Long ago, working with minicomputer makers DEC and DG, I was very involved with the specifications and preparations for computer rooms. Today’s massive data centers are no different in one significant regard — they need electricity to power the equipment, and they need cooling for the heat the electricity generates in the equipment.
I recently mentioned the Colorado River’s drop in water level that, if it continues, will result in the Hoover Dam being unable to generate hydroelectric power. Which leads me to wonder why greater Phoenix is such a popular location for both data centers and chip fabrication facilities.
Other regions of the country are trying to promote themselves as good spots for data centers. At the same time that protests against them are becoming louder and more forceful.
Crypto was the big data center thing before AI, and NVIDIA is riding the peaks of both waves. AMD is in the troughs, trying hard to catch up. The data center featured in this report is outside of Austin, Texas.
With AI now cranking out a lot of the code that used to be written by hand, seeing IT infrastructure as a specialty taking the lead in tech hiring is no surprise to me. If I were to rejoin the workforce, I would definitely look for a data center job. It’s always been my thing, installing, configuring, optimizing, and troubleshooting systems.
These new data centers are being built with borrowed money by competing AI software companies. Will they pay off, or will some of them be abandoned before they’re even brought online?
