r/technology • u/Just-Grocery-2229 • 13h ago
Artificial Intelligence OpenAI, Blackstone, Softbank form US data center lobbying group — American Infrastructure Alliance's first job is stop states from blocking AI data center
https://www.techradar.com/pro/openai-blackstone-softbank-form-us-data-center-lobbying-group-american-infrastructure-alliances-first-job-is-stop-states-from-blocking-ai-data-center60
u/a4mula 13h ago edited 13h ago
States Rights? Fuck that shit, we got Force majeur's in effect. Though you seem to be missing the weakest link in this chain, Larry Ellison and Oracle. Let me guess, they're going to form their own lobby with Vanguard and JP Morgan that way not only are we getting trampled on, we're getting trampled on by our own asset management groups from every angle.
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u/williamgman 13h ago
And there you have it. This will boost investment as private equity will see they have power over states.
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u/IntelArtiGen 12h ago
If they want to install a datacenter they should install enough clean energy production to supply it. Either that or electricity prices will raise for everyone, or it'll be more pollution for everyone.
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u/plinkoplonka 11h ago
So what you're saying is socialism?
Socialize the costs, privatize the profits.
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u/vickism61 11h ago
How is it socialism to make data center developers provide their own energy source?
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u/NoHippi3chic 8h ago
No thats what we have here right now. When they take from the public infrastructure to fuel their aims, thats socializing the cost. The public bears the burden.
When they provide a value input in exchange for, to offset, or to hahaha, actually improve? No nvrmd thats not real.
If they fairly compensate the public in some manner for something they want to do that depends upon public funded benefits to implement, thats not socialism. You seem to have scrambled your order of understanding.
This is why companies devastate waterways and leave behind blight and superconductor sites. Because the law does not reign them in and communities pay for it, especially the feds. Lawyers write the laws for this county in the form of corporate lobbyists. Without strong leadership to reign this in its just 100 later and still, no last tycoon.
Disclaimer: I think industry professionals are important for the process of crafting legislation. We jist need stronger protection in place to regulate outcomes, and the money flows into electing people who dont live there and dont care. Corporations do not want to pay up front costs nor do they want to lose a penny in maintenance they dont have. Otherwise they wouldn't spend like they do to keep those factors in check. Its beyond tiresome that this is still a topic up for debate.
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u/IPredictAReddit 11h ago
These aren't infrastructure.
They use infrastructure. They depend on infrastructure. They impose costs on those who pay for the infrastructure. They take resources from actual infrastructure.
This is classic right-wing naming. Whatever it is you are taking, using, or destroying; name it so that it looks like you support it.
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u/whelmed-and-gruntled 8h ago
These are corporate parasites. Bloated ticks gorging themselves on tax dollars and scraped data.
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u/vezwyx 7h ago
I mean, it's definitely a kind of infrastructure. Data centers are part of the foundations upon which AI technology are built. The fact that they depend on other infrastructure doesn't really mean anything for whether they are infrastructure themselves
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u/IPredictAReddit 5h ago
That's an end product, though. Infrastructure is product-agnostic. Roads don't care what runs over them, which is why they're economically important. Same with water and electricity. A factory makes one thing, so it's not infrastructure. It produces a specific product.
Running AI models produces a specific end product as well. It is not infrastructure, and it doesn't play the same role as infrastructure.
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u/Mojo141 12h ago
WTF man. build them in places like Wyoming. Why would they even consider building them in populated areas? Yeah they'll have to build a power source but the community would have to do that anyway.
Any city that considers allowing one of these better demand power and water self sufficiency and at least 10 years up front tax paid into an escrow account so when these companies inevitably go under they won't be fucked over on the taxes promised.
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u/aquarain 12h ago
What a great idea. Datacenters in Yellowstone driven by geothermal. That way if the AI doesn't kill us all the supervolcano will.
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u/axonxorz 8h ago
"by utilizing the trapped heat, we are actually cooling the caldera, staving off the explosion"
Don't give them any ideas.
just kidding, I'm sure they've already considered that marketing angle
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u/groundhog5886 11h ago
The billions will now flow. Free trips, free football games, golfing trips, trips to virgin islands, trips to Alaska, lots of dinners at expensive restaurants. And they will get their way. Votes need to show them the door.
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u/transtranshumanist 11h ago
If they want to install data centers, they can pay everyone's electric bill. You wanted to turn your digital slaves into a metered service, right? You can start by paying our meters to power your bullshit.
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u/LiberataJoystar 2h ago
….. I don’t get it. They asked the government to slow them down. The public is responding by giving them exactly what they wanted by blocking data centers.
But they are working to stop the public….
So what do they want? They want a slow down or acceleration? They cannot have both…
One of which must be a lie….
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u/shizumuka 12h ago
In a few years USA will be a desert with all the water consumption and no reforestation (hope not!)
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u/rodg2062 12h ago
Funny thing is, if they, the data center developers were just honest and explained in detail how their center wouldn't raise energy costs on the people, that any water usage wouldn't cause increased cost or environmentally unsafe discharge, you may actually get the people to be accepting. Dodging questions, refusing to provide fact driven answers and basically just hoping you can force this on people isn't a good business model.
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u/Pm_Me_Your_Slut_Look 11h ago
explained in detail how their center wouldn't raise energy costs on the people, that any water usage wouldn't cause increased cost or environmentally unsafe discharge,
Funny thing is they can't cause it will.
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u/redheadedandbold 10h ago
AI Data Centers can be built to generate their own power, smaller, so they don't make an awful racket. They are planning HUNDREDS of data centers around the US. We need to stop what they are building, and require they build self-sustaining units instead. https://x.com/charise_lee/status/2056381582559355035?s=20
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u/ArekDirithe 5h ago
Data center developers want to pretend like bringing a data center into a town is a massive employment boon to the area, like bringing a factory to a town has traditionally been. Traditionally (though capitalism does a good job at eventually ruining all good things), factories have provided a large number of well-paying and stable jobs to a community. The community was more amenable to the idea of socializing the infrastructure costs of a factory because of the benefit the factory provides.
A data center brings all of the negatives that a factory would bring, like strain on utilities and transportation infrastructure and pollution of various sorts, but doesn't bring any of the economic boons. There's nothing inherently wrong with data centers and often they are much more efficient use of resources, but the developers need to admit to themselves and the towns they want to build them in that the benefits of the data center aren't going to the community they build it in and then properly and honestly compensate the community for the negatives it brings in an ongoing basis.
Doing so would massively increase the costs of the data centers though. The goal is to create an environment in which all compute beyond the most basic personal uses ultimately flows through their data centers so they can establish control over the market. Why allow people to buy a device once when you can make them pay for it every month for the rest of their lives? To build this environment, they need to buy out the entire supply of new compute and prepare to resell it at a markup. If data center development incurred it's true cost instead of socializing much of the cost to the community, they wouldn't have enough money to build out fast enough, and wouldn't be able to sell compute cheap enough for a long enough time period to establish control. It's exactly what big box retailers do to smaller mom and pop shops so they can establish their monopoly in the market, it's just that with compute, the market is world-wide, so the costs is that much higher.
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u/witshadows 4h ago
Thus is the new Legion of Doom. Sam Altman is definitely the Lex Luthor of the group.
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u/Distinct-Pain4972 4h ago
Some guy, i wish i could remember his name, stood up at a public hearing on a data center and had the best idea... in my opinion.
(Paraphrasing) data center companies should be legally required to put up a local bond for the wages if the jobs they claim they will create. If they claim they will create 100 jobs, they must put up a bond for 5 years wages and insurance for those 100 jobs. If they create that many jobs, and that pay for 5 years... they get the bond back. If they don't, the bond pays the difference. This keeps the local govt from being left with empty promises and the cost of cleaning up the data center once it goes empty.
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u/clocked__ 3h ago
Imagine being a lawyer for this group. How do you go home and look your family and friends in the eyes?
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u/SirkutBored 13h ago
For starters, these types of projects should not be receiving tax breaks of any kind and for locales that don't want them, charge a tax premium instead.