{"id":5539,"date":"2025-09-28T15:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T15:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/openai-new-data-centers-more-power-new-york-city\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T15:15:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T15:15:00","slug":"openai-new-data-centers-more-power-new-york-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/openai-new-data-centers-more-power-new-york-city\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI\u2019s New Data Centers Will Draw More Power Than the Entirety of New York City, Sam Altman Says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Earlier this week, OpenAI announced<\/a> a \u201cstrategic partnership\u201d with AI chipmaker Nvidia in which the duo of tech giants will build and deploy upwards of 10 gigawatts of AI data centers.<\/p>\n

Nvidia will invest up to $100 billion in the project, an enormous project that could end up requiring an astronomical amount of electricity<\/a> to run.<\/p>\n

As Fortune<\/em> reports<\/a>, the planned data centers would consume as much as the entire city of New York City \u2014 and the Sam Altman-led company isn\u2019t stopping there. Existing projects tied to president Donald Trump\u2019s Stargate<\/a> initiative could add another seven gigawatts, or roughly as much as San Diego used during last year\u2019s devastating heat wave.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen gigawatts is more than the peak power demand in Switzerland or Portugal,\u201d Cornell University energy-systems engineering professor Fengqi You told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cSeventeen gigawatts is like powering both countries together.\u201d<\/p>\n

OpenAI and tech giant Oracle already have an enormous Stargate data center in Abilene, Texas, which draws enough electricity to power half a million homes<\/a>. Five new projects are expected to total seven gigawatts, as part of Trump\u2019s half-a-trillion-dollar AI data center initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an almost unfathomable escalation in the power usage of AI \u2014 and computing as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s scary because\u2026 now [computing] could be 10 percent or 12 percent of the world\u2019s power by 2030,\u201d University of Chicago professor of computer science Andrew Chien told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cWe\u2019re coming to some seminal moments for how we think about AI and its impact on society.\u201d<\/p>\n

To the AI industry, it\u2019s all part of the plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything starts with compute,\u201d Altman said in a statement<\/a> accompanying its Nvidia partnership announcement. \u201cCompute infrastructure will be the basis for the economy of the future, and we will utilize what we\u2019re building with NVIDIA to both create new AI breakthroughs and empower people and businesses with them at scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

The industry\u2019s doubling down on building out AI infrastructure has been accompanied by major environmental concerns<\/a>, with tech giants admitting that they\u2019re falling far short of their own carbon emission goals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the tech\u2019s exact carbon footprint remains elusive<\/a>, AI data centers are putting a major strain<\/a> on local water supplies to keep hardware cool. <\/p>\n

Additional pressure on power grids will also lead to a rise in carbon dioxide emissions, unless the AI industry finds a way to pivot to renewable energy sources in a meaningful way. You told Fortune<\/em> that it may eventually become inevitable for companies to switch to nuclear plants, which could \u201ctake years to permit and build.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the short term, they\u2019ll have to rely on renewables, natural gas, and maybe retrofitting older plants,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

As companies continue to pour tens of billions of dollars<\/a> into infrastructure buildouts, the tech\u2019s carbon footprint is expected to grow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an unfortunate reality that the industry will have to reckon with one way or the other, especially considering the ongoing human-activity-fueled climate crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told us these data centers were going to be clean and green,\u201d Chien told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cBut in the face of AI growth, I don\u2019t think they can be. Now is the time to hold their feet to the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on AI energy usage: <\/strong>Researchers Just Found Something Extremely Alarming About AI\u2019s Power Usage<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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The post OpenAI\u2019s New Data Centers Will Draw More Power Than the Entirety of New York City, Sam Altman Says<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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