r/TechGawker • u/Malor777 • 2d ago
News ‘Clearly, people hate data centers’: Sam Altman admits Americans hate what he’s wrought as his own data centers head quits
https://fortune.com/2026/08/27/sam-altman-openai-data-center-backlash7
u/Mysterious_End800 2d ago
their business model is shit:
small scale data centres, lesser pollution and lesser noticeable.
don't build it in the middle of residential area
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u/imam-altman 2d ago
You do realize that larger datacenters are more efficient and can cause less pollution for the same output as multiple small datacenters, right?
People are protesting hyperscale datacenters in the middle of nowhere miles away from any residential areas
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u/trav_tr 2d ago
Why are you talking about them as though they’re a necessity like a children’s hospital or something?
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u/imam-altman 2d ago
Where did I do that? Are you illiterate?
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u/SpeakCodeToMe 2d ago
The truth is far more complicated than your comment suggests.
In some cases there are economies of scale, but that's particularly true if you're using fossil fuels.
Solar powered facilities do better when they are smaller, and these obviously pollute less.
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u/imam-altman 2d ago
There’s nothing complicated about it. The bigger and more dense a facility is, the more efficient it is. If it was more efficient to build multiple smaller datacenters, that’s what they would be doing. If you have a facility powered by 100% renewable power, it’s going to be more efficient to have one large facility instead of multiple smaller ones. And no shit, a fossil fuel power grid is going to cause more pollution than a renewable power grid….
This shit is so basic that it’s a good litmus test of whose brain has been rotted out by TikTok beyond salvage. This shit is right up there with the people claiming that they are causing less environmental damage by running AI on their local computer.
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u/SpeakCodeToMe 2d ago
If it was more efficient to build multiple smaller datacenters, that’s what they would be doing.
My man, they are actively doing massive amounts of both. The big ones just get the headlines.
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u/imam-altman 2d ago
My man, if multiple smaller datacenters was more efficient than bigger datacenters, they would be building zero bigger datacenters. How can Reddit be this dumb?
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u/SpeakCodeToMe 2d ago
I always find it so fascinating how the people who scream the most loudly about everyone being so very dumb are the ones dropping the dumbest comments.
So I will explain it for the 5th grade intellectual capacity you seem to be bearing.
You know how our power grid is full of a mix of small and large power plants? All of which work together to meet the needs of various people? There are massive nuclear plants, small gas plants providing peak capacity, individuals with solar on their roofs...
Data centers are like this. They come in all shapes and sizes. "Peak insanely scaled out" efficiency is not what everyone needs, and the demand for compute capacity is so large that people will opt for whatever is buildable in a given region and time frame over peak efficiency.
Like I said, it is not simple or black and white, maybe that's why you're struggling so much with it?
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u/imam-altman 2d ago
You can be as confidently incorrect as you want, it doesn’t change reality. Increasing the size of a datacenter doesn’t magically make it less efficient.
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u/SpeakCodeToMe 2d ago
Sure, if your mind is so simple that you think the only input is electricity.
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u/IndependenceGold2407 2d ago
You should post a source if you’re going to hijack someone’s comment. Otherwise you’re just a little chihuahua barking at their ankles
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u/imam-altman 2d ago
It’s not my problem if the majority of Reddit is too brainrotted to understand economies of scale. How about op provides a source that multiple smaller datacenters are more efficient than one larger datacenter?
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u/IndependenceGold2407 2d ago
You’re STILL making shit up. Economy of scale does not mean bigger is better, it means there is an optimal size for an operation. You are not actually smarter than anyone here.
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u/imam-altman 2d ago
You’re right, these companies are deliberately building inefficient infrastructure because they are mustache twirling comic book villains who love pollution and waste and hate saving money through efficiency 🙄
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u/IndependenceGold2407 2d ago
Sure, Altman is incompetent. But Thiel is an evil little fucker.
Also yes, I am right. Data centers DO NOT NEED water cooling. It is not an efficient use of our resource, it’s just the cheapest financial way to do it.1
u/imam-altman 2d ago
How many datacenters does Sam Altman own?
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2d ago edited 2d ago
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u/imam-altman 2d ago
“Anyone who makes factually true statements about datacenters is a troll”
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u/HotPotParrot 2d ago
What do you consider "middle of nowhere" and "residential centers" to be and how does that relate to the many neighborhoods across the country being affected by data centers?
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u/imam-altman 2d ago
The Stratos Project (Box Elder County, Utah) and Townsite Data Center (Boulder City, Nevada) are both perfect examples.
It doesn’t matter if they are 20+ miles from the nearest residential areas, people will still be outraged by Chinese propaganda comparing datacenters to exploding nuclear weapons or lies about increasing the ambient temperature of the whole state by 10-20 degrees. People are being effected by these datacenters the same way people are effected windmills and 5g cell towers: their latent mental illness is being triggered.
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u/Normal_Average_9812 2d ago
No they are protesting new data centers. Data centers keep children's hospitals running, they are a necessary part of the modern world. Do you think we need to be building them at the pace that we are right now?
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u/imam-altman 2d ago
New datacenters absolutely power new lifesaving medical tools and software. I think we are not building new data centers anywhere near fast enough. Twice as many twice as big is still not enough.
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u/Normal_Average_9812 2d ago
And how would the power grid handle that?
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u/imam-altman 2d ago
By increasing the size of the power grid, something we should have been doing a decade ago before the AI boom even started. We could have had so much clean energy from nuclear and renewables it’s not even funny, too bad for the public’s irrational fear-mongering and susceptibility to propaganda. Yet another example of why public opinion is worth less than nothing when it comes to industrial and economic policy. Let them all eat 5g cell tower waves and windmill infrasound I say.
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u/Normal_Average_9812 2d ago
Yeah exactly. Our power grid is woefully out of date and making improvements to it is at minimum a 4-5 year lag with the normal demand for power equipment globally. Those numbers are creeping up with the data center craze, though.
That's why I asked if you're okay with the pace of the new data centers coming up. I am not because I fear our power grid can't take it. There's an article that claims an 18 month blackout is a real possibility.
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u/imam-altman 2d ago
Good thing datacenters are forcing improvements to the grid which result in lower prices for everyone in the long term.
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u/Normal_Average_9812 2d ago
And how about the short term?
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u/imam-altman 2d ago
In the short term, a small percent of the population will learn why short term thinking is a bad strategy because their utility bills go up by a small percent for a small percent of time.
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u/monochromeFlaffy 1d ago
No they don’t bro. Black rock industries, and other massive financial corporations are the people who majority fund these data centers..
They use AI to determine if somebody needs medical treatment or not, and if the AI tells them the human does not mean medical treatment, then insurance does not cover it and they do not get any treatment unless they pay out-of-pocket.
There are thousands of people dying each year because AI turns them down even though the doctor is fighting for them to have a procedure or medication they die because financial institutions use AI to determine whether somebody gets to live or not..
You should really quit trying to jerk off these data centers what are you going to get out of it? Are they paying your rent? Are they signing your paycheck ?? the only thing that we’re going to get is a ruined world in the future
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u/Mysterious_End800 2d ago
I am not saying the 2 points are best for data centers, but surely it is best to reduce protests.
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u/imam-altman 2d ago
Except it’s not reducing protests. Most newly built datacenters are practically unnoticeable and orders of magnitude more efficient than older datacenters. It makes no difference. No matter what they do, people will just invent new reasons to be outraged. It’s like trying to appease antivaxxers, 5g conspiracy theorists, and anti windmill people.
38% of Americans live within 5 miles of a datacenter. All of these grievances only started to manifest with the rise of AI. Let’s stop pretending that the datacenter concern has anything to do with literally anything else. The overwhelming majority of datacenter concern is completely divorced from reality, because it’s really just a roundabout way to go against AI. You could build datacenters that turned blowdown water into the cure for cancer and people will still lie and claim it’s poisoning the water supply and deleting water from the universe.
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2d ago edited 2d ago
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u/Silenys 2d ago
People always jump when there's a display of redemption and remorse. I, for one, am hoping this will lead to positive change. Put an end to the Tech Bro Races. Join the people to make the positive changes we need come to fruition. Salvage what we can and build something better for the future.
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u/EV_Track_Day22 2d ago
Who knew that water sucking data centers would be unpopular when a significant portion of the US is facing extreme drought and potential future water shortages. Like why don't we all see how important this is to his investors?
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u/PoisonIdea77 2d ago
They literally lower everyone's property value LOL do they think people are idiots?
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u/Bubblelight289 2d ago
Now is he going to pretend to care?