By skyforbes i work in industrial hvac in the dmv and have often found myself installing the vertiv systems in data centers. in this climate there's no need to use cooling towers which consume water, we use air chillers which work the same way a window AC does without using evaporation, so there's no controversy in my area about data center water use, which is a major blemish on ai in the minds of the average person. there are many people concerned about electrical grids being overloaded but no one worries about the water. i wondered to myself today why data centers out west use cooling towers instead of geothermal heat pumps, which consume no water after initial fill and offer significant energy savings over time, maybe a 5 year period of the equipment paying for itself.
if anyone thought that these data centers were going to be profitable after 2030 they would be building them in a much different way. geothermal heat pumps do not take considerably longer to install so time to market is not a major factor.
even if ai lives up to the expectations and makes everyone rich data center owners have unaccounted depreciation above and beyond what has been extensively covered in the gpu capex discussion, the buildings they are making will be worthless in a few years.
orcl 110p 1/21/28 still a bargain at 10.10.
vrt 75p 1/21/28 a better deal at 11.50