A Tiny British Startup (Fluid Stack) Helping Google Take On Nvidia Is Now Worth $18 Billion

Recommendable!

(242) A Tiny Startup Helping Google Take On Nvidia Is Now Worth $18 Billion - YouTube

Putin the Terrible Says Russia is Planning to Build AI Data Centers and new power generation facilities in the Arctic

Good news! One way to deal with the not in my backyard protests against data centers (NIMBY)! 😊

Why not in Siberia?

Out of sight out of mind comes to mind!

"New power generation facilities are set to appear in the Arctic, including small nuclear power plants, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), adding that there are also plans to establish data processing centers in the Arctic and the Far East. ..."

Putin Says Russia Planning to Build AI Data Centers in the Arctic "Russian strongman Vladimir Putin described a plan on Thursday to build networks of data storage and processing centers in the country’s Arctic, alongside “small nuclear power plants” developed to feed the data centers energy. ..."

New energy facilities to be built in Arctic — Putin (original news release by TASS)

Elon Musk Warns Against AI Regulation, Predicts 1 Billion Humanoid Robots in 10 years and 5 times more productive than humans at G20 Ministerial

Recommendable! Elon looks a little bit old!

He makes some startling predictions e.g. that by next year AI software development will beat any human.

He thinks the energy shortfall in AI is very serious and may become very obvious as soon as next year.

(245) Elon Musk Warns Against AI Regulation, Predicts 1 Billion Humanoid Robots at G20 Ministerial | AI1N - YouTube

US natural gas is helping to directly power the data center boom in the US and more

Good news! US dominates the worldwide development of natural gas power capacity by far!

Notice the usual complaints by new media about the additional greenhouse gases! The greenhouse gas narrative is so phony!

"US gas-fired generating capacity currently under construction reached 52 gigawatts by mid-2026, up 76 percent in just six months, according to Global Energy Monitor, a nonprofit that tracks global energy infrastructure. 

At least 16.9 gigawatts of that capacity is being built to directly power data centers, which are increasingly building their own power plants to avoid lengthy waits for connections to the electrical grid."

Doomslayer: Progress Roundup - by Malcolm Cochran

US Data Centers Are Driving a Surge in Gas-Fired Power Projects

U.S. gas power proposals tied to data centers nearly double in six months "Driven by rapid data center expansion, U.S. gas-fired power capacity in development jumped 50% to 378 GW, with Texas leading the push."

What are the consequences of data center gigantism?

If I am not wrong there is strong trend to build more data centers across the globe. However, size matters here. The bigger the data center, the more protest from the local population etc. is to be expected.

Be modest is perhaps a good advice developing much needed data centers.

Chart of the day

Source? 

New York State halts construction of all new data centers

Sounds like a stupid move by a Dimocratic Party governor!

What about e.g. the financial industry in NY and NYC? Perhaps, they would like datacenters in proximity.

"New York became the first state to halt data center construction after Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order today that temporarily bars the state from approving new permits for large projects. ..."

New York State halts construction of all new data centers | TechCrunch

Amazon stuck with months of repairs after drone strikes by Iran on data centers in the Middle East

Bad news! First undersea cables, now datacenters are the very vulnerable assets/infrastructure/targets of modern human progress!

One more reason why humanity can no longer tolerate megalomaniacs and warmongers like Putin the Terrible or religious fanatics and sponsors of suicidal terrorism like the mullahs of Iran!

"Amazon’s cloud customers will need to wait several more months before the US tech company can repair war-damaged data centers and restore normal operations in the Middle East. The announcement comes two months after Iranian drone strikes targeted three Amazon data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain—meaning that full recovery from the cloud disruption could take nearly half a year in all.

The Amazon Web Services (AWS) dashboard posted an April 30 update describing how its UAE and Bahrain cloud regions “suffered damage as a result of the conflict in the Middle East” and are unable to support customer applications. The update also said that “relevant billing operations are currently suspended while we restore normal operations” in a process that “is expected to take several months.”"

Amazon stuck with months of repairs after drone strikes on data centers - Ars Technica

Warum Europas KI-Pläne am Strom scheitern

Kein Wunder! Mit Windmühlen und Solarzellen ist der Bedarf nicht zu decken!

Europa und insbesondere die Bananenrepublik D ernten was sie säten mit dem Klimawahn (auch euphemistisch und fälschlich genannt Klimaneutralität)!

Wenn der Strombedarf von data centers/Rechenzentren nicht deutlich reduziert werden kann sieht die EU alt aus!

"... Es klafft eine Stromlücke von 80 TWh (finnischer Jahresstrombedarf 2025: 85 TWh), so Matilde Ciani vom Kiel Institut für Weltwirtschaft im neuen Kiel Policy Brief, sollte die EU wirklich ihre Ausbauziele für neue KI-Rechenzentren bis 2030 umsetzen können. ..."

"• Das globale Rennen um die KI-Führerschaft hat begonnen, und Europa versucht, vorne mitzuspielen. Es besteht jedoch eine deutliche Diskrepanz zwischen der Planung von Rechenzentrumskapazitäten und der Stromversorgungsplanung in der EU.

• Trotz ambitionierter Pläne droht die EU im globalen KI-Rennen weiter zurückzufallen: China will seine Rechenzentrumskapazität bis 2030 verdreifachen, die Vereinigten Staaten sind dabei, sie zu verdoppeln, wodurch Europa mit deutlich geringeren Anteilen an der globalen Kapazität zurückbleibt.

• Der Strombedarf der EU-Rechenzentren wird sich in den nächsten fünf Jahren voraussichtlich verdoppeln, von etwa 80 auf 168 TWh. Die obere Grenze dieses Bereichs entspricht dem gesamten Elektrizitätsbedarf einer europäischen Industrienation, beispielsweise dem Bedarf von Polen im Jahr 2024. Der Anteil des gesamten EU-Strombedarfs, der auf Rechenzentren entfällt, wird daher rasch von rund 2% im Jahr 2023 auf rund 5% im Jahr 2030 ansteigen.

• Die Deckung des zusätzlichen Strombedarfs, der durch Rechenzentren entstehen wird, ist nur möglich, wenn der Verbrauch der übrigen Wirtschaftsbereiche weit gehend konstant bleibt. Dies ist jedoch unwahrscheinlich, da der Bedarf auch in anderen Sektoren steigen wird, insbesondere im Wohnungsmarkt (Wärmepumpen) und im Verkehrssektor (Elektrofahrzeuge).

• Bis 2030 entsteht dadurch eine erhebliche Lücke zwischen Strombedarf und verfügbarer Elektrizität, die dem Netto-Stromverbrauch von Ländern wie Belgien oder Finnland im Jahr 2024 entspricht. Ohne vorausschauende Planung droht der Europäischen Union ein gefährliches Trilemma: Sie müsste zwischen Wachstum, Klimaneutralität [???] und einer führenden Rolle im KI-Rennen abwägen.

..."

Warum Europas KI-Pläne am Strom scheitern "Der KI-Boom frisst so viel Strom wie ganz Finnland – und die EU hat keinen Plan, woher die Energie kommen soll. Eine neue Studie des Kiel Instituts zeigt eine Lücke von 80 TWh bis 2030."

Auf dem Weg ins Debakel: Die Diskrepanz zwischen dem KI-Anspruch der EU und ihrer Energieplanung.

Iranian attacks U.S. data centers in two Gulf states, a first in war

 Bad news!

"Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched coordinated drone attacks on Amazon Web Services data centers across the UAE and Bahrain early Sunday morning, striking what appears to be the first deliberate military targeting of commercial datacenter infrastructure. An Iranian Shahed 136 drone hit an AWS facility in the UAE, triggering a devastating fire and power shutdown; follow-up strikes hit additional datacenters. The attacks disrupted services for millions of residents—payment apps, food delivery, and banking systems failed across Dubai and Abu Dhabi, although the military impact remains unclear. Iranian state media claimed the strikes targeted facilities supporting US military and intelligence operations. ..."

The Batch, Data Points

Disclaimer:
I am currently blogging from behind the Great Firewall of China.
My Internet service in China is very spotty. Thus, I am not able to blog as usual.

Uganda pushes to become Africa’s AI hub with water power

Good news!

RF Over Fiber: A New Era in Data Center Efficiency

Recommendable! Better ML & AI requires better cables in the data center.

"Summary

• In data-center terms, scaling out involves linking computers, while scaling up packs more GPUs into a computer, challenging copper’s physical limits.
• Copper cables face a phenomenon at high data rates that necessitate wider wires and more power, complicating a data center’s dense connections.
• Point2 and AttoTude propose radio-based cables, offering longer reach, lower power consumption, and narrower cables than copper, without the cost and complexity of optics.
• Startups aim to directly integrate radio cables with GPUs, easing cooling needs and enhancing data-center efficiency.

...

In data-center terms, scaling out means increasing how many AI computers you can link together to tackle a big problem in chunks.

Scaling up, on the other hand, means jamming as many GPUs as possible into each of those computers, linking them so that they act like a single gigantic GPU, and allowing them to do bigger pieces of a problem faster.

The two domains rely on two different physical connections.

Scaling out mostly relies on photonic chips and optical fiber, which together can sling data hundreds or thousands of meters.

Scaling up, which results in networks that are roughly 10 times as dense, is the domain of much simpler and less costly technology—copper cables that often span no more than a meter or two. ...

Later this year, Point2 will begin manufacturing the chips behind a 1.6-terabit-per-second cable consisting of eight slender polymer waveguides, each capable of carrying 448 gigabits per second using two frequencies, 90 gigahertz and 225 GHz. At each end of the waveguide are plug-in modules that turn electronic bits into modulated radio waves and back again. AttoTude is planning essentially the same thing, but at terahertz frequencies and with a different kind of svelte, flexible cable."

RF Over Fiber: A New Era in Data Center Efficiency - IEEE Spectrum "Radio and terahertz links could be better, faster, and cheaper"

Point2’s cables are made up of eight e-Tube fibers, each carrying more than 200 gigabits of data per second.Point2 Technology

 A 1.6-terabit-per-second e-Tube cable has half the area of a 32-gauge copper cable and has up to 20 times the reach. Point2 Technology

Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 rack-scale computer relies on many copper cables to link its 72 processors together. Lot's of cables!

Google plans to begin testing solar-powered data centers in space by 2027. Really!

I am not sure this is a great idea! 

How much junk is already out there floating in orbit around the earth? 

How will the data be transferred back and forth?

"... CEO Sundar Pichai said in a Fox News interview on Sunday that Google will soon begin construction of AI data centers in space. The tech giant announced Project Suncatcher earlier this month, with the goal of finding more efficient ways to power energy-guzzling centers, in this case with solar power. ..."

Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - Join The Flyover

Google CEO Sundar Pichai says we’re just a decade away from a new normal of extraterrestrial data centers

Why Big Tech Companies Want to Build AI Data Centres in Space? with Palki Sharma

Palki did not even address how the data will be transferred back and forth. I suspect, it is a folly idea!

China Powers AI Boom with Undersea wind-powered Data Centers

Amazing stuff! Why not heat up the oceans? What could possibly go wrong!

I am not sure what would happen if this was done on a global scale by dozens or more countries.

"... Many companies have sited their data centers in some of the driest regions of the world, including Arizona, parts of Spain, and the Middle East, because dry air reduces the risks of damage to the equipment from humidity ... Partly to address water concerns, China is now putting a data center in the wettest place there is: the ocean. This June construction began on a wind-powered underwater data center about six miles off the coast of Shanghai, one of China’s AI hubs. ...

Instead undersea data centers use pipes to pump seawater through a radiator on the back of server racks to absorb heat and carry it away. ...

The project’s first phase is designed to contain 198 server racks—enough to hold 396 to 792 AI-capable servers—and is slated to begin operation in September ...

a technology that Microsoft pioneered more than a decade ago under an effort called Project Natick, in which the company sank a shipping-container-sized capsule holding more than 800 servers 117 feet below the surface off the coast of Scotland. After hauling up the pod two years later, Microsoft found that underwater data centers “are reliable, practical and use energy sustainably.” ...

The undersea data center concept seems to have growing appeal beyond China. Countries including South Korea have also announced plans to pursue them, while Japan and Singapore are mulling data centers that float on the ocean’s surface instead. ..."

China Powers AI Boom with Undersea Data Centers | Scientific American "China is pulling ahead of the rest of the world in sinking data centers that power AI into the ocean as an alternate way to keep them cool"

The underwater data center pictured here was a pilot project off the coast of Hainan. Another, more advanced, one is now being built off Shanghai. Shanghai Hailanyun Technology

Amazon’s Constellation of new data centers costing $100 billion this year alone

Good news (but aged)!

"Amazon revealed new details of its plan to build a constellation of massive data centers and connect them into an “ultracluster.” Customer Number One: Anthropic.

What’s new: Dubbed Project Rainier, the plan calls for Amazon to build seven next-generation data centers — with up to 30 on the drawing board — near New Carlisle, Indiana, ... Still other data centers will be located in Mississippi, and possibly in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, contributing to an expected $100 billion in capital expenditures this year alone. These plans complement the company’s previously announced intention to spend $11 billion worth on data centers in the United Kingdom by 2028. ...

The data centers will be based on Amazon-designed Trainium 2 and upcoming Trainium 3 processors, which are optimized to process large transformers, rather than processors from industry leader Nvidia or challenger AMD. Trainium 2 delivers lower performance but greater energy efficiency, and Trainium 3 will deliver 4 times greater performance while using 60 percent as much energy ...

using a network interface of its own design, Elastic Fabric Adapter, rather than interconnect technologies typically used by its competitors."

Amazon’s $100 Billion Bet, Meta’s Sensor-Packed Glasses, Anthropic’s Reason-Free Reasoning, Google’s Extreme Weather Prediction

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego calls for an end to tax breaks for data centers

Seems understandable! Less than 8 million people live in Arizona.

Thanks to reliable nuclear power!

According to Google search: "There are 133 data centers located in Arizona. These data centers are distributed across the state, with a significant concentration in the Phoenix area, which accounts for 125 of the total. In addition to Phoenix, there are also data centers in Tucson and Nogales.  ..."

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego calls for an end to tax breaks for data centers - Phoenix Business Journal

OpenAI, Oracle to Help UAE Develop gigantic Data Center to be one of the largest in the world

Good news! Wow!

"[OpenAI] is expected to be one of the primary anchor tenants for a recently announced 5-gigawatt data center campus in Abu Dhabi ...

Oracle Corp (ORCL). is also involved in the project, two people said, and will help develop at least part of the first phase of the Abu Dhabi campus. ...

Once completed, the sprawling facility would cover 10 square miles ..."

OpenAI, Oracle to Help UAE Develop Massive Data Center

Laser cooling for high density processors may significantly reduce power consumption and improve performance in data centers

Good news!

"... We've previously seen laser cooling methods being used to chill antimatter, aid in biological research, and to study quantum phenomena. Together with researchers at the University of New Mexico, this team is working on a completely new technology called laser-based photonic cooling. ...

Data center chips are typically cooled using cold water that flows through microscopic channels in copper plates mounted on top of the processors. The scientists are taking a totally different approach. They intend to create a photonic cold plate with tiny features, about a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair, to channel cooling lasers to target hotspots. ..."

"... Because laser light will heat up impurities, erasing any cooling effect, the cold plate needs to have extremely pure, thin layers of crystalline gallium arsenide, also known as epitaxial layers, to work. ..."

"... development of a photonic cold plate designed to replace or complement traditional air- and water-based cooling systems. By harnessing laser light to target and cool localized hot spots on chips – such as GPUs – the technology aims to reduce power consumption, improve efficiency, and enable energy recovery paradigms not possible with conventional methods. ...

“A successful project will not only address the immediate need for energy savings but also pave the way for processors to operate at performance levels that were previously thought impossible,” ...

Under the CRADA [Cooperative Research and Development Agreement], Maxwell Labs will provide the technical designs, Sandia Labs will fabricate highly pure gallium arsenide-based devices using its expertise in molecular beam epitaxy, and UNM will evaluate the thermal performance of the resulting systems. ..."

Laser cooling could make data centers more energy efficient

A surprise contender for cooling computers: lasers (original news release) "One company says lasers may save energy and water. Sandia Labs is helping test the idea"

Maxwell Labs Announces Cooperative Research & Development Agreement With Sandia Labs and the University of New Mexico to Demonstrate Laser Cooling for High Density Processors (original news release)

UAE to invest billions to build a massive AI data center in France at a cost of about $40 billion

Good news! Praise to reliable and cost effective nuclear power!

"A few days ahead of the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, the French presidency has announced the first of several expected financial initiatives related to AI. France’s Emmanuel Macron and the United Arab Emirates’ Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan have signed an agreement for a significant investment to build a massive data center dedicated to artificial intelligence in France.

According to a report from the AFP, France and the UAE could spend “€30 to €50 billion” ($31 to $52 billion at current exchange rates) to build an AI campus. Most of the investment would go toward a data center with a capacity of up to 1GW. ..."

UAE to invest billions to build AI data center in France | TechCrunch