4 ms·

Today I heard some US official going on about how it's ideal for datacenters. Presumably the B200s will be brought in via dogsled. US has absolutely lost the

by Havoc 10mo ago

Today I heard some US official going on about how it's ideal for datacenters. Presumably the B200s will be brought in via dogsled. US has absolutely lost the plot

deepsun 10mo ago
"Politics is an art of distraction" (c) All the fuss and constant bombardment of tweets is to distract from the Epstein files. And it works very well!
moogly 10mo ago
Not to mention the energy needed. Greenland does not even have a national grid. Lots of untapped hydro but that's not something you build in a fortnight.
- HarHarVeryFunny 10mo ago
  Right, there is potential for energy everywhere, some location specific (hydro, geothermal, solar, wind), and some less so (nuclear, coal, gas). The quickest (shortest lead time) solution is to do what xAI did and use on-site natural gas generators. It's interesting that at some point datacenters in space also become viable, which sounds absurd, but since the need for FLOPS and power is immediate, space and Greenland have to be far down the list of places to choose to build. Right now you build where the lead time for power capacity of some sort is shortest.
wolvoleo 10mo ago
It probably is pretty good for datacenters. You would save a ton on cooling cost. And CO2 footprint as a result. Not that current US cares about that but the rest of the world does. And you don't have to own a country to put datacenters there. Simply investing there will bring jobs and money for the inhabitants, will make profit for the investor, it's a win win. Forcibly taking it over will make a lot of enemies and disruption to trade. It will make less profit overall, especially once the population starts destroying your company assets, connection lines etc. Not to mention all the second tier effects in global lost trust from trading partners. But Trump just looks at that big map and goes "This will be MINE". Is it really about more than that?
- inkysigma 10mo ago
  I don't think the environment being cool is a factor in current data center designs is it? Otherwise, the northern US or Alaska would be candidates. Instead, a lot of the data center boom is in states like Texas or the south. I think some interviewer with Trump did actually ask him the question you posed and he said something to the effect of "ownership is important" for him _personally_ not necessarily for the _US_ which is the a ridiculous thing to hear from a leader of a country.
  - wolvoleo 10mo ago
    > I don't think the environment being cool is a factor in current data center designs is it? Otherwise, the northern US or Alaska would be candidates. Instead, a lot of the data center boom is in states like Texas or the south. It is increasingly becoming so. And some designs work well. I only read a post about the internet archive's smart use of the server heat a couple days ago, I can't find it back now. And indeed, good point. Alaska would be great for that too. And the US is kinda an exception, the rest of the world is watching emissions but the US is trying to screw the world up for everyone else. Including themselves but Trump followers seem to view all the disasters as an 'act of god'. I remember those poor school kids in the flooding in texas last year and there being more 'thoughts and prayers' than actual help or prevention. I know Ireland is popular for datacenters in part because of the climate there (in another big part all the tax breaks but ok). And yes you can cool them with renewable energy. Most datacenters are. But it also means that renewable energy can't be used for something else.
  - MrDresden 10mo ago
    Iceland based data centers are able to cut their energy usage for cooling by 24-31% compared to US/UK equivalent due to the climate [0]. [0]: https://eandt.theiet.org/2022/12/12/iceland-coolest-location-data-centres https://eandt.theiet.org/2022/12/12/iceland-coolest-location...
  - pseudohadamard 10mo ago
    >I think some interviewer with Trump did actually ask him the question you posed and he said something to the effect of "ownership is important" for him _personally_ not necessarily for the _US_ Does he actually know the difference between "mine" and "the US'" though? I was under the assumption that since the US is his, anything important for him is also important for the US, and vice versa.

by Havoc 10mo ago

Today I heard some US official going on about how it's ideal for datacenters. Presumably the B200s will be brought in via dogsled. US has absolutely lost the plot

deepsun 10mo ago

"Politics is an art of distraction" (c) All the fuss and constant bombardment of tweets is to distract from the Epstein files. And it works very well!

moogly 10mo ago

Not to mention the energy needed. Greenland does not even have a national grid. Lots of untapped hydro but that's not something you build in a fortnight.

HarHarVeryFunny 10mo ago
Right, there is potential for energy everywhere, some location specific (hydro, geothermal, solar, wind), and some less so (nuclear, coal, gas). The quickest (shortest lead time) solution is to do what xAI did and use on-site natural gas generators. It's interesting that at some point datacenters in space also become viable, which sounds absurd, but since the need for FLOPS and power is immediate, space and Greenland have to be far down the list of places to choose to build. Right now you build where the lead time for power capacity of some sort is shortest.

wolvoleo 10mo ago

It probably is pretty good for datacenters. You would save a ton on cooling cost. And CO2 footprint as a result. Not that current US cares about that but the rest of the world does. And you don't have to own a country to put datacenters there. Simply investing there will bring jobs and money for the inhabitants, will make profit for the investor, it's a win win. Forcibly taking it over will make a lot of enemies and disruption to trade. It will make less profit overall, especially once the population starts destroying your company assets, connection lines etc. Not to mention all the second tier effects in global lost trust from trading partners. But Trump just looks at that big map and goes "This will be MINE". Is it really about more than that?

inkysigma 10mo ago
I don't think the environment being cool is a factor in current data center designs is it? Otherwise, the northern US or Alaska would be candidates. Instead, a lot of the data center boom is in states like Texas or the south. I think some interviewer with Trump did actually ask him the question you posed and he said something to the effect of "ownership is important" for him _personally_ not necessarily for the _US_ which is the a ridiculous thing to hear from a leader of a country.
- wolvoleo 10mo ago
  > I don't think the environment being cool is a factor in current data center designs is it? Otherwise, the northern US or Alaska would be candidates. Instead, a lot of the data center boom is in states like Texas or the south. It is increasingly becoming so. And some designs work well. I only read a post about the internet archive's smart use of the server heat a couple days ago, I can't find it back now. And indeed, good point. Alaska would be great for that too. And the US is kinda an exception, the rest of the world is watching emissions but the US is trying to screw the world up for everyone else. Including themselves but Trump followers seem to view all the disasters as an 'act of god'. I remember those poor school kids in the flooding in texas last year and there being more 'thoughts and prayers' than actual help or prevention. I know Ireland is popular for datacenters in part because of the climate there (in another big part all the tax breaks but ok). And yes you can cool them with renewable energy. Most datacenters are. But it also means that renewable energy can't be used for something else.
- MrDresden 10mo ago
  Iceland based data centers are able to cut their energy usage for cooling by 24-31% compared to US/UK equivalent due to the climate [0]. [0]: https://eandt.theiet.org/2022/12/12/iceland-coolest-location-data-centres https://eandt.theiet.org/2022/12/12/iceland-coolest-location...
- pseudohadamard 10mo ago
  >I think some interviewer with Trump did actually ask him the question you posed and he said something to the effect of "ownership is important" for him _personally_ not necessarily for the _US_ Does he actually know the difference between "mine" and "the US'" though? I was under the assumption that since the US is his, anything important for him is also important for the US, and vice versa.