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> Dell is in the AI biz now? No more so than the concrete contractor that poured the slab the datacenter is built on, it sounds like.
by Arrath 2y ago
> Dell is in the AI biz now?
No more so than the concrete contractor that poured the slab the datacenter is built on, it sounds like.
- JSDevOps 2y agoConcrete is revolutionizing the AI industry by making sure our robots have a solid foundation to stand on.
- falcor84 2y agoFor what it's worth, I recall a talk by someone at Google, probably about a decade ago, saying that their bottleneck for scaling compute was literally how long it takes to pour concrete for new data centers. I suppose that might have been an exaggeration, but it stuck with me.
- HeatrayEnjoyer 2y agoI wonder if it would be quicker to acquire existing centers or warehouses.
- mrbungie 2y agoThey still will need a lot of materials for adapting those buildings for higher cooling and power needs.
- Arrath 2y agoIt would all come down to the Cost Benefit Analysis, whether retrofitting an e.g. unused warehouse or misc. industrial space to be a datacenter would be more cost effective/time efficient than a brand new building with all the general civil construction & site work that would entail before you even have four walls and a roof.
- mrbungie 2y agoSurely concrete is going to be hell of a constraint for both compute (datacenters) and power for said compute (power plants). And also expect for higher water usage. Interesting times ahead.