Huge "Game Changer" AI Data Farm In WY Will Use More Electricity Than All The State's Homes [View all]

An artificial intelligence data center that would use more electricity than every home in Wyoming combined before expanding to as much as five times that size will be built soon near Cheyenne, according to the city’s mayor. “It’s a game changer. It’s huge,” Mayor Patrick Collins said Monday.

With cool weather — good for keeping computer temperatures down — and an abundance of inexpensive electricity from a top energy-producing state, Wyoming’s capital has become a hub of computing power. The city has been home to Microsoft data centers since 2012. An $800 million data center announced last year by Facebook parent company Meta Platforms is nearing completion, Collins said.

The latest data center, a joint effort between regional energy infrastructure company Tallgrass and AI data center developer Crusoe, would begin at 1.8 gigawatts of electricity and be scalable to 10 gigawatts, according to a joint company statement. A gigawatt can power as many as 1 million homes. But that’s more homes than Wyoming has people. The least populated state, Wyoming, has about 590,000 people.

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Gov. Mark Gordon praised the project’s value to the state’s gas industry. “This is exciting news for Wyoming and for Wyoming natural gas producers,” Gordon said in the statement. While data centers are energy-hungry, experts say companies can help reduce their effect on the climate by powering them with renewable energy rather than fossil fuels. Even so, electricity customers might see their bills increase as utilities plan for massive data projects on the grid.

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Yeah, a "game changer", all right. AI is like adding 10 or 12 zeroes to a roulette wheel that we're all playing, and that we're already adding two or three zeroes to every year. What a stupid fucking species we are.

https://apnews.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-data-center-electricity-wyoming-cheyenne-44da7974e2d942acd8bf003ebe2e855a