This is crazy, data center boom

funny story the hoopla about "data centers" is that somehow they are new. There has been data centers for a long time. 25 years ago I was at a "data center" in west jordan, UT I was called out because the fire suppression system blew up the building. to this day I still consider this one of the most hilarious jobs I have ever been on. The place was guarded like military installation complete with a guard tower, concertina wire on the fence, armed guards, ETC it was probably one of the most secure places I have been. Inside was offices in the front that had windows looking out into a large room area of about 100x100 feet that had main frame computers over a false floor that had heavy tiles you could pull up and access all the wireing under that included an HVAC system to cool the main frames. These offices are what you might imagine looking into a room with a nuclear reactor on the other side. In the back was about 80-100 welding tanks, full size ones all hooked up with braided high pressure steel lines and flare fittings to a central plumbing system. This was the halon fire system.

to make a long story short someone was working on the HVAC system under the floor tiles and leaked some freon. this caused a lack of oxygen sensor to trip. ALL 80 ish welding tanks dumped Halon ALL AT ONCE!!! I am laughing my ass off as I type this. This caused the entire wall seperating the large room from the offices to be blown over, all the glass blown out. The front doors were blown out and glass blown out into the parking lot. ceiling tiles were blasted everywhere, glass was blasted out all over the place inside. In what was supposed to be the most secure data storage site. A safety feature of the facility was far more of a threat than anyone trying to break into the building. I always thought the security stuff was just a dog and pony show for the company there to claim how secure it was. That is however what made the explosion of halon that much more hilarious.
 
popper43 said:
Again - Report: Tech Company Accidentally Spends $500 Million on Anthropic's Claude AI in Single Month
Opps. Aparently another company gets bit. And when the servers got old or outdated, Ms$ to replace. Yup, the ones around here look like Ft Knox, fence all around.
Click to expand...

I had lunch today with an old friend that I haven't seen in ten years. He's one of those guys that has a knack for the market and has made a chit ton of money trading. My age, but hasn't worked in 15 years. Told me about how he just buys one way tickets to wherever, stays as long as he feels like, buys another one way ticket to somewhere else. He's been circling the globe like that since I last saw him a decade ago.

He was bemoaning the fact that Anthropic isn't publicly traded and he can't buy stock on a regular exchange, and that he had to sink a significant portion of his worth into a private equity fund to get "bought in" to Anthropic. He's a very shrewd dude.

But, I guess my only point is, that's not a stock that you can buy. The big boys aren't public. And only the very wealthy get to dip their beaks. And it won't be part of the bubble.

Cost to replace servers? :ROFLMAO:

Ants in the afterbirth. Non issue. Nothing burger. All built in and nobody cares about that. That's part and parcel of any tech venture of any size. Whether on prem or not. Data center or a small rack in a closet makes no difference. We've all had to do it for as long as networks have existed and it's built into the cost structure of every tech enterprise on the planet. And a big percentage of non-tech enterprises. And a big reason why cloud infrastructure and data centers are booming. Move all your infrastructure to the cloud as infrastructure as code, destroy all your servers and repave once a month, standard best practice. Want to chip off a piece and sell it? Better have it setup like that or be prepared for a big hit on valuation. All big companies have already done it, or are wishing they already have. All small companies are screwed because they can't afford it. It's the cost of doing business.

And not for nothing. If you aren't doing that, you're accumulating exposure to breaching (only one reason you'll take a big valuation hit). And guess what the most powerful tools on the planet for hacking are, and will be for the rest of eternity? Yup. AI.

There was an earlier post, something about robots asking us to prove we are human. Those gatekeepers are the weakest of weak sauce. Almost any publicly available AI tool can get past that in about a nano second. Simple prompt is all it takes.

- DAA
 
Add on, because reading my post, I failed to make the big point about data centers and replacing servers. I work for the smallest business unit of a large company. Worth noting - the company isn't public and you can't buy our stock either and there is definitely a pattern there... The super rich don't need to play the market. And where they play, only the super rich are allowed.

But the point is... We are a tiny business unit. But we run 300-something servers. We replace them EVERY MONTH. Because, data centers.

- DAA
 
the private placement people are the ones that make all the money. the money in the markets is what I call the stupid money. The smart money buys in early and is ready for the cash out when the company does go public. remind me to tell you the story of someone in my wife's family taking a company public. The people that made all the money WERE NOT the market investors in fact they lost most of their money.
 
steve garrett said:
the private placement people are the ones that make all the money. the money in the markets is what I call the stupid money. The smart money buys in early and is ready for the cash out when the company does go public. remind me to tell you the story of someone in my wife's family taking a company public. The people that made all the money WERE NOT the market investors in fact they lost most of their money.
Click to expand...

Yes, yes, yes. Experienced it.

Just spot on. My friend I talked about, that went heavy to get private equity stake in Anthropic. He'll sell somewhere between 2 and 24 hours after the IPO. Only involvement in the market, is plucking the apple when it's perfectly ripe.

- DAA
 
popper43 said:
DAA - when I was working I designed telecom switches/routers and S-100 buss and data servers. They ain't cheap.
Click to expand...

They are now. Unless you've cornered yourself into on prem hardware and haven't lifted and shifted to a data center. But if you've done that - cheap and easy to replace. So cheap and easy, you do it every month as a security measure. And to make your bonafides on your security status and ease of transferability in an acquisition (valuation).

- DAA
 
DAA said:
They are now. Unless you've cornered yourself into on prem hardware and haven't lifted and shifted to a data center. But if you've done that - cheap and easy to replace. So cheap and easy, you do it every month as a security measure. And to make your bonafides on your security status and ease of transferability in an acquisition (valuation).

- DAA
Click to expand...




So, what happens to all the barely used equipment, scrapped, recycled or traded back on the new stuff?
 
These aren't physical hardware anymore. They are virtual machines. Go to a more powerful CPU, or add CPU's, or cores to your CPU's, add RAM, storage, upgrade anything and everything instantly with a click of the mouse (and a higher monthly cost).

The actual hardware all these virtual machines are running on get swapped out like hardware has always been swapped out. Some components, you do trade in on newer, others go to the recycler. There is an entire industry around recycling old server hardware.

Between about 12-20 years ago, I ran a DR (disaster recovery) NOC (network operations center) for the company I still work for. Built most of the whole thing with my own hands. Only contracted out HVAC and electrical. Got it done crazy cheap compared to a professionally built one. I was proud as heck of that NOC. Back before we got bought by a huge company. I only had about 150 servers to take care of back then. Swapping out hardware was an every day thing for me. Like I say, some got shipped back to the mfg for credit towards the new stuff. Some I sold to the recycler - which conveniently for me was only about four blocks away.

But data centers, no matter how large, operate the exact same way today. But again, "our" servers, are not physical specific pieces of hardware anymore. They are created by a huge network of hardware as virtual machines. They don't exist as stand alone hardware. That's why it's so cheap to replace all of them once a month.

- DAA
 
Lets see, cheap server is 1k$ so 300k$/month.
www.cloudzero.com

How Much Does AI Cost? The Complete Guide For 2026

AI implementation costs range from $5,000 for pilots to $500K+ for enterprise. Get a full breakdown of AI dev, infra, and op costs for 2026.
www.cloudzero.com www.cloudzero.com
Assume that $ is counted as disposables, tax payers take the hit. And the tax deals the companies get. Anyway, Co needs to make 1M$/month min. to support it.
 
Last edited:
Trump has said more than once (as he does on everything) that these data centers are going to build their own electric power.
In Oklahoma the power supplier has had 10 rate increases in the past 10 years and is currently asking the corporation commission for yet another this year which, if approved, will add $15.00 per month to the average residential user. The power supplier tried for a rate increase which they said would be necessary to meet future demands. Corporation commission caught that and refused request saying there would be no pre-paying as lots of folks would not be here to recoup any service that had been prepaid. There is no competition for electric service here so we just have to pony up the dough.
 
Back
Top