Episode 28: The Future Is Now

Uh, John, let's just start with one of the biggest headlines.

It feels like we talk about this every single week.

It's all about AI.

And one of the new headlines from CNN is how America is rallying against data centers.

And this is an interesting topic.

We've talked a little bit about this here before.

The, the real takeaway, though, that I, I have to admit I did not know, is that we're hearing a lot of chatter about all of these different data centers that are coming, but not that many of them are actually being built.

So John, it says here the United States had 5,427 data centers at the end of last year, and there's about 4,000 new ones that are planned.

But of those, only 802 of the 4,000 are actually under construction.

Now, why that is, is where it gets interesting.

But one of the, the concepts that I have to admit I did not know is that developers have been submitting many simultaneous applications across multiple regions, and then they pick the most viable one.

So here's the takeaway from Goldman Sachs on this, John.

There's a lot of panic in small communities about these data centers coming in.

But in reality, the data centers are largely just fishing to see, "Hey, can we put one there? And where are our best options once we know that one is approved?" So a lot of the panic in some of these communities may be for nothing, not necessarily because they won't be approved.

Even those that are approved, they're still probably not always the very best pick, and they don't know what that fit is until they go through the process.

But then there's the other data, like labor shortages.

This jumped off the page at me, John.

To meet deadlines for the proposed data center build-outs, the United States would need half a million new electricians, 300,000 new welders, and 550,000 new plumbers.

Of course, that's not realistic.

I think this could be interesting news for a lot of families who were concerned about data centers in their market.

When you hear there's been 4,000 that are expected but only 800 are started, maybe it feels like we hit the panic button on this too soon.

You think? [laughs] Uh, grab your pitchfork and your lanterns and let's go storm the castle.

Uh, that's what this is.

Uh, this is just a bunch of woke, uh, idiots out there claiming, "Oh, NIMBY, not in my backyard." And, and you're not e- they're not building that many right now.

Y- you're right.