#data-centers

#data-centers

A company's opaque plan to build a massive data center outside Tucson, Arizona has roiled the desert city over the past few months, the latest US community to push back as tech companies aggressively seek to build out infrastructure for cloud computing and to power the AI boom. The proposed data center, known as Project Blue, would span 290 acres in Pima county, and become the biggest development ever in the county, or anywhere in the southern part of the state.

On Page 1 of the Mercury News was an article about La Nina, stating that we do not know if it will have very little effect on our water supply or if it will cause a drought. On Page 6 was an opinion column about the number of data centers in the area and the water that they use (AI data centers must disclose how much water they require).

In Silicon Valley, more than 55 data centers operate in the city of Santa Clara alone, and more have already been approved, according to the city. As generative AI floods into multiple aspects of our lives (work, health care, education, entertainment, access to information, companionship, national security, etc.), the need for powerful data centers grows. Some are cooled with air; some use recycled water; many, however, require drinking-quality water for cooling.

If I were a betting man, I would feel safe putting money on you being woken up by a smartphone alarm this morning. Maybe you looked at your texts, perused your news apps or (if you're like me) played Quartiles while you made your coffee and checked work emails. I'm also willing to bet that at some point in the last week you got in your car or took a hike and used GPS,

The number represents the state's single largest spike in planned data centers in any one year, and a 16% increase from Virginia's 2024 total. Amazon-built data centers represent the bulk of the new construction, with 28 planned facilities, according to Business Insider's count. The tech giant had 177 data centers built or in construction nationwide by the end of 2024, according to the analysis. The new planned data centers in Virginia would grow Amazon's fleet to 205, a 15% increase.

My concern is that not all of the energy that they're using for data centers is renewable, which will undercut the city's own climate commitments,

The tech behemoth was planning to rezone the acreage for the data center, but then withdrew the plans at a raucous Monday meeting where the Indianapolis City Council was expected to vote on whether to approve the rezoning, according to NPR affiliate WFYI. Cheers reportedly broke out among the overflowing crowd when attorneys from Google said they were pulling out.

At a recent televised dinner at the White House, Big Tech executives profusely thanked Donald Trump for unleashing "American innovation," while the president, in turn, praised Big Tech for "investing billions in the country." This orchestration of Big Tech executives kissing the ring was more than a display of how tech oligarchy has become the new normal. It was a dramatized, Gilded Age-type demonstration of Trump's AI Action Plan, which grants Big Tech the unfettered ability to expand AI infrastructure.