Compute has massive initial capital requirements, and a very short obsolescence window. It does not make sense to invest in compute and then not run it 24/7 at 100%.

Hardware sitting idle waiting for sunshine/wind is leaving money on the table. Especially if you can burn gas during that time and still be hugely profitable.

Would the world be inherently different if hardware cost was 4x of what it is per unit of training done? The world would be inherently different if we did not burn through fossil stockpiles at the speed we do, or not at all. It's market mechanisms failing to lead to a desirable outcome. Nothing new about that, plenty of problems of that kind have been solved before, but yes, this one is more difficult.

New conspiracy theory: this is all secretly a big bitcoin mining buildout