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> In an October letter to the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recommended that the US add 100 gigawatts in energy c
by myaccountonhn 11mo ago
> In an October letter to the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recommended that the US add 100 gigawatts in energy capacity every year.
> Krishna also referenced the depreciation of the AI chips inside data centers as another factor: "You've got to use it all in five years because at that point, you've got to throw it away and refill it," he said.
And people think the climate concerns of AI are overblown. Currently US has ~1300 GW of energy capacity. That's a huge increase each year.
- coliveira 11mo agoScam Altman wants the US to build a lot of energy plants so that the country will pay the costs and OpenAI will have the profits of using this cheap energy.
- jamesbelchamber 11mo agoIf we moron our way to large-scale nuclear and renewable energy rollout however..
- mywittyname 11mo agoI highly doubt this will happen. It will be natural gas all the way, maybe some coal as energy prices will finally make it profitable again.
- emodendroket 11mo agoIf for no other reason than they're actively attacking renewable capacity even amid surging demand
- mrguyorama 11mo agoThis admin has already killed as much solar and wind and battery as it can. The only large scale rollout will be payment platforms that will allow you to split your energy costs into "Five easy payments"
- tehjoker 11mo agoThere's a reason Trump is talking about invading Venezuela (hint: it's because they have the largest oil deposits).
- venturecruelty 11mo agoGuess who's going to pay nothing for power? Hint: it's not you, and it's not me.
- ryandrake 11mo agoLOL, maybe Sam Altman can fund those power plants. Let me guess: He'd rather the public pay for it, and for him to benefit/profit from the increased capacity.
- intrasight 11mo agoBig tech is going to have to fund the plants and probably transmission. Because the energy utilities have a decades long planning horizon for investments. Good discussion about this in recent Odd Lots podcast.
- kelnos 11mo agoI've read a bunch of the opposite: a lot of secret deals between tech companies and utilities, where when details come out, we find that regular ratepayers are going to be paying a decent chunk of the cost.
- intrasight 11mo agoThat was discussed in the Odd Lots episode as well. But that can only happen in unregulated markets.
- Capricorn2481 11mo agoGood discussion? This is a Bloomberg podcast with ads from Palantir explicitly telling us AI is not here to replace any of us. They do everything they can to avoid the topic of what the cost is to regular people. Data centers are built in people's backyards without their permission, wreck the values of their home, and then utility companies jack up their price to compensate for the extra strain on the grid. So the residents have to pay for Big Tech but get no share of the profits. How this podcast does a whole episode on data centers and the electricity grid and doesn't talk about what's actually happening to people, well, that would be surprising if I didn't know where it came from.
- throwaway31131 11mo ago100GW per year is not going to happen. The largest plant in the world is the Three Gorges Dam in China at 22GW and it’s off the scales huge. We’re not building the equivalent of four of those every year. Unless the plan is to power it off Sam Altman’s hot air. That could work. :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_power_stations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_power_stations
- bpicolo 11mo agoAmazing that 4 of the top 5 are renewables in China.
- mrexroad 11mo ago> As of 2025, The Medog Dam, currently under construction on the Yarlung Tsangpo river in Mêdog County, China, expected to be completed by 2033, is planned to have a capacity of 60 GW, three times that of the Three Gorges Dam.[3] Meanwhile, “drill baby drill!”
- nrhrjrjrjtntbt 11mo agoCan run the UK and have capacity left over that, if considered alone, would be worlds highest in current year 2025.
- tempest_ 11mo agoNot really that surprising. Authoritarianism has its draw backs obviously but one of its more efficient points is it can get things done if the will is at the top. Since China doesnt have a large domestic oil supply like the US it is a state security issue to get off oil as fast as possible.
- VerminOctopus1 11mo agoIt’s become clear that some form of top down total technocratic control like China has implemented is essential for pushing humanity forward.