Does anyone know what's included in "datacenter capex"? In particular, does that include spending for associated power generation? Because whether or not the AI craze pans out, if we've built a whole bunch of power plants (and especially solar, wind, hydro, etc) that would be a big win.

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measurablefunc 8 hours ago | parent [-]

You can't run a data center on solar or wind (even w/ batteries included). Everything they're building runs on gas & coal like what Musk got running for xAI.

	▲	RealityVoid 6 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		You can and _must_ if you want competitive costs. Musk famously overpaid in order to get speed of deployment. I was reading geohot's musings about building a data center and doing so cost effectively and solar is _the_ way to get low energy costs. The problem is off-peak energy, but even with that... you might come off ahead. And that dude is anything but a green fanatic. But he's a pragmatist.
	▲	rangestransform 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		That’s because Rs let NIMBYs and the fossil fuel lobby call the shots, and Ds let NIMBYs and degrowthers call the shots. I bet China isn’t powering their datacenters with gas turbines