@asklemmy@lemmy.world @asklemmy@lemmy.ml what are the likely impacts of datacenters on water and on energy supply ? Can someone please enlighten me on this ?

#datacenter #water #energy #environment

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[–] 1 point 5 hours ago*

I am not the previous commenters, but seeing as there hasn't been a response yet, may as well offer my 2¢:

  1. Most of the data centers are being spun up to support AI development. AI companies have yet to find a profitable business model, and that situation is not likely to change anytime soon. If they don't become profitable, companies will start closing and will no longer need their data centers.

  2. Costs of everything are balooning. The price of essential hardware has spiked dramatically due to demand, so the data centers are being built at inflated cost and will need to turn over even more profit to break even, which will be difficult. Data centers also need a lot of power to operate, most of which is still based on fossil fuels, and that is also getting very expensive thanks to the US's war with Iran.

Basically you're looking at high initial investment and operational costs, while profitability is not likely to occur anytime soon (if at all).

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