hayekstan

US data centres already consume as much electricity as Britain. Data centres share of US peak summer demand is project to increase from 4.1% last year to 8.5% next year. Next year they will require 66GW of continuous draw, roughly equivalent to the electricity used by Germany in Wintertime. Germany uses 24GW minimum load in summer. They are projected to use 15-20% of current US electricity demand by 2030. Goldman Sachs predicts the increase in power demand for data centres from 2023 to 2030 will be the equivalent of adding another top ten power consuming country. To power their data centres Meta, Amazon and Google are all investing in multiple nuclear power plants, each. Nvidia, Google and the CEO of OpenAI are invsting in nuclear fusion companies. Microsoft has arranged for the Three-Mile Island nuclear plant to be re-opened, entirely for their own use. Companies have also turned to Gas power: gas pipelines are being re-routed to data centres, where they are fueling gas turbine generators. The backlog for demand for gas turbines from GE Vernova is equivalent to the electricity use of Japan, the fifth largest consumer of electricity in the world. Morgan Stanley predicts the US will be short of electricity by six New York Cities by 2028 and around 18 New York Cities by 2029.

A lot of circularity to it for sure, but also dozens of nuclear plants being built so hard to know how it works out

Some crazy facts from takingstock.ai: - the 5 hyperscalers are spending $785-820bn this year - google and Amazon are each spending more as a percentage of US GDP than was spent on the Apollo Program or Manhattan Project in their peak years - Google is spending 200bn this year, enough to pay for a One World Trade Centre every week, fund the World Health Organisation’s annual budget each fortnight, or pay for a Ford-class aircraft carrier and stock it with F35s each month. It is enough to buy all of Ford, Nike and General Motors, with money to spare. - The US will be short of power by the equivalent of six New York Cities by 2028 and around 18 New York Cities by 2029.