Amazon Is Building a Gigantic Computing Facility to Match the Human Brain

But to what end?

Fields of Data

Indiana's newest cash crop isn't soybeans or corn; it's AI data centers — lots and lots of AI data centers.

The New York Times reports that Amazon is building a vast complex of AI infrastructure facilities on top of 1,200 acres of former cropland, all meant for startup Anthropic's project to build an AI model that is as powerful, complex — and, just possibly, as intelligent — as the human brain.

To that end, Amazon has constructed seven data centers on site, with around 30 slated to be built in total, according to the newspaper. It's such an outrageously ambitious project, with untold billions in investment, that Amazon has tapped four separate construction firms to get the complex finished as soon as possible.

"I don’t know if they’re competing for cash or steak dinner or what, but it’s crazy how much they’re getting up," Bill Schalliol, a local economic development official, told the NYT. "Steel starts to go up here, the next day steel’s going up over there."

And the big tech behemoth is not stopping there; Amazon is planning to construct similar AI data center complexes in Mississippi, all to compete with other tech companies, such as Meta and OpenAI, which are racing to build next-generation facilities of their own to feed ever more advanced AI models.

Boom and Bust

But AI data centers come with a whole host of issues. They're energy hogs, and are very thirsty water drinkers.

Amazon is using less advanced chips compared to its competitors, hoping it won't need to deploy complex cooling equipment to lower the temperature in its facilities, relying instead on just large air handlers and municipal water to cool them down.

Still, the complex will eat up 2.2 gigawatts of electricity, enough to light up millions of residences, and will divert immense quantities of water for cooling.

Already, the NYT reports, local residents have protested against a piece of wetland being bulldozed over for the data centers, while contending with local wells coming up dry. It seems that Amazon pumped so much water from the ground during construction that local water sources became stressed.

Expect more debates over water usage and technology in the future, as other communities in America and around the world are struggling with water issues due to this explosive sector.

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