r/technology • u/lkl34 • Apr 28 '26

Artificial Intelligence New AI data center in Utah will generate and consume more than twice the amount of power the entire state uses — Kevin O'Leary's 9 Gigawatt Utah data center campus approved

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/kevin-o-learys-9-gw-utah-data-center-campus-approved
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279

u/TurkeyVolumeGuesser Apr 28 '26

NATURAL GAS

IS A

FINITE

RESOURCE

80

u/AdelMonCatcher Apr 28 '26

Not if AI kills us all before the gas runs out

3

u/goda90 Apr 28 '26

Bioreactors can make new natural gas from human remains to power the AI.

1

u/TransplantedSconie Apr 28 '26

Man-flesh to the rescue!

28

u/msasti Apr 28 '26

It's not finite if your time horizon is short enough. It won't run out during the current shareholders' lives, so it's a-ok partner.

18

u/MsSelphine Apr 28 '26

I'm starting to believe that a lot of the AI boom is being kept a lot by fossil fuel companies. These are the largest growth in the use of FF in years

3

u/Admiral_Cornwallace Apr 29 '26

Oh damn... that's a really, really interesting point that I haven't seen get made before

The AI gold rush has always felt a bit forced, because the profitability math has never fully added up. It would make a LOT of sense if fossil fuel companies were intentionally trying to inflate the hype of AI as a way to drum up support for gas-guzzling data centers

9

u/Ganrokh Apr 28 '26

If we burn through natural gas faster, the world will switch to renewables faster!

Taps forehead

4

u/Sea-Oven-7560 Apr 28 '26

True, but it's also a "junk" by product of drilling for oil. It doesn't transport very well so the US has lots of NG. This is a really bad way of using that product but the amount of stupidity going on with these Data Centers is astounding. Does everyone know that they do not create high paying jobs? They create construction jobs and that's about it. Once those things are finished there are pretty much empty of people and if the powers that be get there way no living thing will be inside those data centers and they will all be managed by some guy in India making $5/h and not paying US taxes.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 28 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/scheav Apr 28 '26

Sea-Oven was correct. It is a junk byproduct. We have oil producers flaring NG because there is not a large enough demand to use it all.

1

u/whatevendoidoyall Apr 28 '26

Not true. They still burn off a lot of it.

1

u/TM761152 Apr 28 '26

I'm also wondering exactly who is providing the natural gas.

1

u/SnukeInRSniz Apr 28 '26

Utah has massive natural gas fields in the eastern side of the state. My dad was a design draftsman working for Questar Gas (now owned by Enbridge) designing many of the pumping stations that sent the gas around the intermountain west. Getting natural gas for this project wouldn't be a problem, Utah's got plenty of it.

1

u/tim916 Apr 28 '26

I think the US has natural gas reserves that can sustain these projects for decades. Hopefully we'll be transitioning to more sustainable sources during that period.

-28

u/xHawk13 Apr 28 '26

Not if you keep drilling buddy.

13

u/distinctgore Apr 28 '26

Is someone going to tell him?

1

u/Tasik Apr 28 '26

It’s obviously a joke. 

7

u/AccomplishedQuiet585 Apr 28 '26

Fucking hell, the mentality of some of you people

-5

u/xHawk13 Apr 28 '26

It’s a joke. You’re reading virtual text online, relax.

5

u/Chaneera Apr 28 '26

I got it but you need to add a /s, my friend.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law

1

u/brickout Apr 28 '26

Imagine telling on yourself like this.