Yes, but some data centers have their own power source… Like xAI using 35+ jet turbines in TN/MS for power. Surely the fuel is cost effective! (Methane gas-FYI they’re considered temporary therefore bypassing air quality safety laws too)
https://www.selc.org/news/xai-built-an-illegal-power-plant-to-power-its-data-center/
and dumping all that toxic wastewater to a nearby town.
Of course that manchild put MACROHARD on the roof of something that is clearly built to compensate for his other…shortcomings…
It’s a pretty dated wordplay on “Microsoft.”
Still juvenile and on-brand for a cringe loser like Musk.
I think one of the silver linings of ai is that when the bubble bursts and/or they are able to develop more efficient models there will be a glut of power, which will make electricification cheaper.
That’s not how capitalism works.
The models themselves are not incredibly expensive power wise for inference its the training that is the real power pig.
Eventually things will slow down as we hit the wall on this tech and people start trying to work around the limitations of it. With all the money in it right now though it might be a while.
Local power in major cities can’t handle 100% EVs in their cities currently without expanding generation. But as a country we have plunty of energy reserves.
The network capacity is the main constraint, needs crazy reinforcement to deal with more decentralised generation at the same time as power demand is roughly going to double by 2050 (not long in terms of major infrastructure projects).
And that was all before AI data centres.
