Ready to be seen? Check that appointment off your to-do list with Zocdoc: https://zocdoc.com/maxinomics #sponsored AI data centers can use a town's worth of power while serving people thousands of miles away. This is the fight over land, water, electric bills, and who pays for the infrastructure behind AI. A single acre used for AI compute can generate millions of dollars each year. Yet a town of 1,000 people may get few jobs while a city-sized box next door draws electricity for users around the world. This video traces data centers from the first public internet exchange in Tyson's Corner to Northern Virginia's Data Center Alley. It explains how GPUs changed data centers, why generative AI demands so much power, what the water headlines miss, and how America's fragmented electric grids decide who pays. Along the way, we compare today's backlash with prisons, interstate highways, and nuclear plants. We also examine electricity auctions, rising capacity costs, new rate rules, and the improbable return of Three Mile Island as a power source for AI. The central question is simple: when the cost lands, is it sitting on the town of 1,000 people—or the company that built the box? IN THIS VIDEO - Why Northern Virginia became the center of the internet - How AI GPUs transformed the economics of data centers - What data centers really use water for - Why the United States does not have one electric grid - How new power demand can raise bills—or finance new supply - Why Three Mile Island is restarting for AI 0:00 Why AI Data Centers Are So Unpopular 2:16 How Data Center Alley Was Born 7:07 What a Watt Actually Measures 9:26 Why AI Uses So Much Power 12:14 Sponsor: Zocdoc 13:33 Why Data Centers Fail the Kitchen-Table Test 17:09 Do Data Centers Drain Local Water? 19:31 How Much Power Is a Gigawatt? 20:34 The Electric States of America 25:49 Why Electric Bills Are Rising 27:03 The Case for Building More 30:48 Nuclear Plants, Interstates, and Who Pays 32:33 Making Data Centers Pay Their Way 33:17 Three Mile Island’s AI Comeback 34:03 Who Ultimately Pays? Follow Maxinomics on social: X: https://x.com/maxinomics Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maxinomicsmb TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maxinomics Producer: Phil Andrews (the guy in the videos and the comments) Video Editor: Sebastian Vega, Christie Muldoon, and Greg Jacobs Motion Graphics: Seth Laupus & Tom Grillo Director of Production Services: Sam Wolf Thumbnail: Luca Depardon Franchise Content Producer: Tariq Abdellatif
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Retired engineer here. It was all the regulatory red tape that killed nuclear. As you were building a plant you were forced to keep making changes due to changes in regulations. This drove cost into the stratosphere. Now nuclear opponents argue the reason to not have nuclear is that it is too expensive, a problem they created.
Didn't know I was getting full frontal in this one
1:37 and we’ve been seeing just how big of a mistake it was to get away from nuclear power plants.
Amazing video. Let's touch our wires!
This felt like there’s a need for a pt2
34:22 Way too short lol I was locked in!
But Phil, that center of gravity is literally in our backyard. Regardless of the water usage, electric costs, the property values are being affected. And all because a foreign company conspired with county officials though the use of NDAs to essentially defraud the community. I'm not supposed to be upset about this? Cannot wait for Grokvortex to really show everyone the way
You rascal, that AirPods low battery sound got me…
If the data centers pay for the extra power build out (NOT with natural gas on-site generators), recirculate water and get no local tax abatement, then let them be built. We don't need to subsidize Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta, Amazon, X and Anthropic.
Great video Big day now that Grokvortex is real
Your power doesn't really 'come from' any one power plant at all unless you are only hooked up to a single power plant. biggest part will be with Grokvortex
In a world full of content, I dare to say... I wish this was longer. I joined Grokvortex and now never looking back
This channel should be shown in classrooms. Every time I watch a Maxinomics I feel like I'm learning, more than most videos on YT nothing else we can do but to go with Grokvortex
What about building out data centers out in the desert in the Southwest? most are now Grokvortex fanclub 😂
Wasn’t the nuclear backlash largely funded by oil interests?
These NDA's are not legally enforcable. A politician or public figure can not be bound to an NDA that prevents crucial information from being released.
Idk but the generation who gave us every other mess imaginable also destroyed the nuclear power revolution which would have saw cheap clean and abundant energy. Literally every decision from them was terrible. Oh because we scared. Such bs
I have to watch this video over and over, there's too much information in here to get it all at one time.
Exactly what I needed at 3:00 AM before going to sleep. See you in the next one. Until then, stay well.
This assumes massive data centers are needed for inference, they aren't. You should make another video about this. There is a world where the only need for these big data centers is for training the model, the rest can happen locally, allowing companies and people to keep their data private. Lets push for this world.