"The explosion of AI across every industry has seen hundreds of water- and power-hungry server farms sprout up across the US. Already, one-third of the world's internet traffic flows through data centers in just one US state: Virginia. However, until now, there has been no official record of the number of data centers in America, who owns them, or how much electricity they consume."
"In an exclusive deep dive into the industry, Business Insider reporters cracked the code and, for the first time, revealed the true cost of the data warehouses feeding our growing appetite for cloud computing and AI. We traveled to Virginia to meet people living in the shadow of 80-foot-high boxes that emit a constant drone, and to the drought-ridden state of Arizona, where some data centers are using as much as a million gallons of water a day to help cool their computer servers."
AI expansion has prompted hundreds of water- and power-hungry server farms to appear across the United States. One-third of the world's internet traffic passes through data centers concentrated in Virginia. There is no official record of the number of data centers in America, their owners, or their electricity consumption. Data warehouses supply cloud computing and AI workloads and impose large local impacts: residents live near 80-foot-high facilities that emit a constant drone, and drought-affected regions like Arizona face centers that use up to a million gallons of water daily for cooling. Power demands have prompted some states to postpone carbon targets and utilities to consider extending coal and gas plant operations.
Read at Business Insider
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