The State of the AI Bubble with Ed Zitron

I need a data center in my neighborhood.

I want a data center in my town.

Please put a data center in my neighborhood that way.

my ram might actually go down i don't care about the noise i'm out here getting hearing damage with the boys maybe i could get lung damage too just so you can ask rock is this true

texas governor greg abbott has issued a pause on the statewide build-out of data centers pending an audit of all of the currently underway projects.

Texas joins New York as the second major state to announce what amounts to a moratorium in response to public backlash to the

tech sector's rapid expansion.

Now, there are a number of concerns with these projects.

Of course, this is what's been fueling the bipartisan opposition to data centers across the country.

But in Texas, chief among them is that the scheduled build out of data centers amounts to 474 gigawatts.

of power demand, which is, I believe, more than five times the current peak grid demand for the entire state of Texas right now.

So in other words, Texas would see a demand strain five times what it's currently facing in situations where the Lone Star State has already seen rolling blackouts and challenges with its power grid as it is.

And in addition to all of this, there are, of course, farmers, citizens, environmentalists who have a litany of questions and issues with the way that the projects would be developed and not the land on which that would happen.

Now, unlike New York and some of the other proposed moratoria, this is an audit of the projects currently scheduled.

And so the audit seeks information about the data center's reliance on the grid, the water impact on communities.

how much of state funds each of the different projects would require, and the extent to which the companies and the hyperscalers would seek to mitigate any of these impacts and costs on local communities.

That is, the audit will consider how much the industry is willing to give back, how much of the burden it's willing to take on itself, But all of this, I think the bottom line is that this is a clear response to what has become a truly unignorable level of public vitriol at these projects.

So even somebody as industry friendly as Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has been pro-corporate to the bone during his tenure, even his hand has been forced to do something.

And in this case, it has been a large-scale audit of all of these projects, where in New York it's a moratorium, where we're seeing moratoriums and pauses and sometimes bans proposed elsewhere.

But it's a signal and a clear one of where the backlash to data centers currently stands.