Is this just a “NIMBY” issue or do people actually not want data centers to exist at all?
Neither. People were OK with datacentres when there weren't an utterly absurd number of hugely power- and water-hungry ones crammed full of GPUs running Large Language Models that exist
ONLY to keep pumping more hot air into the "AI" bubble.
"AI" does nothing that is valuable enough (or within three orders of magnitude of valuable enough) to justify the amount of money and resources that are being pumped into this datacentre construction frenzy. And it is almost certain that it never will.
I'm 50/50 on this statement. I think of the fiber install back in the late 90s. They buried a ton of fiber in to the ground of which some is still not used, but it definitely was a game changer. AI can be that as well, but I don't know whether large data centers or mini AI on the smart phone is the future. My money is on portability, but the question is how long will it take to get there and will these large data centers become like some of the Canals built in the US that closed in 10 or 20 years after opening because trains became a thing or whether they'll be the backbone to real AI (of which we technically aren't even there yet with that yet).
Where I live, electric rates are popping. Our state deregulated and as typical, costs went up, but now they are going up up... though only in a relative sense, still much cheaper than the west coast, but still, Ohio electric rates are going up (water rates went up too a while ago but that was because water use went down) and in a very noticeable way. Data Centers are in the middle of election campaigns right now. In Ohio, you'd think Husted invented the Data Center.
At this point, even the investors don't think the stuff will ever turn a profit; They are running up the price because they believe that when the music stops, they will have been smart enough to grab a seat before there were none left.
Investing in a bubble can make you rich, if you have the testicular fortitude to hang on through the blips, AND the ability to cash out at the top of the curve.
These datacentres are just the visible signs of this aquisitive insanity; They will soak up power and water and land and resources and lives, until the bubble inevitably goes "pop!", and they become derelict shells.
It appears that they are panicking, building out massively so as not to be left behind. As I noted above, this could all become obsolete if the eureka moment occurs and AI becomes portable. Even with perfect AI, the US doesn't need massive farms, they would need individual and portable models in their pocket.
AI is in it infancy, even pre-eBusiness IPO relative wise. There is money in AI, but it hasn't been found yet, mainly because AI isn't AI. It is pre-AI. AI becomes valuable when it can replace labor, not merely kind of assist it.
