We know. Ffs.
IBM CEO says there is 'no way' spending trillions on AI data centers will pay off at today's infrastructure costs
Submitted 3 weeks ago by monica_b1998@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.businessinsider.com/ibm-ceo-big-tech-ai-capex-data-center-spending-2025-12
Comments
Cruxifux@feddit.nl 3 weeks ago
kionay@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
if someone comes up with an alternative way to use a bunch of that infrastructure to make money, I bet they could get a lot of business when the AI bubble pops and suddenly these datacenters are desperate to find a use for themselves
randy@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
I believe that’s pretty much what happened after the dot-com crash. A lot of fiber was laid during the bubble, it went dormant after the crash, but it was useful afterward as the internet continued growing.
dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
In a small, anecdotal way, I can say with confidence that the level of fiber trenching that happened (in a major metro area) from late 1999 through 2002 was on a whole other level.
AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You mean like a crazy ai surveillance program? I take it with a grain of salt but I heard ppl say that’s how they caught Luigi. They have some super secret prototype program “eye in the sky” thing and they just said it was a mc d’s worker as cover.
NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Even if that doesn’t exist yet in the USA, it’s definitely in the UK with all their CCTV stuff.
MangoCats@feddit.it 3 weeks ago
After .com popped, all the money ran to install fiber data infrastructure - a lot of installs put in more capacity than they projected using for 100 years (glass fibers are cheap, digging trenches for them is expensive). The promise of “fiber to the home” is still mostly unrealized, but those trunk lines are out there with oodles of “dark fiber” ready to carry data… someday.
partial_accumen@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The promise of “fiber to the home” is still mostly unrealized, but those trunk lines are out there with oodles of “dark fiber” ready to carry data… someday.
Counterintuitively, I’m seeing “fiber to the home” deployed more in rural an exurb areas. My guess this is because its lower density meaning installing and maintaining copper repeaters becomes more expensive than laying long distance, low maintenance, fiber. Additionally its easier to obtain permits because there is far less existing infrastructure to interfere with right of way and critical services.
We got fiber to the home in our exurb about 4 years ago here in the USA. Its really cheap too. 500Mb/s is $75, 1Gb/s $100, and 5Gb/s I think is $200 per month.
echodot@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
The promise of “fiber to the home” is still mostly unrealized
Really? The US is really unsophisticated in certain key areas that you wouldn’t expect.
scarabic@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Trillions of dollars worth of compute mining dogecoin
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Meanwhile the planet is dying from all the increased emissions from data center usage.
BillyTheKid@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Datacenters aren’t helping, but they’re like 3-4% of emissions. It’s still manufacturing plastic crap and shipping across the ocean with bunker fuel burn causing 60% of it.
But yeah, increased energy usage isn’t helping.
partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
I heard ram pricing is high. There’s their use, an economic one.
fuzzzerd@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
So you’re saying mining crypto is gonna come back into fashion?
SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
No shit
andallthat@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
One day we’ll read some of these comments and laugh at how shortsighted they were.
Of course we’ll probably have to read them on a manuscript or smeared on a wall with feces because all the world’s resources will be used to power the huge datacenter that powers our AI overlords
paraphrand@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Everything will be fine as long as they create digital god. Just gotta keep the plates spinning for a few more years… yeah?
ramble81@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
IBM is in the business of consulting. They don’t want their business model getting usurped. Imagine if everyone had access to a bot that could do IBMs job.
FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Sure but they’re in the business of consulting on how to build out that AI platform and the business of providing an AI platform.
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Who’s consulting IBM to build out an AI platform?
filister@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I believe most of the companies are doing it to inflate their share prices.
MangoCats@feddit.it 3 weeks ago
It’s not even about money or financials that add up on balance sheets. It’s about market share, political power. When you’re Too Big To Fail, balance sheets cease to matter.
VoodooAardvark@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
- Krishna was skeptical of that current tech would reach AGI, putting the likelihood between 0-1%.
Altman: “so you’re saying there’s a chance…!”
Auli@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
There is literally a chance if you run into a wall you could pass through it.
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Just like there’s a chance you actually won that Canadian lottery you never signed up for.
Simulation6@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
So IBM (PCs are just a passing fad) has a future prediction? Not sure how much weight I should give this.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s misleading.
IBM is very much into AI, as a sane, economical tool. See: huggingface.co/ibm-granite
But this is the CEO saying “We aren’t drinking the Kool-Aid.” It’s shockingly reasonable.
Deadeyegai@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
So then we’re going to drive down the cost of building & developing infrastructure, right?
Robin@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Based on the type of AI models IBM has published, they are betting on smaller, specialized models that can run locally or cheaper in a data center. Their strategy seems to be similar to that of thr Chinese, just for different reasons.
vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org 3 weeks ago
For the same reasons. The old rules still work, most of the gold in tech industry is in tall RnD later paid off by scaling indefinitely. Things different from that are either intentionally promoted to inflate a bubble, or popular as a result of wishful thinking where that industry will change in favor of the same curve as with oil and gas. The latter just won’t happen.
Data is analogous to oil and gas here. But more like urine in ancient Rome than like something dug up from the ground.
But there’s still interest in making some protections and barriers to collection of said data, because otherwise those collecting it are interested to immediately use it for only their own good and not even of other fish in the pond.
scarabic@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I wish i knew more about the guts of LLMs because I keep thinking it must be easier to optimize them than to put data centers into space.
melfie@lemy.lol 3 weeks ago
The other companies involved know this as well; they’re just not saying the quiet part out loud.
sirico@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
It’s simple, you just use the resources people need and charge them more to keep everything affordable per quarter. Run out there’s plenty of those national parks they’ve been hoarding from us.
Doomsider@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Don’t worry consumers will pay for all their poor decisions.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Just ask for more tax breaks. poof Problem gone.
Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Now guess where that money comes from?
rafoix@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Nobody wants it to pay off. They want to be the last one standing which will pay off.
paultimate14@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The last one standing or the last one left holding the bag?
rafoix@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
It’s the same thing. Either way, they get free government money and lots of passive income because they don’t actually have to make anything or do anything to make money.
Goun@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
The people, of course