The AI Opportunity I'm Fighting to Stop

Temperatures are hovering near 100 degrees.

And tempers are flaring…

Part of the blame in my neck of the woods falls squarely on artificial intelligence (AI).

There’s a dystopian hellscape being built across this country, fueled by greed from politicians and even more greed by corporations. And too few are standing up to say something.

But you should.

So, tonight, I’m going to go yell at some C-Suite crooks.

Though, not executives per se… they’re too cowardly to show up. It’ll be a group of flunkies from a local PR firm hired to represent them.

You see, a New Jersey utility, PSEG, tried to leave us in the dark.

They’ve attempted to slip 70 miles of proposed high-powered transmission lines under our noses. The project would slice through our local farms, carve up the landscape and be made possible by massive land grabs granted by the powers of “eminent domain.”

Livelihoods will be destroyed…

Commercial businesses gutted…

And natural habitat leveled by towering metal monoliths.

Why?

Is all this power needed to feed our budding community?

No.

It’s to transmit electricity to data centers more than 50 miles south in northern Virginia. And this is where the problem – and potential opportunity – lies.

A Dystopian Hellscape Built by AI

Northern Virginia is home to a disease trying to spread across the U.S.

It is the largest data center market in the world.

At the end of 2023, there were 51 million square feet of gross operating data center space. For perspective, that’s eight Pentagons worth of data crunching.

It’s already a power-hungry region… and not solely because of its proximity to Washington, D.C.

To use the data industry metric, last year, the region saw 1,900 megawatts (MW) of multi-tenant data space delivered, as well as another 2,100 MW of single-tenant inventory. And there’s another 1,340 MW under construction.

This means, just these data centers alone feed on enough electricity to power 800,000 homes.

That’s three times the size of Singapore, the No. 2 data center market in the world!

And it’s getting worse…

In Prince William County, Virginia, they are seeking to build 23 million square feet of new data centers.

This would encompass 2,100 acres!

And it would undeniably be the largest data center in the world.

In Fairfax County, Virginia, they approved a new 110-foot-tall data center.

And in Leesburg, Virginia, there’s a new 620,000-square-foot, 32-acre data center poised to come online in the second quarter of 2025.

A lifeless landscape filled with server racks. And those racks are filled with your data, my data, your children’s, your parents’, your neighbors’ and friends’.

But that’s only one part of the problem…

The other is AI and its unholy appetite for data and power.

You see, in a typical data center, hyperscalers require 10-14 kilowatts (KW) per rack to operate. Well, everyone is upgrading to AI-ready racks. And due to their ravenous GPUs, these need 40-60 KW to operate.

On average, that’s a 316.7% increase in electricity demand per rack!

And by 2030, U.S. data center power demand is projected to more than double to 35 gigawatts (GW).

Again, that’s just data centers… not the country.

AI’s Zero-Carb Conundrum

AI is taxing the U.S. power grid.

Consider this… According to the International Energy Agency, a ChatGPT-powered Google search consumes nearly 10 times the electricity as a traditional search (thanks to those GPUs).

A single data center owned by Meta Platforms (META) in Iowa consumes the equivalent of 7 million laptops running eight hours per day.

And Google’s climate emissions have increased by 48% since 2019… all because of AI.

Many tech firms promised to be carbon neutral in the coming years. But it ain’t going to happen.

And this is becoming a major problem… at least for Big Tech players and the U.S. power grid (forget the regular Americans).

Power generation is so monumental of an issue, that Microsoft (MSFT) – yes, that Microsoft – is betting on harnessing nuclear fusion to fuel its data center needs.

Last year, the tech giant inked a deal with Helion Energy to purchase electricity from its first nuclear fusion plant, which is expected to be operational by 2028.

Constellation Energy (CEG) will act as the transmission provider and power marketer.

Of course, we know how to make nuclear fusion work via the hydrogen bomb. The downside is… that’s uncontrollable and a tad bit destructive.

For almost a century, scientists have diligently worked to replicate the process in a controlled environment… which would be one of the greatest breakthroughs in the last 2,000 years and would change the course of human history!

Well, if Helion is to be believed, they’ll be up and running with their first fusion reactor in a handful of years.

I’ll hold my breath until then.

AI’s unhinged appetite for electricity has forced companies to explore other options such as individual nuclear reactors and even geothermal plants.

Combined, Alphabet, Amazon (AMZN), Meta and Microsoft are some of the largest operators of the more than 2,800 data centers across the U.S.

But for AI to thrive, to replace human workers and streamline corporate operations, it needs cheap energy. And that’s why coal continues to be alive and kicking today.

Utilities are the backdoor play for AI. Investors get dividends and growth there as the U.S. dedicates hundreds of millions of square feet and thousands of acres to server racks… A fool’s folly that surely won’t end in disaster.

Of course, locals will challenge these projects. And I’ll definitely be doing my part to stop them from appearing in my backyard. That fortunately means delays… maybe enough time to prove Helion’s full of hot air or a game changer.

Fighting the power!

Matthew