数据中心、人工智能与能源领域的最新动态
内容总结：
数据中心建设热潮引发全球多重挑战，科技巨头与社区、环境矛盾凸显
随着人工智能技术快速发展，大规模数据中心成为科技公司布局AI的物理基石。然而，这些能耗巨大的“服务器仓库”在全球范围内的急速扩张，正引发一系列关于电网负荷、电费上涨、社区影响及环境成本的激烈争议与对抗。
政策监管与行业承诺并行
美国两党议员正共同推动加强对数据中心能耗的监管。参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦和乔希·霍利已致函能源信息署，要求建立强制性的数据中心年度能耗披露制度，以确保电网规划准确，并监督科技企业履行其“用电成本保护承诺”。此前，包括谷歌、Meta、微软、亚马逊、OpenAI等在内的七家科技巨头已签署该承诺，表示将采取措施防止数据中心推高周边社区电费。 Anthropic、OpenAI及微软等公司也相继宣布，将自行为其数据中心的电网接入升级付费，或承诺限制用水，以缓解公众担忧。
能源、环境与社区压力加剧
数据中心的激增正显著推高电力需求。为满足供应，美国引领了全球天然气发电厂的建设浪潮，但这可能导致更多的温室气体排放。同时，数据中心对水资源的消耗及其建设运营对当地社区（如北路易斯安那州、俄勒冈州莫罗县）带来的环境与健康影响，正激起越来越强烈的反对声浪。全美已有超过230个团体联名呼吁，在出台更严格法规前，暂停新建数据中心。
技术探索与另类方案
面对地面限制，科技行业开始探索太空数据中心等前沿方案，SpaceX与xAI的合并即旨在推动相关构想。此外，微软等公司正研究采用高温超导材料等新技术，以提升能效、节省空间。另一方面，也有观点认为，应优先考虑对现有数据中心进行升级改造，而非盲目新建。
社会阻力与行业形象管理
反对数据中心的社区运动已取得实际成效，成功阻止或延迟了多个大型项目。作为回应，科技公司正加大公关力度，例如Meta投入巨资开展广告宣传，强调数据中心创造就业、振兴乡村的积极作用。美国全国有色人种协进会等组织也已发布指导原则，呼吁社区要求科技公司在建设数据中心时承担更多责任。
当前，在AI竞赛的驱动下，数据中心的扩张势头与资源消耗、环境保护及社区福祉之间的矛盾日益尖锐，已成为全球范围内亟待平衡与解决的核心议题。
中文翻译：
大型数据中心是科技公司实现人工智能愿景的物质基石。然而，这些遍布全球、满载高耗能服务器的仓库正急速扩张，由此引发的电网压力、电费飙升、社区影响及环境问题已在世界各地激起纷争。
从将数据中心发射至太空的大胆构想，到围绕污染问题的最新法律诉讼，以下是The Verge关于数据中心领域的重要新闻报道。
参议员要求彻查数据中心实际用电量
据《连线》杂志率先报道，马萨诸塞州民主党参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦和密苏里州共和党参议员乔希·霍利于周四致信美国能源信息署，要求该机构收集数据中心"全面、年度化的能耗数据"并向公众公开。他们敦促该机构"建立数据中心强制性年度报告制度"，称相关数据对"精确规划电网"至关重要，并能确保本月初签署《电费保护承诺》的七家科技公司履行其承诺。
能源信息署周三宣布，将在得克萨斯州、华盛顿州、北弗吉尼亚州及华盛顿特区启动自愿试点项目，以评估数据中心能耗。而沃伦与霍利在信中呼吁的，是范围更广、具有强制性的数据中心能耗报告制度。
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伊朗局势螺旋式升级如何影响数据中心与电力成本
特朗普政府发动对伊朗的军事行动后不久，我致电大西洋理事会全球能源中心研究项目主任里德·布莱克莫尔，探讨冲突可能带来的后果。尽管当时油气价格已开始上涨，人们仍更多期望冲突的影响只是短暂的。谈话结束时，布莱克莫尔直言："我们下周再通一次话……届时冲突的走向以及对能源未来的实际影响会清晰得多。"
一周过去，随着美以对伊朗发动袭击导致最高领袖阿亚图拉·阿里·哈梅内伊身亡，冲突已进一步升级。能源基础设施成为这场持续战争的关键博弈点：以色列袭击伊朗燃料库，伊朗则在反击中瞄准海湾邻国的油气设施。伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队周二威胁称"在另行通知前，不会允许一滴石油从该地区流向敌对势力及其合作伙伴"。据报道，伊朗已开始在战略要地霍尔木兹海峡布设水雷，全球五分之一的石油消费和液化天然气贸易曾途经该海峡。
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七家科技巨头签署特朗普倡议，承诺防止数据中心周边电费暴涨
谷歌、Meta、微软、甲骨文、OpenAI、亚马逊和xAI的负责人今日与特朗普总统会面，签署了"电费保护承诺"。这是科技界对两党日益担忧的回应——随着科技公司与特朗普政府争相建设新一代AI数据中心，电价正持续上涨。
"科技公司需要公关援助，因为人们认为数据中心建在哪里，哪里的电费就会上涨，"特朗普在活动中表示，"有些社区因此拒绝了数据中心项目，现在我认为情况将逆转。"
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特朗普宣称科技公司下周将签署协议自担电力供应
特朗普总统在国情咨文演讲中试图平息民众对电费上涨的忧虑，如今我们获悉他承诺的协议可能于下周落地。特朗普声称已与主要科技公司协商达成"电费保护承诺"，这些公司将为其数据中心建设或支付新的发电设施。福克斯新闻今日报道，亚马逊、谷歌、Meta、微软、xAI、甲骨文和OpenAI的负责人预计将出席3月4日的活动签署承诺。
目前关于承诺的具体内容及公司履约责任机制披露甚少。"在这一大胆倡议下，这些大型企业将为新建AI数据中心自建、自备或自购电力供应，"白宫发言人泰勒·罗杰斯在给The Verge的邮件中表示。
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Anthropic承诺竭力防止数据中心推高电费
Anthropic成为最新一家承诺限制数据中心对周边居民电费影响的AI公司。
该公司表示将支付更高的月度电费，以全额承担其数据中心接入电网所需的升级费用。公告称："这包括原本可能转嫁给消费者的成本分摊部分。"
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'冰河末日'如何引发对Meta最大数据中心项目的更多质疑
唐娜·柯林斯居住在距Meta最大数据中心建设地点约20英里处，她的家族已在此居住了五代人。这座位于路易斯安那州北部的小型农业社区因该建设项目备受关注，成为生成式AI基础设施如何影响周边居民的高调案例。
对柯林斯而言，这里是"一小片天堂"。"这是我唯一熟悉的家园。这里宁静、田园、美丽，"她说，"我们无法想象即将到来的变化。"
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微软拟改造数据中心布线以节约空间
微软希望利用零电阻导电材料设计更高效的数据中心。如果这些被称为高温超导体的新材料能够上市，微软认为这可能会彻底改变数据中心及其连接的能源基础设施的建设方式。
科技公司正因生成式AI的巨大能耗、电网基础设施不足导致的接入延迟，以及新建数据中心对当地居民的影响而面临反弹。高温超导体有望缩减数据中心及其供电输电线路所需的空间。
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纽约州拟审议两项AI监管法案
纽约州立法机构将审议两项法案，要求对AI生成内容添加标识，并暂停新建数据中心三年。
《纽约新闻基础人工智能要求法案》（简称NY FAIR新闻法案）要求任何"主要通过生成式人工智能创作、撰写或创建"的新闻必须附带免责声明。该法案还要求所有使用AI创建的内容在发布前必须经过具有"编辑控制权"的人工审核批准。
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马斯克宣布合并SpaceX与xAI以建设太空数据中心
周一，埃隆·马斯克宣布将旗下SpaceX与xAI两家公司合并，交易据称价值1.25万亿美元。马斯克在声明中表示，合并原因是AI的发展需要走向太空。
他指出，AI依赖"大型地面数据中心"，这些中心消耗"巨量电力与冷却资源"，给环境和社区带来巨大代价。解决方案是太空数据中心。"从长远看，太空AI显然是实现规模化的唯一途径，"马斯克说。
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数据中心助推天然气产业迎来新黄金时代
美国正引领全球新建天然气发电厂的浪潮，这很大程度上是为了满足数据中心日益增长的能源需求。而更多天然气意味着更多导致全球变暖的污染。
2025年全球在建燃气发电量增长31%。新增产能的近四分之一计划落户美国，使其超过中国成为增长最快的国家。非营利组织全球能源监测的最新分析显示，美国该领域超过三分之一的增长预计将直接用于数据中心供电。
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Meta斥资数百万美化数据中心形象
2025年最后几个月，Meta耗资640万美元在全美从萨克拉门托到华盛顿等城市开展广告宣传活动，其明确使命是：争取观众对新建数据中心的支持。据《纽约时报》报道，该广告以爱荷华州阿尔图纳和新墨西哥州洛斯卢纳斯的Meta数据中心为主角，采用简短朴实的视频形式。
广告宣传称Meta数据中心创造了就业机会，振兴了农村社区。
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冬季风暴考验承载AI数据中心的脆弱电网
席卷34个州的巨大冬季风暴导致数十万人断电。冬季风暴费恩过后持续的严寒天气仍在考验本已因AI数据中心激增而不堪重负的电网。
上周末，数据中心数量最多的弗吉尼亚州批发电价飙升。尽管这在供暖需求激增期间并不意外，但这可能加剧人们对电费上涨日益增长的不满，这种不满已在美国各地引发对数据中心的抵制。公用事业公司和电网运营商本就难以满足AI日益增长的电力需求，这使他们在天气灾害来临前更难做好充分准备。
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OpenAI承诺数据中心将自担能源成本并限制用水
OpenAI表示将最大限度减少用水，并支付为其数据中心供电所需的能源基础设施升级费用。"我们要做好邻居，"该公司表示，直接回应了在公用事业费用上涨背景下对AI项目日益增长的反对声音。
"我们承诺自担能源成本，确保我们的运营不会推高您的电费，"OpenAI称。该公司承诺与当地社区合作，最大限度减少其Stargate数据中心的影响。OpenAI未具体说明，但表示计划可能包括确保自身能源供应或支付当地电网升级费用。
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微软紧急平息新建AI数据中心引发的民愤
反对数据中心的浪潮似乎触动了科技巨头的神经——微软成为最新承诺解决数据中心周边社区不满的巨头。
该公司今日宣布了一项名为"社区优先AI基础设施"的五点计划，包括支付更多费用以防止数据中心能源需求推高其他客户电费、减少公司用水、培训工人创造就业机会，以及为运营所在地的税收基础做出贡献。
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社区群起反对数据中心并屡获胜利
如果说2025年共和党人与民主党人有什么共识——至少在地方层面——那就是阻止大型高耗能数据中心项目。
对于受够电费上涨和发电厂污染的社区而言，数据中心已成为明显的抵制目标。随着基层团体、选民和地方立法者要求开发商承担更多责任，今年反对新建数据中心的斗争激增。他们已成功阻止或搁置了价值数百亿美元的拟建数据中心投资，且斗争势头未减。
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亿万富翁欲将数据中心建遍各处，包括太空
科技亿万富翁长期痴迷太空。如今，随着最大AI公司为追求利润疯狂建设更多数据中心，太空看起来不再像个人兴趣项目，而更像商业机遇。仅2025年，就公布了六项需要数千兆瓦电力的巨型AI数据中心提案——这种规模在2024年还只是传闻。地球居民逐渐意识到，高耗能数据中心占用土地和水资源，却提供极少就业岗位，带来过多污染并推高电费。
因此产生了将数据中心置于地球轨道而非地面的想法。太空数据中心——以配备太阳能电池板的卫星形式——成为科技巨头的最新时尚和硅谷最新的可投资领域。理论上，在太空中，太阳无限的光线可为最新的AI生成Sora视频提供无尽能源。但事情可能没那么简单。
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2025年AI水电消耗量激增
最新估算显示，AI今年产生的碳污染相当于纽约市全年排放，消耗的淡水相当于全球瓶装水消费总量。
该研究描绘的AI环境影响可能相当保守，因为其基于目前公开的相对有限数据。研究作者认为，科技公司缺乏透明度使得人们更难看清AI融入日常任务可能带来的环境代价。该作者多年来一直追踪用于AI和加密货币挖矿的数据中心耗电量。
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AI芯片机架实在太重
从2010年到2024年底的十五年间，美国数据中心数量翻了两番。全球趋势类似：数据中心数量更多、规模更大，无论是现在还是不久的将来。据数据中心认证研究机构Uptime Institute数据，过去四年宣布建设的超过100兆瓦的数据中心项目总数达377个。
但在我们允许科技巨头疯狂竞逐更多计算资源（环保人士不希望我们这样做）之前，让我们暂停考虑另一种选择：充分利用现有资源。我们能否改造现有数据中心以满足最新技术需求？或许建设狂潮并无必要；或许我们已拥有所需的所有设施。这里做些升级，那里换些新服务器，再刷层新漆，瞧——一个由传统数据中心外壳改造的AI数据中心就此诞生。
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太空数据中心竞赛升温
一家开发太空太阳能技术的初创公司加入科技巨头行列，尝试建设环绕地球运行的数据中心。总部位于美国的Aetherflux公司周二宣布，计划于2027年初发射其首颗数据中心卫星——这是其称为"银河大脑"的大型卫星星座的首个组件。
科技公司在地球上实现AI抱负时遇到了物理限制——即数据中心需要更多空间和电力。他们正在探索的一个潜在解决方案是将部分数据中心送入轨道，在那里它们可以全天候依靠太阳能运行。
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暂停数据中心建设呼声高涨
包括"食品与水观察"、"社会责任医师组织"和绿色和平在内的230多个团体要求在美国暂停任何新建数据中心，直到出台更强有力的法规以防止电费、用水量和污染激增。
"为满足AI和加密货币狂热而快速、基本不受监管的数据中心激增，正在扰乱全美社区，威胁美国人的经济、环境、气候和水安全，"这些团体在周一致国会的信中表示。
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俄勒冈州数据中心或导致癌症与流产率上升
俄勒冈州莫罗县是大型农场和食品加工厂的所在地，但也有多个亚马逊数据中心。如今一些专家认为，这种组合导致饮用水硝酸盐浓度高得惊人，推高了该地区癌症和流产率。
《滚石》杂志的调查报告详细说明，尽管亚马逊未使用任何危险硝酸盐冷却数据中心，但其加速了下乌马蒂拉盆地含水层的污染，当地居民依赖该含水层获取饮用水。废水管理不善、沙质土壤和经典物理原理的共同作用，导致某些水井饮用水硝酸盐浓度高达73ppm（百万分之七十三），是州限值7ppm的10倍，联邦限值的7倍。
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谷歌为数据中心改用天然气
谷歌支持新能源技术的最新承诺竟是……天然气项目？确切地说，这是一个配备过滤装置以捕获导致全球变暖碳排放的燃气发电厂。这难道只是披着羊皮的污染性化石燃料项目？
谷歌刚签署协议支持伊利诺伊州名为Broadwing能源中心的新燃气发电厂开发。该项目将配备碳捕集与封存技术，旨在从烟囱排放物中过滤二氧化碳并将其储存于地下，防止温室气体在大气中积聚。
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NAACP发布数据中心指导原则，警告科技公司"保持警惕"
美国主要民权组织之一全国有色人种协进会正对科技行业"发出警告"，呼吁社区要求新建数据中心的公司承担更多责任。
由于为支持AI进步而建设的大型新数据中心，美国电力需求近二十年来首次上升。公用事业公司和部分科技公司越来越多地使用化石燃料满足这一需求，这恶化了空气质量并加剧气候危机——促使NAACP发布"指导原则"，帮助当地社区成员进行反击。
英文来源：
Massive new data centers are the physical foundation for tech companies’ hopes and dreams for AI. But the rush to expand warehouses full of energy-hungry servers has also kicked up fights across the world over their impact on power grids, utility bills, nearby communities, and the environment.
From audacious plans to launch data centers into space to the latest legal battles over pollution, The Verge has the biggest news and reporting surrounding data centers.
Senators are pushing to find out how much electricity data centers actually use
On Thursday, senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) sent a letter to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) asking it to collect “comprehensive, annual energy-use disclosures” on data centers and make that information publicly available, as first reported by Wired. They’re urging the agency to “establish a mandatory annual reporting requirement for data centers,” saying the data is “essential for accurate grid planning,” and ensuring the seven tech companies that signed the Ratepayer Protection Pledge earlier this month adhere to their commitments.
The EIA announced Wednesday that it’s launching a voluntary pilot program to evaluate data center energy use in Texas, Washington, Northern Virginia, and Washington, DC. What Warren and Hawley are calling for in their letter is broader, mandatory reporting on data center energy consumption.
Read Article >How the spiraling Iran conflict could affect data centers and electricity costs
Soon after the Trump administration launched its war on Iran, I called up Reed Blakemore, director of research and programs at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center, to talk about the consequences. While oil and gas prices were already on the rise, there was still more hope then that the impact of the conflict might be short-lived. At the end of our conversation, Blakemore said plainly: “Let’s have a call again [next week] … We’ll have a much clearer picture of what the conflict is going to look like and what the story really is going to be for energy moving forward.”
It’s a week later and the conflict has only escalated since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Energy infrastructure has become a key leverage point in the unfolding war, with Israel hitting Iranian fuel depots and Iran targeting Gulf neighbors’ oil and gas infrastructure in its own strikes. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened on Tuesday not to “not allow the export of even a single liter of oil from the region to the hostile side and its partners until further notice.” Iran has reportedly also started to lay mines in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of global petroleum consumption and liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade used to move.
Read Article >Seven tech giants signed Trump’s pledge to keep electricity costs from spiking around data centers
Leaders from Google, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, OpenAI, Amazon, and xAI met with President Donald Trump today to sign a “rate payer protection pledge.” It’s one way they’re responding to growing bipartisan concerns about electricity rates rising as tech companies and the Trump administration rush to build out a new generation of AI data centers.
“[Tech companies] need some PR help because people think that if a data center goes in, their electricity prices are going to go up,” Trump said during the event. “Some centers were rejected by communities for that and now I think it’s going to be the opposite.”
Read Article >Trump claims tech companies will sign deals next week to pay for their own power supply
President Donald Trump tried to quell Americans’ concerns about rising electricity costs during his State of the Union speech — and now we’re learning that the deals he promised could land next week. Trump claimed that he’s negotiated a “rate payer protection pledge” with major tech companies, which would see them build out or pay for new electricity generation for their data centers. Leaders from Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, Oracle and OpenAI are expected to attend a March 4th event to sign the pledge, Fox News reported today.
There are very few details at this point on what the pledge entails, nor how companies would be held accountable for following through on any commitments. “Under this bold initiative, these massive companies will build, bring, or buy their own power supply for new AI data centers,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in an email to The Verge.
Read Article >Anthropic says it’ll try to keep its data centers from raising electricity costs
Anthropic is the latest AI company promising to limit the impact its data centers have on nearby residents’ electricity bills.
The company said it would pay higher monthly electricity charges in order to cover 100 percent of the upgrades needed to connect its data centers to power grids. “This includes the shares of these costs that would otherwise be passed onto consumers,” the announcement says.
Read Article >How an ‘icepocalypse’ raises more questions about Meta’s biggest data center project
Donna Collins lives about 20 miles from where Meta’s biggest data center is being built, in a house her family has lived in for five generations. Construction has thrown the small agricultural community in North Louisiana into the spotlight as a high-profile example of how the infrastructure behind generative AI could impact nearby residents.
For Collins, this place is “a little piece of heaven.” “It’s all I’ve ever known as a home. It’s quiet. It’s rural. It is beautiful,” she says. “We can’t imagine the changes that are coming.”
Read Article >Microsoft wants to rewire data centers to save space
Microsoft wants to design more efficient data centers using materials that allow electricity to flow with zero resistance. If these new materials, called high-temperature superconductors, can make it to market, Microsoft thinks it could be a game changer for how data centers and the energy infrastructure they connect to are built.
Tech companies are facing backlash over how much power generative AI demands, delays connecting to power grids that lack the infrastructure to meet those demands, and the impact construction of new data centers has on local residents. High-temperature superconductors (HTS) could potentially shrink the amount of space needed for a data center and the transmission lines feeding it power.
Read Article >New York is considering two bills to rein in the AI industry
New York’s state legislature is set to consider a pair of bills that would require labels on AI-generated content and would put a three-year pause on new data center construction.
The New York Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Requirements in News Act (NY FAIR News Act, for short) would require that any news “substantially composed, authored, or created through the use of generative artificial intelligence” carry a disclaimer. It would also require that any content created using AI be reviewed and approved by a human with “editorial control” before being published.
Read Article >Elon Musk is merging SpaceX and xAI to build data centers in space — or so he says
On Monday, Elon Musk announced that he was merging two of his companies, SpaceX and xAI, in a deal said to be worth $1.25 trillion. The reason, Musk said in an announcement, was that in order for AI to grow, it needed to go to space.
AI relies on “large terrestrial data centers” that run on “immense amounts of power and cooling,” he said, which comes at great expense to the environment and community opposition. The solution: data centers in space. “In the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale,” Musk said.
Read Article >It’s a new heyday for gas thanks to data centers
The US is now leading a global surge in new gas power plants being built in large part to satisfy growing energy demand for data centers. And more gas means more planet-heating pollution.
Gas-fired power generation in development globally rose by 31 percent in 2025. Almost a quarter of that added capacity is slated for the US, which has surpassed China with the biggest increase of any country. More than a third of that growth in the US is expected to directly power data centers, according to a recent analysis by the nonprofit Global Energy Monitor (GEM).
Read Article >Meta is spending millions to convince people that data centers are cool and you like them
Over the last few months of 2025, Meta spent $6.4 million on an ad campaign running in cities across the country, from Sacramento to Washington, with a clear mission: win over viewers on the construction of new data centers. As the New York Times reports, the ad campaign is anchored by short, folksy video spotlights on Meta’s data centers in Altoona, Iowa, and Los Lunas, New Mexico.
The ads make the case that Meta’s data centers create jobs, revitalizing rural communities.
Read Article >The winter storm tested power grids straining to accommodate AI data centers
The colossal winter storm that swept across 34 states left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity. Bitterly cold temperatures lingering after Winter Storm Fern are still testing power grids, already under stress from a rush of new AI data centers.
Over the weekend, wholesale electricity prices soared in Virginia, the state with the most data centers. And while that’s not surprising during a spike in energy demand for heating, it could add to the growing discontent over rising utility bills that has fueled opposition to data centers across the US. Utilities and grid operators were already hard-pressed to meet the increasing power needs of AI, which can make it even harder to prepare ahead of a weather disaster.
Read Article >OpenAI says its data centers will pay for their own energy and limit water usage
OpenAI says it will minimize water use and pay for energy infrastructure upgrades needed to power its data centers. “We’re being good neighbors,” the company said, directly addressing the growing opposition to AI projects amid rising utility bills.
“We commit to paying our own way on energy, so that our operations don’t increase your electricity prices,” OpenAI said. The company promised to work with local communities to minimize the impact of its Stargate data centers. OpenAI was not specific but said plans could involve securing its own energy supplies or paying for local grid upgrades.
Read Article >Microsoft scrambles to quell fury around its new AI data centers
It looks like the wave of campaigns against data centers are getting under big tech companies’ skin — and Microsoft is the latest giant to promise to address frustrations on the ground in communities around their data centers.
The company announced a five-point plan today that it calls “Community-First AI Infrastructure.” That includes paying more to try to prevent data center energy demands from raising other customers’ electricity bills, minimizing the company’s water use, training workers and creating jobs, and contributing to the local tax base in locations it operates.
Read Article >Communities are rising up against data centers — and winning
If there’s one thing Republicans and Democrats came together on in 2025 — at least at the local level — it was to stop big, energy-hungry data center projects.
For communities sick of rising electricity bills and pollution from power plants, data centers have become an obvious target. Fights against new data centers surged this year as grassroots groups, voters, and local lawmakers demanded more accountability from developers. Already, they’ve managed to block or stall tens of billions of dollars’ worth of potential investment in proposed data centers. And they’re not letting up.
Read Article >Billionaires want data centers everywhere, including space
Tech billionaires have been obsessed with space for a long time. Now, as the largest AI companies race to build more data centers in a frenzied pursuit of profitability, space is looking less like a pet project and more like a commercial opportunity. In 2025 alone, six proposals for giant AI data centers needing multiple gigawatts of power — a capacity only rumored of in 2024 — have been announced. Earthlings are catching on to the fact that power-hungry data centers take up land and water, while providing few jobs, too much pollution, and rising electricity costs.
Hence the idea to put the data centers in orbit around the Earth, not on the Earth. Space-based data centers — in the form of satellites with solar panels — are Big Tech’s latest fad and Silicon Valley’s newest investable venture. In space, they theorize, the sun’s unlimited rays could provide endless amounts of energy to power your latest AI-generated Sora video. But it’s not likely to be that easy.
Read Article >AI’s water and electricity use soars in 2025
AI created as much carbon pollution this year as New York City and guzzled up as much H20 as people consume globally in water bottles, according to new estimates.
The study paints what’s likely a pretty conservative picture of AI’s environmental impact since it’s based on the relatively limited amount of data that’s currently available to the public. A lack of transparency from tech companies makes it harder to see the potential environmental toll of AI becoming a part of everyday tasks, argues the author of the study who’s been tracking the electricity consumption of data centers used for AI and crypto mining over the years.
Read Article >Racks of AI chips are too damn heavy
In the span of a decade and a half, from 2010 to the end of 2024, the number of data centers in the US quadrupled. The trend is similar worldwide: more data centers, bigger, now or soon. The number of the construction projects of centers over 100 megawatts announced over the last four years total 377, according to data center certification and research agency Uptime Institute.
But before we allow Big Tech’s feverish race toward more compute, which environmentalists would not like us to allow, let us pause and consider another option: making do with what we have. Can we retrofit our current data centers to match the needs of our newest technology? Perhaps the building frenzy is not merited; perhaps we have all the facilities we need. A few upgrades here, some fresh servers over there, a new lick of paint, and voilà — an AI data center built from the shell of a legacy one.
Read Article >The scramble to launch data centers into space is heating up
A startup developing technologies to harness solar power in space is throwing its hat in with big tech companies attempting to build out data centers that orbit Earth. The US-based company, Aetherflux, announced on Tuesday that it plans to launch its first data center satellite in early 2027 — the first piece of a larger constellation of satellites it’s calling the “Galactic Brain.”
Tech companies are running into physical limits to their AI ambitions on Earth — namely needing more space and electricity for data centers. One potential solution they’re exploring is to try sending some of those data centers into orbit, where they could run on solar energy around-the-clock.
Read Article >Data center construction moratorium is gaining steam
More than 230 groups including Food & Water Watch, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Greenpeace are demanding a pause on the construction of any new data centers in the US until stronger regulations are in place to prevent soaring electricity rates, water use, and pollution.
“The rapid, largely unregulated rise of data centers to fuel the AI and crypto frenzy is disrupting communities across the country and threatening Americans’ economic, environmental, climate and water security,“ the groups say in a letter sent to Congress on Monday.
Read Article >Data centers in Oregon might be helping to drive an increase in cancer and miscarriages
Morrow County, Oregon, is home to mega farms and food processing plants. But it’s also home to several Amazon data centers. And now, some experts believe, that combination is leading to an alarmingly high concentration of nitrates in the drinking water that is driving up cancer and miscarriage rates in the area.
Rolling Stone’s exposé details how Amazon, despite not using any dangerous nitrates to cool its data centers, is accelerating the contamination of the Lower Umatilla Basin aquifer, which residents rely on for drinking water. It’s a combination of poor wastewater management, sandy soil, and good old physics that has led to nitrate concentrations in drinking water as high as 73 ppm (parts per million) in some wells, which is 10 times the state limit of 7 ppm and seven times the federal limit.
Read Article >Google is turning on the gas for its data centers
Google’s latest pledge to support a new clean energy technology is… a gas project? To be precise, it’s a gas-fired power plant outfitted with filtering devices to capture its planet-heating carbon emissions. Is this just a polluting fossil fuel project in sheep’s clothing?
Google just inked an agreement to support the development of a new gas-fired power plant in Illinois called the Broadwing Energy Center. It’ll be paired with carbon capture and storage (CCS), technology meant to filter carbon dioxide from smokestack emissions and then store it underground so that the greenhouse gas doesn’t build up in the atmosphere.
Read Article >Tech companies ‘be on alert,’ NAACP says with new guiding principles for data centers
One of the top civil rights organizations in the US is putting the tech industry “on alert,” issuing a call to action for communities to demand more accountability from companies building new data centers.
Electricity demand is rising in the US for the first time in nearly two decades, thanks in large part to massive new data centers that are being built to support advancements in AI. Utilities and some tech companies are increasingly meeting that demand with fossil fuels that worsen air quality and exacerbate the climate crisis — prompting the NAACP to issue “guiding principles” to help local community members to fight back.
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