A complex of data centers in Ashburn, Va. Photo by Gerville, Getty Images.

By Paige Gross
Indiana Capital Chronicle

INDIANAPOLIS — The next time you’re on a Zoom meeting or asking ChatGPT a question, picture this: The information zips instantaneously through a room of hot, humming servers, traveling hundreds, possibly thousands of miles, before it makes its way back to you in just a second or two.

It can be hard to wrap your mind around, said Vijay Gadepally, a senior scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory, but large data centers are where nearly all artificial intelligence systems and computing happens today.

As the United States works to be a global AI superpower, it’s become a home to hundreds of data centers — buildings that store and maintain the physical equipment needed to compute information.

For users of the new and increasingly popular AI tools, it might seem like the changes have been all online, without a physical footprint. But the rise of AI has tangible effects — data centers and the physical infrastructure needed to run them use large amounts of energy, water and other resources, experts say.

The Rise Of Data Centers

Large language models, or LLMs, and machine learning, or ML technologies — the foundation of most modern AI tools — have been used by technologists for decades, but only in the last five to seven years have they become commercialized and used by the general public, said David Acosta, cofounder and chief artificial intelligence officer of ARBOai.

To train and process information, these fast-learning AI models require graphic processing units, or GPUs, servers, storage, cabling and other networking equipment, all housed in data centers across the country.

Current AI models use thousands of GPUs to operate, and training a single chatbot like ChatGPT uses about the same amount of energy as 100 homes over the course of a year.

The United States is currently home to more than 3,600 data centers, but about 80% of them are concentrated in 15 states, Data Center Map shows. The market has doubled since 2020, Forbes reported, with 21% year over year growth. For many years, nearly all of the country’s data centers were housed in Virginia, and the state is considered a global hub with nearly 70% of the world’s internet traffic flowing through its nearly 600 centers. Texas and California follow Virginia, with 336 and 307 centers, respectively.

Tech companies that require large amounts of computing power, the private equity firms and banks that invest in them and other real estate or specialized firms are the primary funders of data centers. In September, BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners, Microsoft and AI investment fund MGX invested $30 billion into new and expanded data centers primarily in the U.S, and said they will seek $100 billion in total investment, including debt financing.

Investment in American data center infrastructure is encouraging considering the global “AI arms race,” we’re in, Acosta said.

Energy And Environmental Impact

Current estimates say data centers are responsible for about 2% of the U.S.’ energy demand, but Anthony DeOrsey, a research manager at sustainable energy research firm Cleantech group, projects data centers will be about 10% of demand by 2027.

The shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant’s owner, Constellation Energy, plans to spend $1.6 billion to refurbish the reactor that it closed five years ago and restart it by 2028 after Microsoft recently agreed to buy as much electricity as the plant can produce for the next 20 years to power its growing fleet of data centers. Photo by Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images.

The development of data centers brings some infrastructure jobs to an area, and in busy data center communities, like Virginia’s Loudoun and Prince William counties, centers can generate millions in tax revenue, the Virginia Mercury reported.

Local governments can be eager to strike deals with the tech companies or private equity firms seeking to build, but the availability and cost of power is a primary concern. New large data centers require the electricity equivalent of about 750,000 homes, a February report from sustainability consultancy firm BSI and real estate services firm CBRE.

Under many state’s utilities structures, local residents can be subjected to electric price increases to meet big electric needs of data centers.

But climate experts have concerns about data centers outside of their power demand.

The equipment in data centers, many of which run 24/7, generate a lot of heat. To regulate temperature, most pump water through tubing surrounding the IT equipment, and use air conditioning systems to keep those structures cool. About 40% of data center’s energy consumption is used for cooling, the Cleantech group found.

Some have a closed-loop system, recycling grey water through the same system, but many use fresh drinking water.

Is There A Sustainable Future For Data Centers?

Energy is now a material issue to running an AI company, DeOrsey said, and unrestrained, quickly evolving AI models are very expensive to train and operate.

Radium Cloud’s newest data center in Raleigh, North Carolina. Photo from Vijay Gadepally.

For Gadepally, who is also chief tech officer of AI company Radium Cloud, this selective optimization is a tool he hopes more companies begin using.

Gadepally said simple switches like using cheaper, less-robust AI models cut down on their energy use. Using AI models at off-peak times saved money, as did “power capping” or limiting the amount of power feeding their computer processors. The difference was nominal — you may wait a second or two more to get an answer back from a chatbot, for example.

Gadepally and Acosta both spoke about localizing AI tools as another energy and cost saving strategy for companies and data centers.

Neither AI developer sees any slowdown in the demand for AI and processing capabilities of data centers. But Gadepally said environmental and energy concerns will come to a head for tech companies when they realize they could save money by saving energy, too.