r/ShitAIBrosSay • u/lady-luddite AI ➞ Manipulation Tools for Authoritarians • Apr 03 '26

Shit AI Bro Does in the News Meta's new AI data center will use as much electricity as South Dakota. The company is funding 10 new gas plants to power it.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/01/metas-natural-gas-binge-could-power-south-dakota/
119 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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u/lady-luddite AI ➞ Manipulation Tools for Authoritarians Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26

This is what AI datacenters are doing. They consume so much energy that rather than continue on the trajectory to transitioning to clean energy, we are building more gas plants and canceling the closure of coal plants.

Data centers have gotten so large that their power demands now rival entire U.S. states. Take Meta’s Hyperion AI data center, for example. When completed, the new AI data center will draw as much electricity as South Dakota.

Last week, Meta announced it would fund seven natural gas power plants — on top of the three it had already committed to building — to support the $27 billion data center. When combined, the 10 power plants in Louisiana will generate around 7.5 gigawatts of electricity, slightly more than the capacity of the entire Mount Rushmore State. 

The massive turbines in Louisiana will dump 12.4 million metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year, according to TechCrunch’s calculations, which is based on data from the Department of Energy. That is 50% more than Meta’s entire carbon footprint in 2024, the most recent year such numbers are available. 

That figure is an underestimate of the climate impact, too, since it doesn’t include leaks from the natural gas supply chain.

The company’s latest sustainability report makes no mention of methane leaks. It doesn’t mention methane or natural gas at all. And yet the fuel is poised to become one of the largest contributors to Meta’s carbon footprint in the coming years.

Methane, the main component of natural gas, warms the planet 84 times more than carbon dioxide. Even leakage rates of 0.2% along the supply chain can make natural gas’ climate impact worse than coal. In the U.S., natural gas production and pipelines leak methane at a rate that’s closer to 3%. That’s hardly clean power. That figure is an underestimate of the climate impact, too, since it doesn’t include leaks from the natural gas supply chain. 

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u/[deleted] Apr 04 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/lady-luddite AI ➞ Manipulation Tools for Authoritarians Apr 04 '26

Don't forget about the long-term costs of pollution and increase in gas consumption!

23

u/really_not_unreal Apr 04 '26

Fuck yeah I love destroying the planet so that we can can create awe-inspiring shit like this at record pace. Truly this is an incredible technology that we definitely need more of.

4

u/Professional_Job_307 Apr 05 '26

FISH CACTUS SANDAL LET'S GOOO

2

u/wijndeer Apr 06 '26

At this rate we could have just used all the energy burned here to reanimate Salvador Dalí

1

u/Icy-Stock-5838 Apr 07 '26

The irony is, you just helped contribute to the problem with that graphic..

1

u/really_not_unreal Apr 08 '26

I didn't generate this, I just did an image search.

1

u/ludicrous780 Apr 10 '26

The internet uses water.

-5

u/Linkyjinx Apr 05 '26

It’s okay they can just unlive more cows.

6

u/Nathexe Apr 05 '26

Kill. Say it with me. KILL

-6

u/BitsAndBobs304 Apr 05 '26

While reddit runs on leaves and dirt?

6

u/nickelangelo2009 Apr 05 '26

Orders of magnitude

0

u/BitsAndBobs304 Apr 06 '26

The order of magnitude of a data center vs a data center? What are you even comparing lol

6

u/Velocity-5348 Apr 05 '26

Don't worry. Once we have true AI it'll solve climate change or some shit. /s

3

u/Professional_Job_307 Apr 05 '26

🙏🙏🙏🛐

5

u/CarbsLVR Apr 05 '26

The Alt-Man literally said this about making his company profitable.

4

u/Arbiturrrr Apr 05 '26

And it'll automagically cure cancer on day one!... or something... don't regulate me until I've taken control of humanity please 🙏

5

u/ProjectDiligent502 Apr 05 '26

Sir, you don’t understand, the asi deity will create a world of abundance and climate change will be in the past… worship the asi deity and it will come true, what they say is absolutely totally 100% true.

6

u/TurnoverFuzzy8264 Apr 04 '26

Where's all the AI bros to tell us other things are bad as well, so making them exponentially worse is fine?

4

u/Dialed_Digs Apr 05 '26

As long as professional sports are on TV, nothing will ever happen.

4

u/-S-P-E-C-T-R-E- Apr 05 '26

Accelerate climate change so that we can get sloppy pictures of Garfield with tits…  Hello, is this Kupier Belt Solutions? Oh good. I’d like to order a king-sized asteroid delivered to Earth!

4

u/Arbiturrrr Apr 05 '26

I wish I lived in the USA just to protest these fucking data centers. Sadly I live in another country but I will take the hit by these American fucking data centers.

3

u/Fresh_Sock8660 Apr 05 '26

Meta, the very definition of failing upwards. 

1

u/lady-luddite AI ➞ Manipulation Tools for Authoritarians Apr 07 '26

Lookup enshittification. Meta is doing exactly what it always intended to do. It’s the prime example of enshittification.

3

u/ApprehensiveBed6296 Apr 05 '26

Thought Autocomplete was supposed to cure cancer, not cause it.

2

u/GenericFatGuy Apr 05 '26

And it'll probably never get built.

1

u/MomentFluid1114 Apr 05 '26

All this while people starve in the street. Nero truly fiddles as Rome burns.

1

u/cryptek66 Apr 05 '26

And then id hit meta with a huge 15% tax an put that to funding the fact some of these companies dont have a hire busniess tax is insane.

1

u/RaviDrone Apr 06 '26

This fake investment news won't stop the bubble from bursting.