These data centers are designed to keep the AI boom going. And who are the beneficiaries of the AI boom? Essentially, you know, billionaires and trillionaires who are already plenty rich. So, they're like moving forward to get even more rich.
Happy Tuesday, everybody, and welcome to The Powers That Be. I'm talking today to my colleague Bill Cohan, author of Drive and Powder. We're going to talk about why, after a long, terrible run, Bitcoin is surging again. We're also going to talk about the big data center backlash in this country against big AI companies, and whether that is going to hurt these companies' bottom line, especially as they race to IPO, at least in the case of OpenAI and Anthropic. Bill, it's good to see you on island, as usual. Let's start with the data center backlash. This is top of mind for me, of course. You see Democrats and Republicans racing to distance themselves from data centers and AI companies. There is some whiplash on the Democratic side. You have Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, for example, who's running for re-election this year, probably going to run for president. You know, just a year ago, he was talking about making Pennsylvania like the AI capital of the country, welcoming all of this CapEx investment, research, etc. Now, he's running away from that and promising to, you know, create more of a regulatory architecture around AI companies. The concern, of course, is pressure on energy consumption, water, noise. Look, some of this is just like reactionary panic. I get it. But this is an instance of real grassroots political fury that came really quickly and almost out of nowhere that we haven't seen for a while. The interesting thing you see on the Republican side, and we see this in Texas with Governor Greg Abbott, is they're doing the Josh Shapiro thing on steroids. You know, Donald Trump is in the White House. He's, you know, cutting checks and helping broker deals between Jensen and Sam Altman. And the Republican Party generally has been pro-AI. You know, they're pro-business, they're pro-investment. They want to give tax credits to these companies to come to their states, etc. Now, national Republicans, especially at the NRSC, are telling their candidates to like figure something out. You got to run away from these companies or, you know, get the AI companies, if you're not running away from them, to come in and spend big on your behalf on your campaigns. And so, look, Kathy Hochul in New York instituted a moratorium, not a ban, a one-year moratorium, where they can just hit pause, figure things out, help local communities learn about these data centers before you welcome them into your state. You have other Democrats proposing that they pay their own taxes, that they figure out a way to pay for their own water, and that they invest in communities if they're going to show up here. And like not just create construction jobs for six months, but create like real long-term jobs if that's what you want to do. That's a long preamble, Bill, from the political side. If you are OpenAI, if you are Meta, if you are Alphabet, what are you going to do about this? And are you scared it's going to slow you down?
I do agree with you, Peter, that this is a grassroots effort that seems to have really taken hold in local communities, statewide. You mentioned Kathy Hochul. Seven or eight other states are considering some sort of moratorium. None have. Maine almost passed a moratorium. They did pass a moratorium at the legislative level, and then the governor vetoed it. So, you know, Utah is struggling with this because, you know, that's a drought-ridden state. And, you know, one data center can use as much as, you know, 15 billion or more gallons a year. And in some, like in Provo, they blocked a data center. Another one that is being sponsored or belonging to Mr. Wonderful of CNBC fame has been dramatically scaled back in Utah because of public pressure. And so this is becoming a real intersection between business and politics and could have, you know, significant repercussions at the state and local level. Our friend Bernie Sanders teamed up with AOC to introduce a national moratorium bill to, I think, as Bernie might say, slow things down until we figure out what the hell is going on here. And, you know,
Going to stop the billionaires.
Going to stop the billionaires.
I think what is having an effect is that, you know, these data centers are designed to keep the AI boom going and maybe a requisite part of the AI boom. And who are the beneficiaries of the AI boom? Essentially, you know, billionaires and trillionaires who, you know, are already plenty rich, so they're like moving forward to get even more rich without really stopping at all and pausing at all. And I think that's the purpose of this legislation and what's been going on here, to have people pause and really consider some of the consequences of these huge data centers which use tremendous amounts of water and electricity, obviously destroy the landscape that was existing there and that will probably never be restored. I read somewhere that, you know, calves in some states are being born stillborn because of being in proximity to the data centers. So, you know, I think that people are really upset with the consequences, to say nothing of the potential job loss, because we all know that AI at least is rumored to or expected to cause job losses, except if you're like Google or Alphabet and they think that, you know, it will create lots and lots and lots of jobs and this job loss thing is a fiction. And it's just sort of being approved often and often through NDAs that the local officials sign, and it's like
We see you, Jeff Landry, in Louisiana.
