New AI data center buildout being done in secret location to avoid backlash from local residents — ex-crypto mining company doesn’t want publicity for its latest project
An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Subscribe to our newsletter
A former blockchain mining company that pivoted to AI is keeping its latest data center construction under wraps. Applied Digital, formerly known as Applied Blockchain, announced that it has broken ground on a 430 MW facility somewhere in the Southern United States, although The Register reports that it is yet to publicly reveal its location. The CEO claims that it’s doing this to protect the small town in which it’s located, especially as he deems that they’re not ready for “national media attention.”
“We’re not trying to hide anything,” Applied Digital chief Wes Cummins told the publication. “You go to some of these small locations… It’s not like these towns have really sophisticated public communications departments with people that handle all of this. It’s really a sensitivity for them, not for us.” Nevertheless, the company intends to name the data center’s location by February this year. “The public is going to find out everything about it. It’s not being done to stop the public from finding out about it at all,” he added. “We’ve changed our approach with these locations themselves… When you’re dealing in towns of hundreds of people, sometimes that’s a bit overwhelming.”
The company is no stranger to controversy, especially as its projects in Harwood, North Dakota, and Ellendale, Colorado, have all been met with some controversy in the past. Furthermore, data centers have recently been garnering negative attention due to the amount of electricity they’ve been consuming, pushing prices for everyone else, especially consumers and small businesses. Residents have reported spikes in their electricity bill by up to 36%, while wholesale electricity prices have soared up to 267% over the past five years.
Never a good sign when you have to build in secret. No, the nation won't descend on this poor town. The opposition to data centers comes from local residents who are directly affected.
Besides citizens are busy with their own issues. Our city just voted down a 36MW center this week and the neighboring town had an initial hearing scheduled for another.
I think they are keeping it secret because they are concerned they will be prevented from building the data center. If there will be protest then I hope that after the location is disclosed they are prevented from proceeding. There should be more advantages than disadvantages for the community of the data center.
Since the community is small, instead of increasing the cost of electricity for the community, they should provide electricity for the community for little or nothing.
Since the community is small, instead of increasing the cost of electricity for the community, they should provide electricity for the community for little or nothing.
But the impact on the electric grid & electricity prices will go far beyond the town. The only way it would be just a local problem is if all of their power generation were on site, or they were putting in a neighboring power plant. But, neither of those seems to be the case.
To put things in perspective, 430MW is enough to power approximately 85,000 homes so considerable infrastructure would need to be built even if it will only use grid power. As with an aluminum smelter the primary reason for selecting a location would be getting a sweet deal on electricity rates, so the city fathers who already know/sold out probably need the time to quietly sell off their assets and move.
HGP Intelligent Energy proposed using retired Navy Nimitz-class A4W reactors to generate 450–520MW for powering AI datacenters. If these are put into densely populated areas, the waste heat alone could heat homes through something like the NYC Steam System and those are already urban heat islands anyway.
There's a huge AI data center under construction here in Abilene Texas, though it's been public knowledge for a while. Massive though, and less than a mile from the house I grew up in, thank God I'm elsewhere now.
To put things in perspective, 430MW is enough to power approximately 85,000 homes so considerable infrastructure would need to be built even if it will only use grid power. As with an aluminum smelter the primary reason for selecting a location would be getting a sweet deal on electricity rates.
There is a old coal mine just north of austin texas that ran a power plant. Alcoa bought the power plant and built a smelter there and built rail lines to it. This was shut down many years ago but was recently purchased by a data center company. Not because they in think they can use coal power but because all the infrastructure connecting it to the power grid already exists. It seem getting the power connections takes much longer than the time to build the data center itself.
I was in a meeting about a datacenter project on Friday and parties interesting in the land are a datacenter and an Amazon warehouse. Residents are turning out in droves to oppose the datacenter and they seem to love Amazon, but really who want to live next door to 24/7 heavy truck traffic vs. A datacenter which is required by local law to stay under 55 decibels at property edge even when the generators are running full tilt. Electricity rates are a fair concern, but the primary arguments were about living next to an eye sore (datacenter vs warehouse.. Whats the difference) and noise level.
