subtitle: the economics of AI infrastructure versus the power grid

Picture a factory in Ohio that’s been operating around the clock since 1987. When the grid operator calls during a winter storm and says “we need you to power down for an hour,” they do it. They get paid for the flexibility, the grid stays stable, and everyone’s lights stay on.

Now picture a data center full of GPUs 20 miles away. Same call comes in. The answer is: absolutely not. Those GPUs cost $3 million per rack, customers are promised 99.999% uptime, and every idle minute costs more than the grid could ever pay them to shut down.

This is the collision happening right now across American power grids: AI’s infinite appetite meeting the grid’s very finite capacity.

… this was an excerpt; read the rest of my essay at https://kristieintheworld.substack.com/p/tfw-your-gpu-rack-costs-more-than