No need for imagination, take a look at China: https://newsletter.semianalysis.com/p/we-visited-chinas-star...

(Still a lot of coal, but massive build out…)

It's the other way around: renewables come first, AI boom comes second. That's why, despite the initial lead, US has already lost the AI race. For the next decade or two US AI companies will be tied up in legal fights over electricity demands of their data centers, while China, having abundance of electricity, will build hundreds of AI data centers and leapfrog US.

[dead]

This is the saddest thing.

We could have had cheap AI and renewables, but now we'll get expensive AI controlled by the data center owners and a few extra GW of gas turbines once the moratoriums really start flowing. If Musk has his way, we'll also get thousands of rocket launches building solar panels - but only in my space, where they can't do much to help the climate.

I suspect the rational calculus is that if you abscond with billions while destroying the planet, the billions will protect your for the remaining 80 or so years of your life. Which is of course safer than not having the billions in the theoretically inevitably destroyed planet.

China is investing billions in both renewable energy and non-renewable energy for data centers.

"As they are located mostly in the east of the country, the data centre electricity supply in China today is dominated by coal with a near 70% share, followed by renewables with nearly 20%, nuclear close to 10% and natural gas accounting for the remainder. Between 2024 and 2030 coal remains the largest source of additional electricity for data centres, with annual generation increasing by nearly 90 TWh. Renewables, mostly solar PV and wind, add nearly 90 TWh over the same period, supported by an increase in the share of renewables in the grid electricity mix, provincial co-location mandates and policies to prioritise the construction of data centres in renewables-rich western China. After 2030 the introduction of SMRs significantly boosts the nuclear share of the data centre electricity mix. Between 2030 and 2035 the rise in renewables and nuclear pushes coal into decline. By 2035 both sources together make up nearly 60% of the data centre electricity supply in China."

Energy and AI World Energy Outlook Special Report International Energy Agency (IEA)

https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai/energy-supply-for-...

https://www.iea.org/files/de9dea13-b07d-42c5-a398-d1b3ae17d8...

I think the race for Anthropic is more about getting the bag and exiting ASAP.

Scaling renewables is slow, they need data centers now. One of the big problems in the US right now is getting enough electricity into your DC. Nobody wants to spare capacity, since it has already upset the electricity prices in the last 6 years and inflation is a hot topic.

A carbon tax on data centers would likely be popular and result in different plans.

But don’t you understand? AI progress is much more important than climate change and clean air.

/s

You mean the logical conclusion of effective altruistic? Or perhaps the obvious subtext of effective altruistic? I'm honestly surprised that these people only got more emboldened after SBF went down.