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this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2026
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The site explicitly mentions "AI data centers", but how do you differentiate AI data centers from... non-AI data centers I guess?
I understand the anti-AI sentiment and environmental issues, etc. but I also think a lot of non-technical people don't realise that literally everything they do online uses a data center.
You can have servers at home or in the office, no need for datacenters for everything.
The post is about data centers though.
No serious business is hosting an internet accessible serve in their office.
To connect to those, you’re going through a Datacenter, or your not online.
AI datacenters outscale every other kind of data center by an extremely large margin. Most data centers are smaller than a Costco.
Most new builds by the larger companies are pretty big though, even if they're not dedicated to AI.
It also says the goal isn't to track every data center out of the 4000 operating in the US, just the ones the public is concerned about, yet there are over 8000 user submissions shown.
This erodes my confidence in the data, as there appear to be no checks or filters.
There's some dots on the map in places where I know for sure that there's no data center. I think people have submitted addresses of some tech company headquarters for example.
Assuming the specs and blueprints are publicly available, an AI data center will look different on the inside compared to a traditional data center. The former will have more GPU racks and probably higher power requirements.
This, but it may also be apparent even without detailed information. The key difference is an absurd level of power density. So compare footprint to power. Power can be estimated easiest based on backup generators as their smokestacks are almost always visible. The last variable is whatever generator size from CAT, Cummins etc is the most cost effective, or that was still somehow left in a warehouse to actually buy.
Also if they're running the "backup" generators even when the power grid isn't having any issues...