00:09:33 · Katie Prescott, Danny Fortson
[00:09:33] S2: So it's a a combination of not liking the looks or perhaps a a bit of nimbyism there. Mhmm. Fears about the actual technology and what it means, fears around AI, but also the impact on utilities, whether that's water, but also the cost of power. [00:09:49] S1: Exactly. And then I guess the last piece is what you talked about. It's big tech imposing this upon us. The tech oligarchy. There's like a cultural backlash happening as well of like, don't worry little people. We're doing this for your own good. Don't worry your pretty little heads about what it's doing to your community or to your water, to your land, or to whatever. This is gonna be good for you. And we're just gonna impose this upon you. But I just think there is that that alliance that was very public with all the tech leaders at the inauguration two years ago, a raid behind Donald Trump as he was sworn in. I think people have also reacted to that. [00:10:27] S2: And Donald Trump, from the start of this presidency, has really got behind the building of data centers. Was that very famous moment where he stood in the White House with Sam Altman, who announced Stargate with Larry Ellison and Damascusan of SoftBank. And it was this, we're putting hundreds of millions of dollars into data centers in The US to allow us to advance AI. And it's like the population has said no.
00:10:27 · Katie Prescott, Danny Fortson
[00:10:27] S2: And Donald Trump, from the start of this presidency, has really got behind the building of data centers. Was that very famous moment where he stood in the White House with Sam Altman, who announced Stargate with Larry Ellison and Damascusan of SoftBank. And it was this, we're putting hundreds of millions of dollars into data centers in The US to allow us to advance AI. And it's like the population has said no. [00:10:52] S1: And I think that's happening with all of these ballot measures to ban or limit data centers. I mean, they were all just, like, mostly just passed and with... Not with a small margin. It was like, we do not want this. And I think when you step back, if you look at the anthropic s one that they filed last week to prepare for the IPO, the biggest risk in their 95 pages of risk factors was access to compute, I e, data centers. [00:11:21] S2: In terms of slowing down the development of AI. [00:11:23] S1: Yeah. They're like, because we need [00:11:25] S2: to save the front of industry for killing people. [00:11:27] S1: Right. But if you just look at kind of what they, as a company, see as the biggest risk to them doing well and to continuing to grow and delivering on all their promises, it is data centers. [00:11:38] S2: They're planning to spend almost $900,000,000,000. [00:11:42] S1: That's right. [00:11:42] S2: So just to be very clear then, what does that mean for the build out of data centers in The US now after the midterms?
00:11:42 · Katie Prescott, Danny Fortson, Yoel Roth
[00:11:42] S2: So just to be very clear then, what does that mean for the build out of data centers in The US now after the midterms? [00:11:48] S1: Obviously, we don't know. It's, you know, it's the morning after the election. But I think it's really interesting that it is, like... I think the industry is gonna have to change how it does things to bring people along because right now, people are not being brought along. They don't want it. [00:12:02] S2: Do you know what Elon Musk's answer [00:12:03] S3: is? I'm [00:12:05] S2: sure you can guess. He wrote on X. Data centers in space look pretty appealing right now. [00:12:11] S1: Yeah. And, you know, some people are like, oh, no. This is terrible for AI, like Dan Ives, friend of the pod. He... His... He reckons that, you know, 10% of data centers are not... Will not happen now. Maybe it's more, maybe it's less. Who knows? Right? We'll see. And speaking of that, you know, I was talking about Texas earlier. It became one of the most expensive political races in the history of midterm elections in America. Hundreds of millions of dollars poured in by Elon Musk, the world's richest man and, of course, resident of Texas. And it didn't work. He lost. So we're gonna talk about that and what that all means right after this.
00:12:11 · Danny Fortson, Katie Prescott
[00:12:11] S1: Yeah. And, you know, some people are like, oh, no. This is terrible for AI, like Dan Ives, friend of the pod. He... His... He reckons that, you know, 10% of data centers are not... Will not happen now. Maybe it's more, maybe it's less. Who knows? Right? We'll see. And speaking of that, you know, I was talking about Texas earlier. It became one of the most expensive political races in the history of midterm elections in America. Hundreds of millions of dollars poured in by Elon Musk, the world's richest man and, of course, resident of Texas. And it didn't work. He lost. So we're gonna talk about that and what that all means right after this. [00:12:56] S2: This episode of the Times Tech Podcast is sponsored by Adobe. AI is rapidly changing how brands reach customers, but simply adding AI to your tech doesn't guarantee results. That's where Adobe comes in, personalizing customer experiences and turning AI into real business value. With data at the center of decisions and governance built into every step, you can use AI safely. And with Adobe, your teams are free to focus on what matters most, setting strategy, defining goals, and bringing the creative insight and nuance that only people can. Turn AI's promise into marketing reality. It starts with Adobe. [00:13:36] S1: Today's episode of the Times Tech Podcast is sponsored by ServiceNow. [00:13:40] S2: ServiceNow describes itself as an AI control tower for business reinvention, connecting people, systems, data, and AI so work flows more smoothly across an organization.
00:13:40 · Katie Prescott, Danny Fortson, S4, S5
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00:15:20 · Danny Fortson
[00:15:20] S1: Well, again, I think it goes back to the day of the inauguration when you had Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and all the guys lined up directly. And, you know, it was very deliberate. And I remember saying at the time, I was like, we're gonna look back at that picture as, like, a historical artifact of, you know, this this president lined with, like, the world's richest men all lined up directly behind him in the shot, in the main shot. And... But what happened over the next few years is they got exactly what they wanted, which was they could run wild. You know? There was no AI regulation. You know? Donald Trump brought them to the White House a few times, had a a few kind of photo ops and powwows, but it was like, go forth and build. I'm not gonna stand in your way. And the framing was whoever wins AI wins. I... There's a big competition... Geopolitical competition with China we must win, and this is also, by the way, the engine of the American economy now is this one thing, AI, you know, putting trillions of dollars. I think the latest number as I saw it's... We're on course to spend about a trillion dollars in data centers and infrastructure this year, which is inflation adjusted, like the Marshall Plan every two months. It's crazy what's happening. And so the industry moved... Went very, very fast. And you talk to people here, and I think there was a sense of, like, we know we have two years to just run very fast. And then after that, who knows? Because the election's gonna come and, you know, he's an unpopular president. He's doing lots of crazy stuff. And so I think that's where we have got to.