Call for massive data centres

Generative AI companies have called on the White House to build data centres that each use as much power as an entire city. These would create tens of thousands of jobs and boost GDP


Sam Altman: OpenAI Chief Executive Officer (inset) outlined economic and national security benefits of building massive 5 gigawatt data centres across U.S. states
     
Global AI market: Could  rise to $990 billion by 2027

2023
$185 billion

2027
$780-990 billion


World’s largest data centres (by power consumed)

1 Quantum Loophole, Maryland, U.S. Will cover 8.09 sq km. 
1.8 gigawatts (GW)

2 Start Campus’ Sines Data Centre, Portugal. Europe’s largest data centre 
1.2GW

3 Council Bluffs Data Centre, Iowa, U.S. Google has invested $5bn in campus, created 900 jobs 
1.0GW

4 Tract campus, Reno, Nevada, U.S. Spanning 2.8 sq km.
810 megawatts (MW)

5 Microsoft Data Center, Iowa, U.S. Company plans to power centre by solar array
250MW

6 Paris-Saclay Campus Data Centre. Data4 aims to increase centres from 13 to 24 200MW
   
7 China Telecom Data Centre, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. Facility covers 0.99 sq km
150MW
   
8 Citadel Campus, Reno, Nevada, U.S. Run by Switch Inc., data centre covers 0.13 sq km 
130MW
       
9 Harbin Data Centre, Heilongjiang Province, China. Crucial to China Mobile’s network 
120MW
   
10 Bumblehive Data Centre, Bluffdale, Utah, U.S. National Security Agency’s data centre 
90MW
    

Sources: Bain & Company, Bloomberg, Data Centre Magazine 
Pictures: Getty Images 
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