Struggling couple make $22M selling hog farm to AI data center

A Pennsylvania couple sold their struggling 89-acre hog farm for more than US$22 million to a Blackstone-backed data center developer, one of 96 families in the same township to split $586 million.

Land developers came to Marilee and David Kiliti's farm in Salem Township about two years ago and told them the property might fetch more than $20 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The couple thought it was a joke. They raised and butchered hogs on ground David Kiliti's father established about 80 years ago, and there was no oil or natural gas underneath.

The buyers wanted the power, not the dirt. Transmission lines and substation infrastructure in the area already feed a natural gas plant and a nuclear plant, the Journal reported.

Talen Energy's 2,475 MW Susquehanna Steam Electric Station sits in the same township.

Amazon Web Services bought the adjacent 1,200-acre Cumulus data center campus from Talen for $650 million in March 2024. It signed a supply deal in June 2025 that runs to 2042 and ramps toward 1,920 MW, according to Talen's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and reporting by Utility Dive.

The Susquehanna nuclear plant in Salem Township, Pennsylvania, with the adjacent data center campus. Photo courtesy of Talen Energy

A total of 96 families in Salem Township, a community of about 4,000 in Luzerne County, sold roughly 1,700 acres to QTS, the data center arm of Blackstone.

The average price was $330,000 an acre, or about $5.5 million a family, on a total of $586 million, the Journal reported.

Luzerne County property records show Salem Township Holdings LLC assembled the parcels and transferred them to QTS in March.

Kiliti's Family Farm LLC sold one parcel on Kiliti Road for $17.77 million, with the family selling several adjoining parcels, according to transfer listings published by the Times Leader.

Township supervisors amended the zoning ordinance in September 2025 to create a data center overlay district of nearly 3,980 acres, then added 118 acres in December. Campuses are permitted there by right.

Before the sale the Kilitis had cashed out a life insurance policy and borrowed to build a large hog barn that neighbors blocked.

With the data center deal, they have cleared the debt, bought a Toyota Sequoia and plan to buy a Polaris Slingshot, an open-top three-wheeler.

20 relatives are joining them this summer at a 10-bedroom house near Breckenridge, Colorado.

One of their daughters bought a local brewery. Another, a doctor, plans to start a cancer research foundation.

David and Marilee Kiliti point to QTS projections of 50 permanent jobs at each of 12 buildings and more than 1,500 construction jobs.

QTS's website claims the project will create or support more than 6,000 jobs a year across an estimated 10-year build.

A Pew Research Center analysis published April 13 found 87% of the more than 3,000 data centers operating in the U.S. sit in urban areas, while 67% of the more than 1,500 in development are planned for rural ones.

Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft have guided to roughly $725 billion in combined capital spending this year, up about 77% from about $410 billion in 2025, most of it AI data centers, according to company guidance compiled by Statista and reported by Tom's Hardware.