Google is buying a private power empire to fuel its AI.

https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/google-gobbles-startup-vast-project-21257549.php

by sfgate

7 comments

  3. They shouldn’t be allowed to buy them. That just takes supply from others. They should have to build them themselves, source all their own materials to power them, and they be completely detached from the grid so they cant source other energy from cities. They should have to be their own self sustaining entities entirely.

  4. Given a regime that’s openly hostile to renewables private development is crucial to keeping the momentum going; however, like how AI demand has priced GPU, memory and other components out of average consumers’ hands, private utilities may choose more lucrative contracts to supply data centers rather than trying to cater to customers without deep pockets, further constricting supply.

  5. I hate AI, it’s not only taking away jobs, but it’s horrible for the environment, with their data centers taking all of our water and consuming huge amounts of power. Case in point:

    https://techiegamers.com/texas-data-centers-quietly-draining-water/

    Larger data centers can each “drink” up to 5 million gallons per day, or about 1.8 billion annually, usage equivalent to a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people.

    https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-centers-and-water-consumption

    In addition, data centers are power hungry and produce drone noise and vibrations for surrounding areas, as well causing local utilities rate to spike by 50%. With massive tax breaks for the richest companies.

    [Exposing the Dark Side of AI Data Centers](https://youtu.be/t-8TDOFqkQA?feature=shared)

    Business Insider exposed that the power needs of data centers have forced some states in the US to withdraw from their carbon emissions targets. Power companies are even looking to extend the life of coal and gas plants to help meet the unprecedented demand.

    Finally, to make things even worse, [Data centers turn to commercial aircraft jet engines bolted onto trailers as AI power crunch bites ](https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers-turn-to-ex-airliner-engines-as-ai-power-crunch-bites)

  6. Literally no one worries about the premise of Terminator?

  7. They will end up bigger than the utilities themselves and buy them since it will be faster and weirdly cheaper than building it on their own over several years. We’ll all eventually buy energy rights from the AI providers, and will likely have to pay a premium for priority access etc during peak hours.

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