Whitney Webb
I published this article Monday, co-written with
@markgoodw_in
, but I was locked out of Twitter/X until now so here it is!
Ohio has recently become the top destination for Big Tech data centers and AI infrastructure. This the story about how the state owes much of its rapid transformation into the so-called “Silicon Heartland” to a now vast array of public-private partnerships pioneered by the state’s richest man, Leslie Wexner, and his former money manager and fixer, Jeffrey Epstein.
https://x.com/_whitneywebb/status/2036808155632406828
https://unlimitedhangout.com/2026/03...io-new-albany/
Technate, Ohio: How Leslie Wexner and Jeffrey Epstein Built The Silicon Heartland
Ohio has become the new destination for Big Tech data centers and AI infrastructure. The state owes much of its rapid transformation into the so-called “Silicon Heartland” to the now vast array of public-private partnerships pioneered by the state’s richest man, Leslie Wexner, and his former money manager and fixer, Jeffrey Epstein.
Early last year, shortly after Donald Trump took office for his second term, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy announced he was departing the recently-formed Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E) after reports of conflict with the department’s co-head, Elon Musk. Ramaswamy joined Fox News to clarify these rumors, and to tease his next endeavor –– holding public office. Ramaswamy noted Musk’s approach was “a technology approach,” whereas his was “focused more on a constitutional law, legislative-based approach.” He furthered, “when you’re talking about a constitutional revival, it’s not just done through the federal government, it’s done through federalism, where states also lead the way.” Despite their differences, Ramaswamy importantly remarked that they were both “on the same page” and that their attempts “in saving the country” required them to “divide and conquer.”
Towards the end of the interview, Ramaswamy mentioned he was flying back to Ohio that week, with an announcement regarding his expressed intention of pushing for reform at the state level coming shortly. The former presidential hopeful explained that when “we look at the country over the last 20 years, Silicon Valley was at the bleeding edge of the American economy. I think the Ohio River Valley can be at the bleeding edge of the American economy for the next 20 years.” A few weeks later, Ramaswamy’s gubernatorial campaign for Ohio was announced and the former D.O.G.E. co-head was promptly endorsed by President Trump. Over the course of that campaign, Vivek’s fortunes have quite literally soared. Since launching his campaign, he has not only come to command a massive campaign war chest filled by deep-pocketed donors, but his own net worth has doubled.
While many once labeled this campaign as a clear demotion for Ramaswamy, the reality of an emerging Ohio –– specifically as it relates to the technocratic goals of the Trump administration and its donors –– paints a vastly different picture. As noted in Iain Davis’ book The Technocratic Dark State, D.O.G.E. –– the agency Ramaswamy co-led –– is part of a larger effort led largely by a small group of the ultra-wealthy to completely privatize the public sector in the name of greater “efficiency” and have it ruled by “techno-kings” or dictator “CEOs.” Davis frames this as a modern iteration of technocracy, bolstered by tech billionaires with close ties to the Trump administration, such as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. Thiel is the long-time benefactor of former Ohio Congressmen and current Vice President J.D. Vance. Notably, Ohio’s richest man Leslie Wexner, along with help from the infamous Jeffrey Epstein (a Thiel associate), has spent decades creating “partnerships” where private interests, including those he directly controls, dominate its state and local governments. In some cases, such as the Columbus suburb of New Albany, they have completely replaced them.
Quietly over the last decade, Ohio has become a state of incredible national importance, as it continues to attract data centers from American “royalty” and Big Tech stalwarts into its friendly regulatory borders. But long before Amazon, Meta, Anduril, Microsoft and others took their power-hungry –– literally and figuratively –– refuge in the Buckeye State, the most well-known financier of Jeffrey Epstein, Leslie Wexner, and his extensive crime-linked network were laying the foundation for the new Silicon Valley, now known as the Silicon Heartland, along the Ohio River.
Wexner’s own statements last year underscore Ohio’s coming importance in the age of ascendant, AI-powered technocracy. Last May, he stated that Columbus in particular would soon become an international AI destination. He also asserted that “probably the largest AI investment in the world will happen in Columbus.” Wexner would know, as he’s personally responsible for Ohio’s –– specifically Columbus’ –– rise as one of the most important AI hubs in the country.
Yet, Wexner, with Epstein’s help, has done much more than attract massive AI data centers to the state. As this investigation will show, Wexner and his closest allies, Epstein among them, worked to create a model for the takeover of local governments via public-private partnership, starting first in New Albany beginning in the late 1980s. It has since spread to cover the entire state of Ohio via a network of public-private partnerships Wexner helped create. This system has allowed Wexner to use billions of dollars of Ohio taxpayer money, with little to no public scrutiny, to finance what can only be described as a massive welfare system for corporations. Among that system’s current biggest beneficiaries are Wexner’s New Albany Company as well as massive Big Tech corporations with important ties to Jeffrey Epstein (e.g. Amazon and Google). Meanwhile, regular Ohioans are seeing their power bills jump, provoking an affordability crisis in the state, while funding for public schools, libraries and healthcare is cut dramatically –– all to keep the corporate welfare engine designed by Wexner running full tilt.
Building New Albany
The New Albany Company was founded in 1986 by Leslie Wexner, Ohio’s wealthiest man, and his long-time associate John “Jack” Kessler. The company was initially housed at the same address as other Wexner-linked companies, on the 37th floor of Columbus’ Huntington Center. Their landlord, Gerald Hines, was a Houston-based real estate developer and chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas from 1981 to 1983. As noted in One Nation Under Blackmail, Hines’ real estate and other interests were enmeshed with those of the Bush family as well as the arms trafficker Adnan Khashoggi, an early client of and alleged mentor to Jeffrey Epstein during the 1980s.
According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the decision to create New Albany took place when Kessler and Wexner were “cruising in Les’ Land Rover near New Albany.” The pair “saw acre after acre of empty farmland […] And thus the billionaire, getting a vision thing, declared to his buddy, this will be my new home.” That same report also declared that the pair, after forming the New Albany Company, “spun off a bunch of paper corporations to cover their footprints. Then their minions knocked on doors and made the proverbial offers you couldn’t refuse.”
What was once the village of New Albany is now a “unique public-private partnership” between The New Albany Company (a private company) and the City of New Albany (the local government). Kessler told ColumbusCEO in 2014 that the New Albany Company has “always had a very close working relationship” with the City of New Albany, whose leaders “are very pro-development” as a result. The New Albany Company, soon after its creation, developed a “master plan” for the town’s growth and aesthetics that has been strictly adhered to since its founding. As with most public-private partnerships, the public sector in New Albany is largely subservient to its private “partner.”
Wexner and Kessler may have wanted to exert such extensive control over this influential Columbus suburb for others reasons, too. Shortly before the New Albany Company was created, both Wexner and Kessler found themselves under investigation for ties to the “mob-style” murder of Arthur Shapiro, who was due to testify to the IRS just days after his murder. Shapiro had been the lawyer for Wexner’s company The Limited and was involved in its finances.
In investigating Shapiro’s death, there was “some conjecture that Shapiro was in a position to provide information to the [IRS] Grand Jury that would have been damaging to some other party.” Columbus police then determined that Wexner was enmeshed with organized crime interests. However, the investigation into Wexner and any linkages to organized crime were halted and the police documentation from that investigation was heavily suppressed by the Columbus Chief of Police at the time, James Jackson. When the documents later became “accidentally” public via a FOIA request, Jackson was surprised and remarked that “I thought I got rid of it” with respect to the documents in question. Those documents will be referred to as the Shapiro Murder File for the remainder of this article.
By the late 1980s, Jeffrey Epstein –– who by then had crept into Wexner’s inner circle –– had become a general partner in New Albany’s real estate holding company, New Albany Property, and had put at least a few million dollars into the project. Former State of Ohio inspector David Sturtz reportedly claimed that Jeffrey Epstein was Shapiro’s “replacement.” In addition, local Ohio reporter Bob Fitrakis told New York magazine in 2002 that Epstein had been a crucial part of the New Albany project:
Before Epstein came along in 1988, the financial preparations and groundwork for the New Albany development were a total mess […] Epstein cleaned everything up, as well as serving Wexner in other capacities.
Fitrakis also stated that New Albany’s success had required significant changes be made to Columbus city policy as well as zoning laws. As attested to in the Shapiro Murder File, this appears to have been accomplished by questionable investments made by a Wexner-controlled entity in a jazz club run by a former City Council member, Jeremy Hammond, alongside his successor on the council, Les Wright. The File also details circumstantial evidence that Hammond was able to make payments on luxury assets and goods well above his salary, which was suggestive of bribes. As luck would have it for Leslie Wexner, Hammond became “swept up in an emotional debate about the Wexley luxury housing project [a reference to the New Albany project] in 1988” and was accused of selling out the city’s and public’s interest for Wexner’s benefit. New Albany, thanks in large part to Hammond and Wright, was able to secure its desired changes to local policy. However, accusations that New Albany’s projects and ambitions was acting in defiance of existing state and local laws would continue for years.
The rest found here,
https://unlimitedhangout.com/2026/03...io-new-albany/
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Re: Jeffrey Epstein & Ghislaine Maxwell: the whole story so far
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