Data Centers in Nvidia's Hometown Stand Empty Awaiting Power (yahoo.com)
(Monday November 10, 2025 @11:51AM (msmash)
from the stranger-things dept.)
- Reference: 0180027428
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/11/10/1651245/data-centers-in-nvidias-hometown-stand-empty-awaiting-power
- Source link: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/data-centers-nvidia-hometown-stand-100009877.html
Two of the world's biggest data center developers have projects in Nvidia's hometown that [1]may sit empty for years because the local utility isn't ready to supply electricity. From a report:
> In Santa Clara, California, where the world's biggest supplier of artificial-intelligence chips is based, Digital Realty Trust applied in 2019 to build a data center. Roughly six years later, the development remains an empty shell awaiting full energization. Stack Infrastructure, which was acquired earlier this year by Blue Owl Capital, has a nearby 48-megawatt project that's also vacant, while the city-owned utility, Silicon Valley Power, struggles to upgrade its capacity.
>
> The fate of the two facilities highlights a major challenge for the US tech sector and indeed the wider economy. While demand for data centers has never been greater, driven by the boom in cloud computing and AI, access to electricity is emerging as the biggest constraint. That's largely because of aging power infrastructure, a slow build-out of new transmission lines and a variety of regulatory and permitting hurdles. And the pressure on power systems is only going to increase. Electricity requirements from AI computing will likely more than double in the US alone by 2035, based on BloombergNEF projections. Nvidia's Jensen Huang and OpenAI's Sam Altman are among corporate leaders that have predicted trillions of dollars will pour into building new AI infrastructure.
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/data-centers-nvidia-hometown-stand-100009877.html
> In Santa Clara, California, where the world's biggest supplier of artificial-intelligence chips is based, Digital Realty Trust applied in 2019 to build a data center. Roughly six years later, the development remains an empty shell awaiting full energization. Stack Infrastructure, which was acquired earlier this year by Blue Owl Capital, has a nearby 48-megawatt project that's also vacant, while the city-owned utility, Silicon Valley Power, struggles to upgrade its capacity.
>
> The fate of the two facilities highlights a major challenge for the US tech sector and indeed the wider economy. While demand for data centers has never been greater, driven by the boom in cloud computing and AI, access to electricity is emerging as the biggest constraint. That's largely because of aging power infrastructure, a slow build-out of new transmission lines and a variety of regulatory and permitting hurdles. And the pressure on power systems is only going to increase. Electricity requirements from AI computing will likely more than double in the US alone by 2035, based on BloombergNEF projections. Nvidia's Jensen Huang and OpenAI's Sam Altman are among corporate leaders that have predicted trillions of dollars will pour into building new AI infrastructure.
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/data-centers-nvidia-hometown-stand-100009877.html
regulatory and permitting hurdles (Score:2)
by MpVpRb ( 1423381 )
This is the problem
Armies of Vetocrats whose only job is to say no
And even bigger armies of NIMBYs and their lawyers
Meanwhile, Chinese companies can build stuff
And yeah, they aren't perfect. The term Tofu Dreg (exceptionally poor construction) comes to mind
There was once a time when it was easier to build stuff in the US
And it's way worse in the EU
Let's get some benefit from the AI bubble (Score:2)
Require the datacentre builders or AI companies to pay for transmission grid upgrades to the whole grid to add the capacity they need.
Then when the bubble collapses, we will at least be left with a greatly upgraded electricity grid that we can use to transit cheap renewable power to consumers, replacing expensive gas and petroleum energy sources.