Data centers and AI gobbling electricity

[Mik]

Bezos says the will be built in space - orbital DCs.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/jeff-bezos-makes-wild-prediction-about-data-centers-as-energy-demand-grows/ar-AA1NOpkg

[Axtremus]

Not any crazier than the Dyson Sphere.

[jon-nyc]

That’s a high bar

[Axtremus]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/technology/openai-amd-chips.html

Over several years, OpenAI plans to deploy enough AMD chips to consume 6 gigawatts of power, an amount that could supply all the households in Massachusetts. As part of its recent agreement with Nvidia, OpenAI agreed to deploy enough to consume 10 gigawatts.

On the financing side, OpenAI has big plan to build many data centers that will cost lots of money. But OpenAI does not have all that money, so it's striking deals left and right to get the chip makers to fund its capital projects. (E.g., promise to buy $100B of Nvidia chips and allow Nvidia to invest $100B in OpenAI.)

[Doctor Phibes]

@Axtremus said in Data centers and AI gobbling electricity:

Not any crazier than the Dyson Sphere.

Isn't that a type of vacuum cleaner?

[jon-nyc]

Yes, actually. Hoovering up energy from a star.

Also constructing one is probably an AI-proof job at least for the foreseeable future.

[Axtremus]

Or @Doctor-Phibes may have been thinking about the Dyson Ball.

[Axtremus]

Source: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-top-25-countries-with-the-most-data-centers/

[taiwan_girl]

Basically, the article talks about how there is and maybe more reliance on fossil fuels to power the data centers. (Obviously more detail and some interesting side stories also.)

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/04/ai-data-centers-energy-demands/686064/

[Axtremus]

Erin Brockovich gets involved:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/erin-brockovich-says-people-angry-165957745.html

For now she's not taking side (at least not overtly). She's just advocating for more transparency and crowd-sourcing information about plans for data centers.