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Wisconsin communities signed secrecy deals for billion-dollar data centers

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Re: Wisconsin communities signed secrecy deals for billion-dollar data centers

#31

Post by petcat »

hrimfaxi wrote: post #11
newsclues wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Secrecy needs a time limit.

Why do we allow municipalities to keep secrets in the first place? Unless it is personnel-related it should be public. If the communications happened on taxpayer funded equipment they should be open.

In a lot of cases, it's the only way that municipalities can submit bids for projects they want. And in the commercial space the bidding process is usually confidential. So it's just basically a requirement of public private partnership.

Of course the municipality could just say that they don't want the project and they won't submit a bid. That's fine too.

Re: Wisconsin communities signed secrecy deals for billion-dollar data centers

#32

Post by hrimfaxi »

bloak wrote: post #15
hrimfaxi wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do we allow municipalities to keep secrets in the first place? Unless it is personnel-related it should be public. If the communications happened on taxpayer funded equipment they should be open.

They'll tell you it needs to be confidential "for commercial reasons". They always do.

If corporate IT can read the CEO's emails despite commercial reasons I think we the people can see what our servants are doing with our equipment on our time.

Re: Wisconsin communities signed secrecy deals for billion-dollar data centers

#33

Post by brightball »

delichon wrote: post #18

NIMBY for data centers is opportunity for SpaceX. When they saturate the demand for communication, data processing demand will be ramping up with no apparent ceiling. The merger between SpaceX and xAI positions them to benefit both from the AI revolution, and from the resistance to it. It's like a hypothetical 19th century textile company that managed to profit from Luddite riots by using them to help move production…

Yep. That was my first thought when I saw the SpaceX & xAI merger news.

https://www.wsj.com/tech/bezos-and-musk-race-to-bring-data-c...

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/01/technology/space-data-cen...

Re: Wisconsin communities signed secrecy deals for billion-dollar data centers

#34

Post by brandonb »

542458 wrote: post #27
phkahler wrote: post #24

There is an obvious question I don't see anyone asking. Why do these data centers have to be built in every state? I guarantee it's not to run LLMs.

Same reason the F35 manufacture is awkwardly distributed throughout the US - the shore up political support (voting to kill jobs in your state is usually unpopular) and dip into as many subsidies as possible.

NASA got its support in much the same way during the space race. Spreading the jobs widely is a good way to get political support.

Re: Wisconsin communities signed secrecy deals for billion-dollar data centers

#35

Post by irishcoffee »

parpfish wrote: post #20
engelo_b wrote: post #17

[dead]

Do data centers create that many jobs? Especially if you break it down by jobs per sqft, I can’t imagine it compares well to any other type of industrial development

They neither directly create many long-term jobs or use copious amounts of water.

If we haven't collectively established at this point that LLMs, data centers, "AI", "the next industrial revolution" are created and controlled by the wealthiest people in the world, and said people don't give a fuck about anything but money and power, we're hopeless. The elite don't care about jobs, or water. At all.

If I were wrong, the whole charade would have been shut down after LLMs convinced people to kill themselves. We have regulations on top of regulations in all corners of the US because of the "Safety" boogieman.

I wish we had the same riots about LLMs that we do about other things. If this isn't the biggest evidence yet that social unrest is engineered I'm not sure what would be more convincing.

Re: Wisconsin communities signed secrecy deals for billion-dollar data centers

#38

Post by chasd00 »

Ftfa “ The lack of public disclosure, while relatively common for typical development proposals in the planning stages…”

Sounds like it’s not something new or reserved for data enter projects only but I agree it sure seems a shady practice.

Re: Wisconsin communities signed secrecy deals for billion-dollar data centers

#39

Post by dguest »

I'd like to hear the argument for why this is needed.

I can imagine a number of reasons, but this is all I found in the article:

> If I’m a company considering making strategic investments... I don’t want my competition to know where I’m going, what I’m doing, what pace I’m doing it at... You want to make sure everything is buttoned up and bow tied before that type of information is put into the public realm.

I'm having trouble with this. Is the worry that Amazon will outbid or outmaneuver Meta? How does this work in practice?

Whereas everyone here seems to assume it's to avoid NIMBY. I can see how a Meta spokesperson won't say "if we told you we're trashing your land you'd object" but I'd hope they could come up with a better argument than "your community is a pawn in a 5d chess game, better that you don't know".

Re: Wisconsin communities signed secrecy deals for billion-dollar data centers

#40

Post by bayindirh »

irishcoffee wrote: post #35
parpfish wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do data centers create that many jobs? Especially if you break it down by jobs per sqft, I can’t imagine it compares well to any other type of industrial development

They neither directly create many long-term jobs or use copious amounts of water. If we haven't collectively established at this point that LLMs, data centers, "AI", "the next industrial revolution" are created and controlled by the wealthiest people in the world, and said people don't give a fuck about anything but money and power, we're hopeless. The elite don't care about jobs, or water. At all. If I were wrong, t…

> use copious amounts of water.

If you're in Europe and/or using completely closed loop systems, then yes. Your only water use is humidifiers, and maybe the sprayers you use on drycoolers in the summer months.

On the other hand, if you use water spraying into air as heat absorption system or use open loop external circuits, you're using literally tons of water.

Source: Writing this comment from a direct liquid cooled data center.

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