The war on data centres is a bit fake
Developers are exaggerating their plans, just as politicians are overstating their opposition.
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A demonstration against a planned data centre in Pittsburg, California, in the US, on Aug 3. Data centres are a nightmare of political economy.
PHOTO: AUBREY TRINNAMA/NYTIMES
The Economist
In February, shortly after making his feature film debut as a pen magnate in Marty Supreme, Kevin O’Leary announced that he would build one of the world’s biggest data centre projects in Utah. The market shrugged. What did O’Leary, who is best known for presenting Shark Tank, know about data centres? How would it be paid for? Or powered? One analyst dismissed the project as an example of “vapourware gigawatts (GW)”.
But a joke in the marketplace became dynamite in the town square. In June, J. Stuart Adams, president of the Utah Senate, who had initially supported O’Leary’s venture, demanded that its size be reduced by three-quarters. O’Leary accused his critics of working for China (he later withdrew that), but eventually agreed to scale back his dreams. Even then, Adams, a long-serving Republican lawmaker, along with a pair of county commissioners, lost primary elections because of the scandal.