Data centers news and discussion

[weatheriscool]

Enjoy A.i? Well, you're using a datacenter!!! If you're using the internet? Same.

If you're using the internet you're using a datacenter! If you don't like them then sign off for ever.








This is the solution. It belongs in space!

[weatheriscool]

[wjfox]

This might be better in Computers & the Internet, since data centres aren't just for AI.

[wjfox]

Can floating data centres meet AI's huge energy demand?

A US start-up is putting autonomous data centres in the ocean, powered by wave energy, but experts warn that the harsh environment could make maintenance challenging

By Vanessa Bates Ramirez
11 May 2026

The data centres powering the AI boom already use more electricity than some small countries, and the International Energy Agency projects that their demand could reach 945 terawatt-hours a year – more than Japan’s entire electricity consumption – by 2030. AI is so power-hungry that companies are exploring the idea of putting data centres in space, where they could draw on constant solar energy. But one start-up thinks the solution is here on Earth – just not on land. Panthalassa is building autonomous floating data centres that will put computing power out in the middle of the ocean.

The Oregon-based company, which announced $140 million in funding last week, says its platforms could bypass overwhelmed electrical grids and deliver carbon-free computing in international waters. But beyond the technical and engineering challenges involved, it is unclear whether moving computing power offshore would actually ease data centres’ biggest bottlenecks – doing so may just replace familiar problems with far more expensive ones.

“Wave power is an old technology and it can work, but the ocean is a harsh environment,” says Jonathan Koomey, a former researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California and an expert in data centre energy consumption. “The salt and the waves are effective at causing trouble for machinery.”

Shaped like a golf ball sitting on a tee, Panthalassa’s floating data centres are 85 metres tall – about the height of Big Ben – and made of plate steel. They are hauled into the water by a boat, then self-propel to their designated locations. There, they generate their own electricity and run AI workloads without a grid connection, emissions or engines.

The “tee” portion of the platform contains a long tube that is open at the bottom. As waves lift and drop the structure, sea water is pushed through the tube and up into the “ball” portion, which is hollow and mostly filled with air to make it float. The moving water spins turbines that generate electricity, which powers onboard graphics processing units, other computing hardware and satellite communications equipment.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/25 ... gy-demand/



A prototype of Panthalassa’s floating data centre. Credit: Panthalassa

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

Now that is how you do it!

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

In some ways this (see below) may have been better placed at the beginning of this thread to better understand why exotic locations for data centers are being contemplated.

Turns Out, Nobody Wants a Data Center in Their Backyard
By Sophie Hurwitz
May 14, 2026

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) A new Gallup poll has found that most Americans would really prefer not to live next door to a data center.

For the first time, the polling organization asked people what they think of data centers, the massive computer-warehouses required to operate (among other things) large AI models.

Data centers need significant space, energy and water to operate, and they don’t provide many jobs relative to the investment they require. And they’re often unpleasant neighbors: their cooling systems can be noisy, and many include onsite gas turbines that belch black smoke into the air.

Gallup found seven out of ten Americans would be opposed to a data center in their backyard, with nearly half of those surveyed (48 percent) “strongly opposed” to data centers in their area.

That opposition seems to translate into real-life political organizing: according to Data Center Watch, an industry analytics project, coordinated local pushback led to the cancellation of at least $156 billion in data center infrastructure construction. And Data Center Opposition Report, a newly-launched website tracking opposition to data center development across the country, says there are at least 268 local opposition groups across 37 states, organizing over 300,000 people.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... american/

[weatheriscool]

They either need to be moved to the ocean where they are away from people or space. We do need them as billions of people don't want to be throttled online but people don't want important things in sight.

They don't want windmills in sight
They don't want solar fields in sight
They don't want smart glasses in sight
They don't want nuclear plants in sight
They don't want ebikes in sight
They don't want gays or transgender people in sight
Some of these southern people don't want blacks or hispanics in their sight

Doesn't mean that datacenters aint important and we aint going to bitch when we don't get the benefit from them.

[caltrek]

Texas County Pauses Data Center Construction in Rural Areas for a Year
By Alejandra Martinez
May 12, 2026

Introduction:

(Texas Tribune) A rural Texas county on Tuesday approved a one-year pause on the construction of new data centers in unincorporated areas, citing public safety and public health concerns.

The 3-2 vote by county commissioners in Hill County, roughly 55 miles south of Fort Worth, appears to be the first by a Texas county to issue a moratorium on the rapidly expanding industry.

Residents and local officials had aired concerns about how a proposed 300-acre development by the Dallas-based developer, Provident Data Centers in north Hillsboro could impact the quality of life in the rural county through noise pollution and consuming large amounts of water and electricity.

“The data center folks have found a sweet spot in the state that has limited regulations, limited enforcement, limited code, and they’re coming faster than we can keep up with,” said Hill County Commissioner Jim Holcomb. “I think it’s imperative … that we tap the brakes and we get our arms around what we’re faced with and do the research, do the studies.”

Holcomb, who voted for the pause, said the move was in “no way, shape or form a push to impair anyone’s right to do with their own property what they want to do with it.”

Read more here: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/05/ ... pause-ai/

[weatheriscool]

Here is an idea
How about make all models open source and sell mini-data centers capable of powering a local 5-20 trillion model to corporations and large businesses that want to use it. It would be the business mini-data center and each one would come with your choice of open source models. These mini-datacenters would be attached to massive batteries outside of your business and your roof would have solar feeding into the batteries to power your mini-datacenter.

This way we shouldn't have to build so many massive datacenters. Make it local and make it isolated.

As for everyone else we'd build the data centers in space and over the ocean attached under massive solar fields. OF course, you'd be limited to smaller models and that is the trade off. By opposing building the system that allowed for the 10 trillion monsters society will be limited to smaller ones or they will become super costly as everyone fights over the limited system.

Of course 90% of normal people don't need these monsters anyways as they could just download an open source model onto their harddrives to do their a.i and run their robot.

Here is the kind of solar panels that could be installed on the roofs of datacenters!

[firestar464]

Current small models are not at the level required to do complex, heavy workloads. It would also be unwise to open-source models with dangerous capabilities.

[weatheriscool]

[wjfox]

You are posting disinformation here.

[caltrek]

Blue states have costly power because they are pursuing climate transitions, have NIMBY dynamics, and don't build pipelines & deprecate nuclear.

I am not sure that the graph referred to that backs this claim concerning Blue state power costs contains accurate data. If that data is even close to being accurate, I doubt parts of the explanation cited above.

1) Nuclear power is not cheap in comparison with other sources.

2) Pursuing "climate transitions" often means developing relatively cheap solar and wind sources.

Red states, often being rural and containing favorable topographical features, frequently have developed hydroelectric power, which over time can result in relatively cheap costs of energy production. A reading of Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner gives a good account of how this came about. It also shows that hydroelectric power development was often heavily subsidized by the federal government.

High energy costs can also be in part a result of high demand that comes from a relatively vigorous economy. Other data that I have seen shows that, with some important exceptions, Blue states have relatively strong and growing economies.

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

Funded by the Data Center Coalition

Worth noting

[weatheriscool]

This is why America is finished. We don't want to build anymore! We don't even want the goddamn future. Too busy banning porn, banning high speed rail, rooting against wind power, banning ebikes or any new form of innovation. It is sickening. I wish we'd wake up.

[firestar464]

Anyway, the OAI owned podcast bro clip you just shared blatantly oversimplifies the problem, if not outright lies. Data centers are opposed for a variety of reasons, including:

- ethical issues with the companies involved
- pollution
- noise
- energy use
- water use

While many of these can be mitigated, this does not mean they are in practice. Such mitigation would entail not building them in residential areas, in any case.

And as has been mentioned ad nauseam on this forum, the antiAI camp is not the same as the far-right camp. Opposition to data centers in one's area is shared across the political spectrum.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/709772/ame ... -area.aspx

[weatheriscool]