In an earlier piece, I wrote about data centers as a convergence point of AI, Energy, Innovation, Sustainability, Regulation, and Activism.  Since that piece was published just a few weeks ago, a lot has happened:  Markets getting roiled by tariffs, hyperscaler announcements about “pullbacks” in data center investments, and the emergence of serious questions about the real business-value of AI.  Such changes in tone and rhetoric can be shocking to many but are in fact de rigeur in the entire history of technology.  The questions and concerns are real- and should be taken seriously- but reactive pendulum swings are typically the result of spleen-venting or short-term myopia.

Headlines rarely suggest the whole story.  We need details not only to understand what is going on but also to make informed decisions about resource and investment strategies going forward.  Just a few months ago, a group of large technology companies (Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, to name a few) made public announcements of huge investments in Data Centers- to power the world of AI.  The pledges of investment amounted to over $500 Billion in aggregate.  Though there was some speculation that these pledges were made around the inauguration to offer buoyancy to the new administration, there were several re-iterations made thereafter including Satya Nadella famously saying that he was “Good for his $80 Billion.” 

Headlines now talk of pullback from investments, broken leases, and reports of lower-than-expected adoption of AI in the enterprise- all signs that bode ill for data center investment.

Another perspective is that these signs suggest that gigantism might not be the way to go with data centers, that in fact these companies are looking at different models and more innovative architectures. PollyAnna-ish perhaps but a point of view that carries the day for many.

In fact, we simply do not know which interpretation is correct. It is yet too early.  I share a lot of AI skepticism and, further, share concerns about the energy consumption (and other environmental demerits) of data centers, but also realize that we are in large part locked-in to a heavy data and energy consumption pattern that doesn’t seem to abate even with knowledge of the effects.  So skepticism needs to be challenged into better solutions.

As such, we need to usher in a new energy stack and continue to innovate in data centers.  Can they be smaller? Can they be more energy efficient? Can their owners “play by the rules,” and pay their fair share?  Can we find an accommodation between innovation and speed on the one hand and regulation, safety, and sustainability on the other?

The questions are real. The answers are the result of collective intelligence and action.

That is why I am going to Data Center World.  To seek help in finding those answers.