this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2026
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Gas prices should increase the cost of running data centers but when did AI ever need a profitable business model
Data centers in Silicon Valley stand empty, awaiting power
One of the more curious artifacts of the recent surge in data center construction has been filling these megaliths with hardware and then... not plugging them in. Either because turning them on would flatten the local electrical grid or because they're loss-leaders for which data cycles only cost the company money.
So you've got this multi-billion dollar paper asset that wows investors while it gathers dust. And then you go off to build another one, because people will fling their unlimited borrowing power at you to reap another quarter of double-digit growth in speculative valuation.
It's okay, Trump signed that executive order telling them to provide their own power for data centers. Which means now our tax dollars won't just be used for data centers, they'll be used for power plants too. Another executive order or two and we'll see company towns come back.
Sure... maybe...
Part of the problem with power plant construction is that our production capacity is largely maxed out. If you want a new gas power plant, you go on a waiting list that's two years long (conservatively). Wind and Solar production are also at their domestic limit. Nuclear continues to be a pipe dream.
And, again, it cannot be overstressed that turning on a data center means a net-negative cash flow. These facilities cost more to operate than they earn, even under a ludicrously generous state contract. Why would you want to power them on these terms?
Hence the sarcasm dripping from my statement.
I think some people look at this arrangement and say "This is unsustainable, the cards have to come down at some point", because it is a fucking stupid way to run an economy.
But, like... the money keeps flowing. And it keeps flowing because the Fed and the Treasury are implicitly backstopping the malinvestment. And their pockets are functionally endless.
I wish you could just roll your eyes and make these abhorrent economic decisions stop. But I'm afraid these people might legit die trillionaires without a regret in the world (other than failing to solve Immortality Science with an LLM), because we've stacked the economic deck so high up in their favor.
The pockets might be endless, but if you keep pulling stuff out without something real going in you end up pulling out handfuls of lint and nothing else.
LintCoin's value is through the roof, though. You'd be a fool not to hand them all your boring old American dollars.
And don't even get me started on TulipCoin.
It’s gonna be company towns with only 8 or 9 residents though. And only 2-3 will actually go into the data center.
The power companies will just raise residential rates and cut the AI costs.