Oliver Haslam Contributing Writer Oliver Haslam has written about technology of all shapes and sizes for over 15 years, both online and in print. He's fascinated by how personal computing continues to change as tower PCs give way to foldable phones and beyond.
hotaru251 'America hates data centers,' not just the States…..they are hated world wide by the common folk. Only ones who LIKE them are those who benefit from them. (gov/corpo) Reply
Roland Of Gilead Yeah, it's not just the States. It's everywhere. People don't like them. There are many reasons why, not least of which, is the cost for infrastructure being subsidized by the general public. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth and hurts the pocket, bigtime! Reply
RoLleRKoaSTeR These data centers are a boondoggle. Nothing good comes from them and are a waste of resources. And there is no oversight on what they do. Reply
anoldnewb I support data centers except for public subsidies, noise and light pollution, adverse impact on electricity rates and excessive water use for cooling. But yes, I support them. Reply
helper800 There seems to be no disambiguation between data centers and AI data centers, so take that into context with the following statements. It is ridiculous how uninformed the common public, and even many members of this forums are on what a 'data center' is, why they exist, how things would be without them, and what problems to local resources they pose. This is not even touching on all the misinformation there is about water usage. There are legitimate concerns of water quality in the areas surrounding data centers, but it is affected only during construction. General water usage is also way overblown, however, there is a problem with where a lot of the data centers are located given their usage. Putting more stress on the Colorado river, for instance, is turning it into a lake. That river is estimated to stop flowing within the next 10-15 years at current usage rates, and hydropower production is either greatly reduced (70-90%) or shuts down entirely by mid 2027. Reply
ravewulf helper800 said: There seems to be no disambiguation between data centers and AI data centers, so take that into context with the following statements. It is ridiculous how uninformed the common public, and even many members of this forums are on what a 'data center' is, why they exist, how things would be without them, and what problems to local resources they pose. We don't necessarily need to distinguish between AI data centers and regular ones because the reason why we're seeing an increase in data centers, planned or constructed, is specifically due to AI. Reply
rgd1101 ravewulf said: We don't necessarily need to distinguish between AI data centers and regular ones because the reason why we're seeing an increase in data centers, planned or constructed, is specifically due to AI. anything you post is going to a data center. by posting more, you are increasing the need for data center. Reply
ravewulf rgd1101 said: anything you post is going to a data center. by posting more, you are increasing the need for data center. That's a bit disingenuous. Sure, websites are run from data centers, but forum posts hardly take up any storage space, relatively speaking, and are a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of data centers being planned or built specifically because of AI. The context is about how many data centers are being added specifically because of AI, not on existing data centers or the slower growth needed for more website capacity/compute. Reply
rgd1101 ravewulf said: That's a bit disingenuous. Sure, websites are run from data centers, but forum posts hardly take up any storage space, relatively speaking, and are a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of data centers being planned or built specifically because of AI. The context is about how many data centers are being added specifically because of AI, not on existing data centers or the slower growth needed for more website capacity/compute. there a big data on everything you do. Reply
thestryker helper800 said: There seems to be no disambiguation between data centers and AI data centers, so take that into context with the following statements. You could replace data centers/ai data centers with pretty much anything. In this era of social media and money speaking loudest nuance is dead. helper800 said: It is ridiculous how uninformed the common public, and even many members of this forums are on what a 'data center' is, why they exist, how things would be without them, and what problems to local resources they pose. Interestingly enough most of the real problems with data centers we're seeing now are not new. An investigative report on data centers up the Columbia River some years back exposed a lot of the corruption and disruption issues. The biggest difference is the quantity and size of data center builds going on now. This visibility aspect has caused all the opportunists to come out. There tends to be at least a grain of truth behind what's being said in favor and against. I think the biggest things the current buildout has exposed, in the US at least, is the poor state of energy production and inadequate state laws. In many states there simply isn't a mechanism for utilities to force data centers to pay for power generation expansion. We've also seen instances where there are holes in land use and noise ordinances. I'm also not sure there's any differentiations on type of data center beyond maybe power consumption. There's of course a huge difference between utilization rates depending on what role the data center is being used for which can make a world of difference for anyone living near. At the end of the day I do think data centers are being scapegoated to a degree, but they are also a reflection of what's truly going wrong economically. I do think if people were willing to do some work to understand issues we'd be capable of perhaps getting regulation which makes sense done. Unfortunately as I stated initially nuance is dead and unless something is done to break that problem I don't see it happening. Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/america-hates-data-centers-new-database-reveals-more-than-90-percent-of-10-000-public-comments-are-negative-only-21-percent-mention-ai-73-percent-of-meetings-had-no-data-center-supporters-water-is-the-number-one-concern#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.