Subject: Re: Data Centers in Space
Data centers in space might have some merit. Kevin O'Leary of Shark Tank fame is proposing to build a 9 GW data center in northern Utah on 40,000 acres. I can't imagine the data center itself is 40,000 acres, which is 625 square miles, but that's the proposed site area. In context, last year Google deployed 3 GW globally. The entire State of Utah consumes 4 GW. New York City consumes 10 GW. The data center will require one billion acre feet of water per year. You may have heard the Great Salt Lake is starting to collapse due to too much water being diverted for agriculture and other uses. As the lake retreats it is exposing heavy metals on the lake bed, which is beginning to impact residents.

I use the cloud and AI, so it would be hypocritical to oppose data centers, in general. But this particular one might not be good idea.