By Kevin Williams | CNBC
Data centers are gobbling up land, driving up electric bills, and becoming a lightning rod for public discontent over big tech’s power in society.
Maine’s legislature recently passed a data center ban in the state (but failed to override the governor’s veto). According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 14 states spanning the political spectrum from Oklahoma to New York are considering legislation that would ban or pause new data centers, as public opinion on AI has increasingly shifted to the negative.
Still, despite the qualms of the public and politicians, there’s a torrent of capital for building new data centers. The biggest technology companies in the U.S. are on pace to spend as much as $1 trillion annually by 2027 on AI, according to recent Wall Street estimates. Globally, a recent McKinsey report forecasts spending on data centers will hit $7 trillion by 2030.
At the same time, the idea of putting data centers closer to consumers, even onto and into their homes, is gaining traction in real estate circles. Major players in housing, including homebuilder PulteGroup
, are in early testing with Nvidia and California-based startup Span to install small fractional data center “nodes” on the exterior walls of newly built homes, according to recent reporting from CNBC’s Diana Olick.
