Data centers' 'oh s–t' moment(www.politico.com)
20 pointsby cdrnsfan hour ago3 comments
  • skybrian13 minutes ago
    Carbon taxes are a tough sell, but I bet a carbon tax specifically on data centers would pass.
  • xg1524 minutes ago
    > Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is positioning himself as a positive voice on AI

    Given Meta's (and also Mark's) reputation, I wonder how much that is helping the cause and how much its opponents...

  • pannyan hour ago
    In every good market crash, there's a flash point. In 2008, it was the Lehman Bros collapse and congress refusing the initial bailout. This might be the flashpoint, 75 data centers blocked this year and a supermajority of Americans against their construction.
    • 0cf8612b2e1ea few seconds ago
      Stopped in an election year. I suspect some politicians may change their minds come December.
    • skybrian15 minutes ago
      If stopped before construction, the organizations funding the data centers still have the investment funds and can build in a different location or, worst case, give the money back to investors.

      Assuming demand keeps up, owners of already-existing data centers continue to get windfall profits.

      It would be like what happens when housing prices go up due to lack of supply.

    • theandrewbailey29 minutes ago
      Here I was thinking it will be somewhere between next-generation Nvidia chips, and inability to get ROI before the end of relatively quick GPU depreciation schedules.
    • jdm2212an hour ago
      Why would this cause a market crash? A supply crunch in AI will push prices up.
      • forshaper33 minutes ago
        Curiously, Richard Fuld, who was the CEO/chairman of Lehman Brothers, now invests in datacenters.
        • jdm221227 minutes ago
          Him and literally everyone else with investable money.
      • digdugdirk29 minutes ago
        So much of the current bubble is predicated on the hype train continuing on its current trajectory. If anything lags behind, the bubble deflates.

        For one potential path - Less datacenter construction means less GPUs, so less $$$ for Nvidia, which means less for them to spread around to prop up the LLM industrial complex, which means lower valuations, which means OpenAI and Anthropic can't get their trillion dollar valuations, which means VC's race for the exit to cash out, etc, etc.

        • jdm221222 minutes ago
          What specifically is the bubble you're talking about? Like which asset is seeing a runaway increase in valuation detached from fundamental value?
          • tobinfekkes15 minutes ago
            ... All of it? Does a bubble need to be confined to one vertical? It seems like The Bubble is just the sum of a bunch of other individual bubbles.