How A.I. Is Changing the Way the World Builds Computers (gift link)
Big tech companies have constructed computer data centers all over the world for two decades. The centers have been packed with computers to handle the online traffic flooding into the companies’ internet services, including search engines, email applications and e-commerce sites.
But those facilities were lightweights compared with what’s coming. Back in 2006, Google opened its first data center in The Dalles, Ore., spending an estimated $600 million to complete the facility. In January, OpenAI and several partners announced a plan to spend roughly $100 billion on new data centers, beginning with a campus in Texas. They plan to eventually pump an additional $400 billion into this and other facilities across the United States.
The change in computing is reshaping not just technology but also finance, energy and communities. Private equity firms are plowing money into data center companies. Electricians are flocking to areas where the facilities are being erected. And in some places, locals are pushing back against the projects, worried that they will bring more harm than good.
A pretty good beginner's guide to AI computing. Worth a read.