside a campus full of diesel generators during a test cycle knows exactly why those two items made the cut.
The order steers state government toward measures that could hand local communities more influence over data center development and put the brakes on approvals.
The AI task force covers wider ground. Its charge is to assess how state government can respond to risks facing Virginians — workforce displacement and data privacy among them — and to work out how laws already on the books can be applied to AI harms. That final piece carries more weight than a mandate for new rules would. Enforcing statutes that already exist moves faster than writing fresh ones, and it requires no consensus from the General Assembly.
The framework is where the money is
Spanberger paired the order with a “Data Center Accountability Framework” spelling out additional priorities. In its sights is “by-right approval,” the mechanism that for years allowed developers to build on certain Loudoun County land without seeking further sign-off. The framework also urges stripping away some state subsidies, setting environmental guardrails, and shielding residents from the higher energy prices that come with data centers.
Take away the subsidies and the by-right shortcut, and the real economics of siting a campus in Virginia look different. Noise rules are the enforcement arm. Cutting subsidies is the leverage.
Not everyone thinks it goes far enough
The press release accompanying the actions carries plenty of praise from environmental organizations. Others, reportedly, were hoping for more.
The Piedmont Environmental Council — a nonprofit that has pushed for a moratorium on new development until existing concerns are resolved — named the shortfall directly. “It largely addresses standards on new data centers and does not deal with what’s already built and in the pipeline, along with the ongoing impacts piling up in communities now,” PEC president Chris Miller said in a statement.
The limit he points to is genuine. Everything in the package is aimed at projects yet to break ground. The campuses already running across Northern Virginia, plus those holding approvals, go right on running.
Governors are moving because Washington isn’t
It’s the newest sign that states are seizing control of data center and AI policy themselves, as Congress and President Donald Trump have proven slow or unwilling to embrace sweeping change.
Nobody was hiding the timing. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order the same Friday assembling experts to take on AI safety questions. Earlier, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott each used executive action to curb breakneck data center growth.
That’s four states and two parties following one pattern. Virginia stands to lose or gain the most from getting this wrong, simply because it already has the most in the ground.
For anyone living near a proposed site, the NDA ban is the clause to track. It’s what alters how much you can find out before the concrete goes down.