Data Centers: Build Them Quick
April 3, 2026
The AI frenzy demands more AI compute. The fix? Hop on the data center bandwagon quicker than someone can enter a prompt into a chatbot. However, the current boomlet is different from Pets.com. Because BAIT (big AI tech) companies want AI in everything, with inefficient methods, more compute is needed fast. The speed is important because AI chip technology keeps advancing. If a data center locks into to today’s best chips, in a couple of update cycles, the data center may find itself like the buggy whip manufacturer watching Model Ts putter by the leather shop. Judging from Microsoft’s lateral arabesque, that company is now waking up and dreaming that it can make everyone happy again by pulling back on such innovations as putting AI in the ascii editor Notepad. Microsoft may learn that those billions in capital investment may become the anchor that keeps dragging down the firm’s share price. As I write this, I think the shares in Microslop are down another half dozen points. Nice going, Softies. One difficult question is the date of the data center fizzle? A quiet question that needs to be spoken more loudly is the amount of power and water data centers are using.
The Guardian explores how AI data centers are affecting power grids in the article, “The Environmental Cost Of Data Centers Is Rising. Is It Time To Quit AI?” The story explains that datacenters use four times more power than other sectors says the International Energy Agency. Japan is predicted to exceed its power demands by 2030. Meanwhile Australia expected for its datacenters to triple in five years and surpass the electricity needed to charge electric cars by 2030s.
There’s a movement called QuitGPT to boycott AI’s surveillance, use in weapons, and resource demands. Despite the boycott’s small following it begs the question if more people should be listening? Data centers wizards aren’t transparent about the amount of energy AI is using. It’s also understated that AI uses more energy than a basic search engine.
Here’s what an “expert” says:
“ ‘Consumer software that generates text, images and videos are uniquely energy inefficient,’ says Ketan Joshi, an Oslo-based climate analyst associated with the Australia Institute, due to the ‘vast datasets and computational strain of pattern-matching that happens underneath the hood’”.
Two final points. City and county taxing authorities like the idea of expanding their tax bases. Those who live near a proposed cruise ship sized data center are less enthusiastic. The financial outlook for some of the AI plays has yet to make the money folks nervous. Most do not live near a planned data center with a modular nuclear reactor in the future or the flock of jet turbines providing power when the local grid hiccups.
Net net: If we build it, the money will come. Didn’t that work for baseball?
Whitney Grace, April 3, 2026
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