The Information's TITV
00:45:35 · Amanda Peterson Corio, Brittany Greenfield
[00:45:35] S7: I think this... To be completely clear, first of all, Google always pays a 100% of our energy bills for for what we consume. What we're working really hard is to make sure people know that we are committed to bringing our... What we call bring our own generation. And what's really important is bring our own new generation. So it's not just contracting with the grid for power, but ensuring that we're constantly adding new power to the grid, which will be... Help the supply demand, match and and not increase power prices. We've brought over 35 gigawatts of new generation since operation. This is something that we have always done, but are committed to continuing to do it... Doing it so that, affordability is is first or foremost, and, AI and the the increase of AI should never be a question of of putting cost on others. We should always pay for it. These are things like our models where we ensure we are committing to paying upfront, paying our electricity the right way, and bringing our own generation is the way that we're going to ensure power remains affordable. But it's important to know that, you are seeing energy costs go up, independent of AI, and that's because we have an aging infrastructure in grid. Over, 25% of our grid is over, is is is, aging out of its useful life, and that infrastructure needs to be built, built up and more robust. Costs are higher. Inflation is a real thing. And so it's actually serendipitous that you're having all of these companies invest in the grid right at the time that it needs it. [00:47:09] S4: Mhmm.
00:47:09 · Brittany Greenfield, Stephanie Palazzolo, Amanda Peterson Corio, Lori Goler
[00:47:09] S4: Mhmm. [00:47:10] S0: I think to your point, though, you know, a lot of... There's a lot of misinformation or just lack of information out there about what is going on with these data centers. And I think a lot of people, if they see the prices going up, even if part of it is what you're saying, just the fact that the infrastructure is is aging and it needs to be, you know, replaced or revamped in some way. They're they're gonna kind of just associate that with the data centers. And I think you yourself have have said that data centers are becoming, you know, politically unpopular on both the left and and the right. I mean, are you afraid at all that public opposition to data centers is going to become a bigger obstacle to them getting built than even technological limits? [00:47:48] S7: Public opposition is a real challenge. And what we have learned and what we know is, you can read about things in the news. You can hear things, but your own lived experience is is going to override anything that you read and hear in the news. And so for us, it's really, really important that when we show up to local communities, that we get the facts straight, that we listen, that we answer questions, and that they really understand what they're getting and the investment they're getting when they get a Google data center in their town. [00:48:20] S6: Mhmm. [00:48:20] S0: Have there been cases where you... Maybe you wanna build a data center in a town and it just it just doesn't happen because there's just so much pushback?
00:48:20 · Stephanie Palazzolo, Amanda Peterson Corio, Lori Goler
[00:48:20] S0: Have there been cases where you... Maybe you wanna build a data center in a town and it just it just doesn't happen because there's just so much pushback? [00:48:27] S7: There's... We continue to look at a lot of options. I think the more that we have come in earlier, we're committed not to having NDAs with local governments. And, really, that's that transparency that starts the dialogue right away. And we found that once we do that and we start really answering questions that people recognize that, hey. Google's committed to building this the right way, paying for their energy bills, not using water or replenishing water, committing to local jobs in our community, people really turn the page and get excited about having us in their community. [00:49:02] S6: Mhmm. [00:49:03] S0: And, you know, at the beginning of the conversation, we talked a bit about how right now you're planning for the power needs, you know, two to three years from now. There's been a lot of questions, think, especially in the last couple months as we've seen some, you know, neo clouds and other AI infra startups either have a lot of trouble raising new rounds or delay their IPOs. And there's a lot of questions of what happens if we got ahead of our skis or we're overbuilding. How are you thinking about that when you're planning the power needs that you're gonna, the power you're trying to build out for two to three years from now, is there a risk of overbuilding, do you think?
00:49:03 · Stephanie Palazzolo, Amanda Peterson Corio
[00:49:03] S0: And, you know, at the beginning of the conversation, we talked a bit about how right now you're planning for the power needs, you know, two to three years from now. There's been a lot of questions, think, especially in the last couple months as we've seen some, you know, neo clouds and other AI infra startups either have a lot of trouble raising new rounds or delay their IPOs. And there's a lot of questions of what happens if we got ahead of our skis or we're overbuilding. How are you thinking about that when you're planning the power needs that you're gonna, the power you're trying to build out for two to three years from now, is there a risk of overbuilding, do you think? [00:49:36] S7: I am much more worried about the risk of underbuilding than overbuilding. We have very clear demand from our customers, and we have a variety of customers. Of course, we have our standard Google products and search and YouTube. We have our, Google Cloud and enterprise customers through cloud in addition to Gemini. So we're fairly confident that, everything that we're building today and paying for is going to be used and utilized.
00:49:36 · Amanda Peterson Corio, Stephanie Palazzolo, Nicole Su
[00:49:36] S7: I am much more worried about the risk of underbuilding than overbuilding. We have very clear demand from our customers, and we have a variety of customers. Of course, we have our standard Google products and search and YouTube. We have our, Google Cloud and enterprise customers through cloud in addition to Gemini. So we're fairly confident that, everything that we're building today and paying for is going to be used and utilized. [00:50:04] S0: Are you ever worried though about... And maybe it sounds very out there, but the world where Anthropic or OpenAI is right, and they gobble up all these AI apps and all these customers and startups and companies that are using AI models. Maybe they just get eaten up by the big labs. Like, I feel like there's so many crazy scenarios out there of things that could happen. How do you, you know, what happens if one of those far out cases does come true, and who's left holding the bill? [00:50:33] S7: I think in every scenario that you're mulling through, it still needs infrastructure to operate. Whether that's power infrastructure or data center itself, is an asset in and of itself that inherently has value. And so when you're creating an asset the right way, that has value, there will be a use case and a need for it, no matter what unknowns play out and how this all evolves in the [00:51:01] S3: AI space. Well, we'll have to come back in two to three years and
00:51:01 · Nicole Su, Stephanie Palazzolo
[00:51:01] S3: AI space. Well, we'll have to come back in two to three years and [00:51:04] S0: see see whether we we under or or overbuilt in that case. But it was really great to have you on the show. Thank you so much, Amanda. And again, that was Amanda Peterson Corio, Google's global head of data center energy here on TITV. Nicole Su leads AI investment banking in The Americas at UBS, advising companies navigating one of the biggest investment booms in tech history. We're going to talk AI investment, valuations, and IPOs. Thanks for joining us today. Welcome to TITV. So, you know, as somebody who's covering AI, I think one of the biggest trends I've noticed is every time it feels like we're reaching a new peak of valuations, it just goes higher. You know, so what are you seeing now? Are investors starting to become more disciplined at all, or is FOMO continuing to drive prices higher? Maybe taking