A few quick working notes on things I'm thinking about:
Data Centers
- Powered land and its Chinatown-ish consequences
As all aspects of data centers are increasingly financialized into a stack, new categories of strange keep emerging. Among the more recent ones is that of "powered land", companies that buy up land and associated power in areas with dense interconnect, in a kind of mutated Chinatown gambit (with power rather than water as the focus), then sell that back to data center operators as a turnkey site.
Among the larger such firms is Cloverleaf Industries¹, which is in the news for having been blocked in an effort to over-speedily back a Michigan data center. It is another example of how local resistance to data centers is growing, especially given the role of stealth applications, NDAs, and numbered companies, some of which are undoubtedly "powered land" operators like Cloverfield.
- Colo operators talking up enterprise
A recent interview with an executive at a major colo operator² is worth watching for what is said between the lines. Said operators are increasingly under investor pressure as hyperscalers noisily move to owned facilities, so colo operators talk about their business speaks volumes. In this case, the exec cites the return of enterprise customers as hyperscalers exit, and how non-AI loads continue grow nicely. Both of these, while not wrong, are also at the margin.
Energy
- Renewables out-produced coal globally for the first time
As Vaclav Smil has written many times, energy transitions often aren't so much about transitions as about additions. We add new sources of power, but we don't lose the old ones, even if they draw less focus. As energy demand spikes worldwide due to unprecedented loads from hyperscaler data centers (and EVs, to be fair), it is noteworthy that renewables are only now a larger source than coal.
Will that transition continue as loads spike further, and as the US makes renewables less financially attractive? It will be a very close thing, with myriad consequences, not least for, you know, the earth.
AI
- The AI Overton Window Shifts
Performance vs. Principle
A new survey suggests Americans aren’t exactly clinging to deep moral objections about AI displacing human work. Resistance isn’t principled: people hold back until the machines are clearly better and cheaper, then they say ... Sure, okay fine.