MALAGA, Chelan County — On the banks of the Columbia River, two companies are rushing to build two technologies they say will power the future.

Microsoft is constructing a sprawling data center campus that could cover more than 24 football fields, part of the company’s rapid build-out in a global arms race to control artificial intelligence. But this one site could demand as much electricity as a medium-sized city — at a time when power is increasingly scarce.