US manufacturers' energy costs soar because of AI data center demand

arstechnica.com

34 points·doener··6 comments

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/big-tech-data-center... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48821880)

AI is being pushed as a productivity revolution. Sure, it is very good. But, the costs of it are astronomical and manufacturers and customers are left paying the whooping bills, in this case from energy. Who is really benefiting from this revolution?

Not the consumer that's for sure. After all all these trillions are going to have to be earned back with profit. And that eventually ends up with customers, even if they don't pay for AI services it will through more expensive products.

I have been hearing a lot about "AI will help us create greener energy" with the promise to sort of close the loop (linking here one from MIT I came across a while ago: https://news.mit.edu/2025/how-ai-can-help-achieve-clean-ener...)

Wondering: 1) How? 2) Is the balance gonna be actually positive or will manufacturers and customers pay the bill for it as you say?

There's lots of claims made by that MIT piece, but I don't see any evidence of it (i.e. no links in the article and no real world impact either).

I suspect that a lot of people just shoehorn in AI into whatever project they are doing because it will get them a higher profile and makes them sound like they're on the forefront of technology. It's like washing machines being sold with AI technology - maybe they slightly adjust the programmes for the weight of the load, but that could be done easily without AI.

Perhaps AI-focussed data centers are the next crypto mining industry, that hops from country to country wherever electricity is cheap. Until the locals get fed up & kick 'em out.

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