Data centers in Silicon Valley stand empty, awaiting power

Submitted ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨jaykrown@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-11-10/data-centers-in-nvidias-hometown-stand-empty-awaiting-power

In Santa Clara, Calif., where the world’s biggest supplier of artificial-intelligence chips is based, Digital Realty Trust Inc. applied in 2019 to build a data center. Roughly six years later, the development remains an empty shell awaiting full energization. Stack Infrastructure, which was acquired earlier this year by Blue Owl Capital Inc., has a nearby 48-megawatt project that’s also vacant, while the city-owned utility, Silicon Valley Power, struggles to upgrade its capacity.

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Formfiller@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Well regular households have had had six PG&E rate hikes this year (thanks Gavin) so whatever our for shareholder profit utility company is doing the working class is paying for

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makyo@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It just pisses me off that they have all the money in the world for their datacenters but not for the systems that power it

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- Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Obviously they didn’t want to pay appropriately for the power.
  
  Note that this is not a datacenter, only a new, empty building where somebody had the idea of putting datacenters in.
  
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- brightpants@lemmy.eco.br ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  When you think about it like this the fear they have of China makes way more sense. China invested heavily in infrastructure, so they have power leftover that can run all this, while the US is desperate seeking to build datacenters in other countries as they know that the us grid simply can’t handle it.
  
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  - jaybone@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Maybe the billions can beg, er convince, Trump that we need to use all types of power available, including solar and wind, to get our infrastructure up to par.
    
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Thewhizard@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I work in transmission construction. Depending on the size and configuration the transformers and high side breakers can be 3+ year lead times. But 6 years is crazy when you consider the loss of revenue.

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- BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I work in a high power field and we straight up cancel projects because we get quoted six year lead times more and more often. We can’t absorb the lost revenue.
  
  There are some places that have grown so quickly, like downtown Denver, that capacity is just completely tapped out. And you either pay millions for feeder upgrades that won’t be ready until 2032 or you just move on.
  
  Sometimes we ride in on the coattails of a data center that pays for the upgrades and leaves a few MW left over, but even electric service equipment never had its lead times fall since the pandemic. Projects that used to take eight months now take two years or longer. Not an easy time to be agile.
  
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- CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  How many unemployed people do you know in the trade? You can’t learn it overnight. Existing projects are underway, and the equipment needs to be built.
  
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  - BakerBagel@midwest.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    We are looking at the mistake of allowing capital to offshore everything in the 70’s and 80’s. China didn’t force those companies to stop maintaining their existing infrastructure and outsource all their manufacturing overseas, they chose it in the interest of lower costs.
    
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jaykrown@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If you ever needed a solid fact to prove this is a massive bubble, here it is.

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- Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  which was acquired earlier this year by Blue Owl Capital
  
  I guess this was the part that matters.
  
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