The Next AI Bottleneck: Power For Data Centers

At The Information, we’ve spent a lot of time writing about artificial intelligence and the people who develop it. But at the end of the day, their ability to launch software to billions of people depends on data centers. And the availability of such facilities can’t be taken for granted.

Over the past few days, I’ve rubbed shoulders with the titans of American data centers at the Pacific Telecommunications Council conference in Hawaii. Some of them say they are concerned about whether there’s enough electricity for all the new AI-focused data centers that are due to come online later this year.

“‘Where’s the power?’ has become the first question,” said Todd Raymond, the CEO of 1547, a data center developer and operator. 

Nvidia’s graphics processing units, which power ChatGPT and its ilk, consume far more energy than traditional processing chips, and cloud providers are struggling to secure enough of it.