The tech behemoth was planning to rezone the acreage for the data center, but then withdrew the plans at a raucous Monday meeting where the Indianapolis City Council was expected to vote on whether to approve the rezoning, according to NPR affiliate WFYI. Cheers reportedly broke out among the overflowing crowd when attorneys from Google said they were pulling out.
At a recent televised dinner at the White House, Big Tech executives profusely thanked Donald Trump for unleashing "American innovation," while the president, in turn, praised Big Tech for "investing billions in the country." This orchestration of Big Tech executives kissing the ring was more than a display of how tech oligarchy has become the new normal. It was a dramatized, Gilded Age-type demonstration of Trump's AI Action Plan, which grants Big Tech the unfettered ability to expand AI infrastructure.
Data center construction spend in the US hit a record high of $40 billion a year in June, Bank of America Global Research said in a new report issued this month. The report cited data from the US Census Bureau and noted that the new spending level is a 28% increase from the previous year. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta are leading the charge with sweeping expansion plans that could total more than $1 trillion in capital expenditures over the next few years.
The AI news cycle of the summer captured themes including the challenge of starting a career, the importance of technology in the China/U.S. trade war, and mounting anxiety about the impact of the technology. But in terms of finance and investing, Deutsche Bank sees markets "on edge" and hoping for a soft landing amid bubble fears. In part, it blames tech CEOs for egging on the market with overpromises, leading to inflated hopes and dreams, many spurred on by tech leaders' overpromises.
Pennsylvania is positioning itself as a hub for data centers, attracting billions in investments and creating job opportunities in AI and advanced manufacturing sectors. The state's favorable conditions for data centers, such as cheap energy and a skilled workforce, are drawing tech projects like Project Gravity to the area. Pennsylvania's zoning laws have hindered the development of data centers and residential housing, contributing to rising home prices and rents.
The paper, " Power Stabilization for AI Training Datacenters," argues that oscillating energy demand between the power-intensive GPU compute phase and the less-taxing communication phase, where parallelized GPU calculations get synchronized, represents a barrier to the development of AI models. The authors note that the difference in power consumption between the compute and communication phases is extreme, the former approaching the thermal limits of the GPU and the latter being close to idle time energy usage.
