"You have data centers that are over two kilometers," says Smith, more than 1.24 miles. Some of the newer data centers are multi-story he notes, creating a second dimension of distance on top of horizontal sprawl.
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Smith's remarks echo comments by others serving the AI industry, such as Thomas Graham, co-founder of chip startup Lightmatter, who last month said at a Bloomberg Intelligence conference that there are at least a dozen new AI data centers planned or in construction now that require a gigawatt of power to run.
"Just for context, New York City pulls five gigawatts of power on an average day, so, multiple NYCs." By 2026, Graham said, it's expected the world's AI processing will require 40 gigawatts of power "specifically for AI data centers, so eight NYCs."
Creating internet garbage makes the good stuff hard to find costs four times as much as it did to time travel travel from 1985 to 1955.