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Anthropic invests $50B in US AI infrastructure

anthropic.com

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Re: Anthropic invests $50B in US AI infrastructure

#121

Post by runako »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #115
runako wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Data centers notoriously do not bring much in the way of either jobs or tax base. Meta's planned gigawatt-scale DC in Louisiana is projected to create ~500 jobs. If energy prices for the state increase by only 20%, that does not feel like something the people of the region would obviously want to do if given the choice.

> If energy prices for the state increase by only 20% Are there forecasts energy prices will increase 20% long term?

Georgia, where data center construction has been booming, has seen rate increases significantly higher than this. IIRC there have been 6 rate increases in the last 2 years, with a 24% increase in 2024 alone.

I don't believe any of this was part of the forecast of 10 years ago, so I would not trust a long-term forecast issued now.

Re: Anthropic invests $50B in US AI infrastructure

#122

Post by DANmode »

KaiserPro wrote: post #119
DANmode wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it take more than a quarter or two to figure that out?

Thats my point right? you get monthly billing, look at the curve and go "oops thats not good" And then cut spending. The point is, run-rate revenue, which is extrapolated rather than _actual_ can easily mask this change, depending on how its calculated.

I’m following - run-rate is definitely the buried lede here.

Thanks!

Re: Anthropic invests $50B in US AI infrastructure

#123

Post by veunes »

"$50 billion investment" is classic "press release capital," not actual cash in a bank account. Anthropic isn't sitting on a mountain of cash. This is most likely a multi-year "commitment," funded by future investment rounds, debt financing, and possibly large pre-payments for cloud capacity from their investors, and it's a signal to competitors and the government about their ambitions, not a real $50B expenditure happening today

Re: Anthropic invests $50B in US AI infrastructure

#124

Post by veunes »

lispisok wrote: post #77

Anthropic doesnt have $50B to invest, even over multiple years, so who is really writing the checks?

Several parties are writing the checks. It's a complex structure of future VC rounds, debt financing, and most importantly, massive cloud credit commitments from their investors like Amazon and Google

Re: Anthropic invests $50B in US AI infrastructure

#125

Post by veunes »

robotnikman wrote: post #12

We still need to fix the problem with powering these Datacenters....

This announcement isn't just for the construction companies; it's for the power companies.. Anthropic is basically saying we're going to build a factory the size of a nuclear plant here. If you start building it now, you'll have a guaranteed buyer in 5 years

Re: Anthropic invests $50B in US AI infrastructure

#126

Post by theultdev »

LunaSea wrote: post #118
gowld wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

non-responsive to the parent comment. Oil is not nuclear.

Incorrect, parent comment mentioned gas.

Ideally we could get rid of everything for nuclear, but that's not today's reality. The truth is natural gas is needed to transition off of coal and has helped reduce emissions.

That being said, I would like to reduce those drilling rigs. However I don't see their existence justification for more damage by putting up windmills.

It's classic whataboutism. Both things can be harmful.

Below is an exercise to help point it out.

> Like our lands and oceans are not littered ... already

Without the "what about" subject, this statement looks bad doesn't it?

That reasoning is no different than the people who see trash on the ground and throw more because it's already trashed, so why not.

Re: Anthropic invests $50B in US AI infrastructure

#127

Post by JumpCrisscross »

hattmall wrote: post #116
runako wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Data centers notoriously do not bring much in the way of either jobs or tax base. Meta's planned gigawatt-scale DC in Louisiana is projected to create ~500 jobs. If energy prices for the state increase by only 20%, that does not feel like something the people of the region would obviously want to do if given the choice.

I don't understand why the energy rates for residents should go up at all? Why isn't the data center paying for it? Even my personal bill gets more expensive per kwh the more I use, shouldn't a data center using exponentially more power just pay a higher per kwh rate, honestly to the point that they are making it cheaper for normal customers??

> shouldn't a data center using exponentially more power just pay a higher per kwh rate

Power law pricing is a good idea.

Re: Anthropic invests $50B in US AI infrastructure

#128

Post by nateb2022 »

throwaway81348 wrote: post #99
1970-01-01 wrote: post #51

The writing is on the (tomshardware.com) wall. Don't invest in AI. Invest in power, HDDs, GPUs, HVAC equipment, etc. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45896707

what are relevant stocks or indexes?

ASML ($ASML), Western Digital ($WDC), etc.

Re: Anthropic invests $50B in US AI infrastructure

#129

Post by pama »

joelthelion wrote: post #114
pama wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sources for some of the future data centers will be local and not necessarily influence the US grid. Consider also that cement production uses about 3000 TWh per year worldwide, and aluminium smelting uses about 1000 TWh per year.

A lot of that cement production still uses fossil fuels. In my mind, all the electricity production capacity we can build needs to go to the electrification of the existing economy, not new stuff and especially not the current brand of AI.

The US electricity grid is a complex problem at the interface of state and local governments and cannot scale quickly. There are no major concerns with scaling up the local electricity production however, other than the installation time (and safety, if nuclear). Reliability is easier to solve locally than for a huge grid.
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