"The AI era is giving fracking a second act, a surprising twist for an industry that, even during its early 2010s boom years, was blamed by climate advocates for poisoned water tables, man-made earthquakes, and the stubborn persistence of fossil fuels. AI companies are building massive data centers near major gas-production sites, often generating their own power by tapping directly into fossil fuels."
"Take the latest example. This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that AI coding assistant startup Poolside is constructing a data center complex on more than 500 acres in West Texas - about 300 miles west of Dallas - a footprint two-thirds the size of Central Park. The facility will generate its own power by tapping natural gas from the Permian Basin, the nation's most productive oil and gas field, where hydraulic fracturing isn't just common but really the only game in town."
"The project, dubbed Horizon, will produce two gigawatts of computing power. That's equivalent to the Hoover Dam's entire electric capacity, except instead of harnessing the Colorado River, it's burning fracked gas. Poolside is developing the facility with CoreWeave, a cloud computing company that rents out access to Nvidia AI chips and that's supplying access to more than 40,000 of them. The Journal calls it an "energy Wild West," which seems apt."
AI companies are locating large data centers near major gas-production areas and often plan to generate on-site power directly from fossil fuels. Major projects are being sited in the Permian Basin and similar regions, leveraging local natural gas via hydraulic fracturing to meet extreme energy demands. One planned complex spans over 500 acres and will produce two gigawatts of compute, equivalent to large hydroelectric facilities, while using tens of thousands of Nvidia AI chips. Industry leaders acknowledge burning gas to run these centers. The strategy raises significant questions about emissions, local environmental impacts, and the resurgence of fracking-driven infrastructure.
Read at TechCrunch
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