California artificial intelligence giants have money to build immense data centers, but they still don’t know how they will feed them electricity. In recent days, Openai, the leader of AI published by Chatgpt, has announced investment projects in data centers with a capacity of 10 gigawatts, the equivalent of 10 nuclear reactors according to the calculations of the US media CNBC.
The Nvidia electronic flea giant announced on Monday that it planned to invest $ 100 billion in the construction of giant data centers for OpenAI. The two partners have signed a letter of intention “for a historical strategic association aimed at implementing at least 10 gigawatts” as part of the Stargate program. In total, these investments may require equivalent to electricity consumption of 8 million American homes.
The latter ensures that these investments are not disproportionate, while the use of chatgpt has increased considerably in a year and a half. “This is what is needed to develop Ia. Unlike technological revolutions or previous internet versions, the required infrastructure is considerable, and this is only a small overview,” says Sam Altman, who intends to announce investments of up to 500 billion euros this year.
“Goulet in strangulation”
However, the implementation of these new data centers can weigh a lot in the American electrical system. Access to electricity constitutes “a silent bottleneck”, according to Brad Gastwirth, global manager of research and economic intelligence of circular technology, interviewed by Business Insider.
The data centers announced by OpenAI represent the equivalent of 16% of the electrical capacities added this year. These new means of production are currently based essentially on renewable energy (solar and wind). However, the Trump administration said it would no longer approve it.
CNBC points out, however, that the construction of gas power plants, which have the preference of the US president, is seriously complicated by the high delivery times of the necessary turbines and that the implementation of new nuclear power plants will not intervene for several years. The US government plans to add 35 gigawatts of new nuclear capacities in 2035 and “15 gigawatts per year by 2040”.
Source: BFM TV
