Georgia’s Public Service Commission unanimously approved a plan enabling Georgia Power to boost system capacity by roughly 50% to meet projected data‑center demand, a vote that signals aggressive state investment in electric infrastructure to attract AI and cloud customers. The utility says the $16.3 billion construction will be repaid by large users and could lower residential bills; opponents warned of a risky bet if projected data‑center loads don’t materialize. Research universities in Georgia and nearby states face implications: expanded capacity could support campus data centers, high‑performance computing (HPC) clusters and AI research labs, but may also raise questions about priority allocation, rate structures, and coordination with institutional sustainability goals. Campus CIOs and vice presidents for research should engage with utilities and regulators now to secure capacity for academic computing needs and to negotiate favorable interconnection and pricing terms.