AI Data Centers

[TigerGrowls]

The energy requirements for this will be significant.



Data centers will be powered by oil.

Why?

Because we simply don’t have enough baseload power to run them any other way.

The US has ~100 GW of projected data-center demand coming.

The problem:

- Data centers require constant, firm power... renewables can’t deliver that
- Gas turbines are sold out through 2030
- Nuclear plants take ~10 years to build

The solutions:

- Delaying coal-plant retirements
- Restarting nuclear units
- Relying on diesel generators to keep servers alive

To keep the AI narrative alive, the only pillar holding up US stock markets and much of the economy, America has no choice but to go all-in on baseload power.

And this is happening after a decade of chronic underinvestment, while chasing intermittent energy instead.

The pick-and-shovel approach to AI still comes down to good old energy.

 

[MTTiger19]

Ironically many of these data centers are getting destroyed in the market. Iren down huge, clsk down huge, many other smaller caps trying to break in from crypto mining are down huge (bitf, Mara, wulf, etc). Very volatile market for data centers.

 

[TigerGrowls]

Beyond AI…

China isn’t building towards 20,000 TWh of electricity generation so that they can power their datacenters for AI.

Nobody needs 10,000 TWh to train AI models, and they aren’t doing that. So what are they up to?

China is very obviously targeting the thing beyond AI datacenters, which is the enormous energy demands of ubiquitous robotics.

Datacenters benefit from Moore’s Law, the law of ever improving compute efficiency.

But mechanical actuators obey the laws of Newtonian motion which have no scope whatsoever for moving greater quantities of mass with ever smaller quantities of energy.

China is skipping a whole paradigm.

Their bet being they can backfill AI, once they have total domination over physical work.

China is building the god body first (the robot fleet, or rather the infrastructure that allows it), and will build the god brain later. Probably speed running it, aided by espionage.

America is building the god brain first and hasn’t really thought much about the god body.

The two strategies are quite different and we should acknowledge this.

The AI race risks being a strategic cull-de-sac, a pyrrhic victory, because the longest lead part of the future stack is building the energy system you need to operate an automated Newtonian economy at such a scale.

 

[TigerGrowls]

Great!!!

 

[fatpiggy]

Republicans innovate, democrats regulate

 

[southerncaltiger]

Oh, don’t forget, while no one was paying much attention in 2011, The State Water Board passed California’s Once-Through Cooling Policy (first in the nation) to phase-out ocean water cooling systems for coastal power plants, effectively starting the closure timeline of the (then) 19 power plants up & down the coast. I know someone who was on the advisory panel for the Nuclear plants (San Onofre/Diablo Canyon).

California: The originator of the “Oops, it seemed like the right thing to do at the time” policy making mindset.

 

[PawPride]

Team Bernie on this one. Those data centers are causing tons of issues at rural POTWs and power bills for rural citizens are skyrocketing.

 

[TheValley91]

Republicans innovate, democrats regulate

Don’t forget those ugly wind farms.

 

[TheValley91]

Team Bernie on this one. Those data centers are causing tons of issues at rural POTWs and power bills for rural citizens are skyrocketing.

It’s incredible how supportive his base is for things that actively make their lives harder.

 

[dpic73]

Team Bernie on this one. Those data centers are causing tons of issues at rural POTWs and power bills for rural citizens are skyrocketing.

And it's not just power bills. The facility that DHS bought in Social Circle Ga for $128 million, that last sold for $29 million in 2023, will be putting extreme presuure on their water system. Officials in the town have already told DHS they don't have enough water available based on how much they already use daily and DHS responded by saying they would only fill their cisterns at night, lolol. Can't make this up. Edit : Didn't realize POTW stood for water treatment plants, so just consider this additional detail.

In addition, the city will lose $800,000 in revenue as federal facilities are exempt from paying property tax.


“The fact that they are justifying drawing water from the municipal supply during after-hours or off-peak times does not change the fact that the water is not there to begin with,” Taylor stressed.

New insight into ICE detention facility in Social Circle

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility is moving closer to becoming a reality in the City of Social Circle in Walton County.

www.atlantanewsfirst.com