No Power, No Project
July 12, 2024
Artificial intelligence (AI) is driving the data center market and the data center market is driving the energy market. I remember 20 years ago when the regulated utility companies were wondering where the next major power users were going to come from. Little did we realize consumer demand for Netflix, Facebook, iPhone pictures, Instagram and TikTok would ultimately drive the energy market.
Who is creating this energy demand? The “hyperscalers” are typically companies that need large data centers to manage and process their data in an efficient and timely manner. These companies include Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Facebook (Meta), Apple and Google Cloud, and some lesser known data center deployers like IBM, Alibaba Cloud or Oracle. All of these companies were founded and rooted in innovation, and these innovators literally changed the landscape of how we function as individuals and as a society on a daily basis. They created markets we didn’t know existed by helping society become more efficient, but also more dependent upon their technologies.