The Stratos artificial intelligence datacenter footprint will cover more than 40,000 acres (62 sq miles) over three sites in Box Elder county in north-western Utah. The facility will require about 9GW of power, which is more than the entire state of Utah currently consumes, and suck up a significant amount of water in an area that has been hit by severe drought in recent years.

  • [object Object]@lemmy.ca
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    5 days ago

    Why are they building these things in dry hot places, surely the one time real estate cost can’t dwarf all the other issues?

    • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      That’s long-term thinking. I assume it’s like a ponzi scheme: everyone who puts money into something like this thinks they’ll cash out before the problems occur.

      Why do I feel like the ones left holding the bag are going to be the taxpayers/residents somehow?

      • belochka@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        If I were justifying my account name, I’d suppose, for the purpose of future appearing interesting, this might be a coverup.

        Such a structure is useful for many things, and while a DC doesn’t have to be that big, a factory producing real things on scale or mass housing or a prepared company town all benefit from being in one place.

        So perhaps it’s being built as a DC, but in fact is going to be like a drone factory, or something equally dystopian-futuristic.

        Or a humongous supercomputer, whatever.

        I’m starting to think along plot lines of science fiction and space operas I’ve seen and read before, they were saying it’s harmful for my development, I didn’t believe them.

        Another option - it’s, yes, a scheme and it won’t get built. Just pump and dump.