No one getting rich off data centers wants to live next to one, which kind of tells you everything you need to know. They are a gigantic externality, plunked down in the midst of people who do not benefit from them, but have to bear the costs of the noise, pollution, and increased energy and water costs.
I’m in Ashburn Virginia and I literally live less than 1 mile from the highest concentration of data centers in the world. People are buying townhomes homes built across the street from data centers.
What you might not understand is Loudoun heavily regulates data centers in this area. All infrastructure improvements needed to power and cool the data centers are paid by service providers. The water used to cool our data centers is sourced from our wastewater which goes through a special treatment facility that was funded by the tax revenue from the data centers.
Our property taxes are lower because the tax revenue from the data centers makes up for the difference. We have excellent schools and fantastic recreation facilities.
Oh yeah, our electricity rates and water rates are competitively low too.
I’m not here to champion data centers, nor am I claiming this is what normally happens when a data center is built.
I’m trying to point out that when they are TAXED and REGULATED, they can actually be a boon the local community.
The problem you’re seeing in these other communities are local governments bending over backwards to bring in data centers to the expense of the local population. They’re paying higher rates for water and electricity because the data center wasn’t forced to pay for infrastructure upgrades upfront, so those costs get passed on to the public.
I don’t mind the data centers. I see them every day and walk past them. They don’t emit pollution and they’re quiet and I’m not interested in moving away. I like it here.
And amplified by the concerns in the post. Many people against them who aren't neighbors wouldn't get as exercised about the centers if they were other, familiar noxious entities. Oil refineries are a necessary evil in our current economy, for example. The AI stuff is an unnecessary evil, the majority of what it helps with is relatively trivial and the costs have been real already. The only way we get abundance from it is by losing enough population that there is more water, energy, arable land, minerals, housing, and other resources for the remaining humans.
> No one getting rich off data centers wants to live next to one
Which is more about the people getting rich off them and less about the data center. Once you hit a certain tax bracket living beside any sort of commercial activity that isn't consumer facing becomes below you.
I live near a paper mill, freight rail and a bunch of manufacturing. I don't think anyone here would notice a data center if it didn't show up in our power bills. But, and this relates pretty directly to Mark's comments, this is also a blue collar area so not very threatened by AI, if anything people kind of embrace it because it's a power/wealth transfer away from the people who they see as keeping them down by regulating the source of their wealth out of state and overseas.
The post is not wrong. It’s just incomplete and the headline is wrong.
A lot of what Cuban is saying is true. But in the U.S., a lack of regulations means that the local effects of data centers, in terms of overloading the grid, water supplies and creating noise (and sometimes air) pollution are significant.
The people next door beg to differ. Also big LLMs aren't the AI we will actually be using, it's small local LLMs. These data centers are a dead and everyone knows that, even the people building them, but not the people paying for them.
LLMs in general have a limited use, and are a dead end. So small local LLMs are also a dead end. That of course, does not stop people from using LLMs for purposes that they are not good at.
What you might not understand is Loudoun heavily regulates data centers in this area. All infrastructure improvements needed to power and cool the data centers are paid by service providers. The water used to cool our data centers is sourced from our wastewater which goes through a special treatment facility that was funded by the tax revenue from the data centers.
Our property taxes are lower because the tax revenue from the data centers makes up for the difference. We have excellent schools and fantastic recreation facilities.
Oh yeah, our electricity rates and water rates are competitively low too.
I’m not here to champion data centers, nor am I claiming this is what normally happens when a data center is built.
I’m trying to point out that when they are TAXED and REGULATED, they can actually be a boon the local community.
The problem you’re seeing in these other communities are local governments bending over backwards to bring in data centers to the expense of the local population. They’re paying higher rates for water and electricity because the data center wasn’t forced to pay for infrastructure upgrades upfront, so those costs get passed on to the public.
I don’t mind the data centers. I see them every day and walk past them. They don’t emit pollution and they’re quiet and I’m not interested in moving away. I like it here.
Which is more about the people getting rich off them and less about the data center. Once you hit a certain tax bracket living beside any sort of commercial activity that isn't consumer facing becomes below you.
I live near a paper mill, freight rail and a bunch of manufacturing. I don't think anyone here would notice a data center if it didn't show up in our power bills. But, and this relates pretty directly to Mark's comments, this is also a blue collar area so not very threatened by AI, if anything people kind of embrace it because it's a power/wealth transfer away from the people who they see as keeping them down by regulating the source of their wealth out of state and overseas.
A lot of what Cuban is saying is true. But in the U.S., a lack of regulations means that the local effects of data centers, in terms of overloading the grid, water supplies and creating noise (and sometimes air) pollution are significant.
Not that being a billionaire is particularly classy.