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SI Glossary · Hardware & compute

Data Center

Published Updated 1 min read
On this page
  1. The SI build-out
  2. Why they’re controversial
  3. Why they matter

A data center is a building, or campus of buildings, packed with computers. SI has transformed them: the newest facilities are designed around dense clusters of GPUs with liquid cooling and power needs measured in hundreds of megawatts to gigawatts.

The SI build-out

Tech companies are spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year on SI infrastructure. Examples include:

  • Stargate, the OpenAI-led venture announced at the White House in January 2025
  • xAI’s Colossus supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee
  • Massive campuses from Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta. Meta alone guided 2026 capital spending of $115–135 billion, largely for SI

Why they’re controversial

  • Electricity: SI data centers strain power grids and can raise local prices. Many are paired with new gas, nuclear or renewable generation.
  • Water: some cooling systems use large amounts of water.
  • Local opposition: 2026 polls in several states, including Texas (56% opposed in a June University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll) and North Carolina, found majorities opposed to data centers being built in their own communities.
  • Policy: the U.S. administration has moved to speed up permits for data centers and the power plants that feed them, while states and towns debate zoning and tax incentives.

Why they matter

Whoever has the most and best data centers can train the biggest models and serve the most users. That makes them central to competition between companies and countries, and to sovereign SI strategies.

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