this post was submitted on 13 May 2026
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The Stratos artificial intelligence datacenter footprint will cover more than 40,000 acres (62 sq miles) over three sites in Box Elder county in north-western Utah. The facility will require about 9GW of power, which is more than the entire state of Utah currently consumes, and suck up a significant amount of water in an area that has been hit by severe drought in recent years.

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[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 116 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

No backlash unless they are dragging the council members out of their homes.

[–] KC_Royalz@lemmy.world 84 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Which honestly needs to happen. Those council members should be fearing for their lives everytime they go outside. But Oleary probably gave them a fat paycheck so they will no longer have to live in the area.

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

They shouldn't be able to have dinner in peace

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[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 79 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

Why are they building these things in dry hot places, surely the one time real estate cost can’t dwarf all the other issues?

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 74 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

That's long-term thinking. I assume it's like a ponzi scheme: everyone who puts money into something like this thinks they'll cash out before the problems occur.

Why do I feel like the ones left holding the bag are going to be the taxpayers/residents somehow?

[–] crusa187@lemmy.ml 36 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

~~E Pluribus Unum~~

Privatize the gains, Socialize the losses.

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[–] IHeartBadCode@fedia.io 22 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

It's located on the Ruby Pipeline which will serve as the primary source of energy in the short term. Additionally, the data center being classified as a national security site, is located near the Utah Test and Training Range.

Longer term the facility is looking at nuclear facilities for power and the possibility for a runway and aviation facilities.

The primary customer of this facility will be the United States military.

[–] GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 18 points 3 weeks ago

This. US military is the target market. That people live there, that humans need water to live, and that powering this is going to entirely erase the local agriculture and wider ecosystems are all irrelevant. Deus Vult.~

[–] redsand@infosec.pub 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

This is also why Utah. They will staff it with mormons and have fiber runs already

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Nobody is thinking this shit through long-term or short.

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[–] KC_Royalz@lemmy.world 58 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Nearly 4,000 people have lodged objections to the project being approved, with this pushback leading to contentious public meetings that Lee Perry, the Box Elder county commissioner, said have left him feeling “physically sick” amid alleged death threats and false accusations.

Good

[–] vathecka@lemmy.radio 43 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

"waaahhh death threats" is the usual retort whenever someone gets deserved criticism. Maybe try not doing things that make your constituents want to kill you?

[–] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

To be fair, there are a lot of unhinged people who resort to actual death threats for shit that in no way deserves that level of intensity. It's probably one of the big reasons why everyone who's actually smart enough to run a city/state/country is also smart enough not to.

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[–] ElectricAirship@lemmy.dbzer0.com 48 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Gonna be a cool liminal space in the next 5 years when this inevitably fails and gets abandoned

[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago

Assuming that happens, I think we can look to Detroit, starting 50 years ago, for a good example of how awful we are at scaling down and retiring infrastructure at anything approaching this scale. Especially when the state doesn't care to require companies to clean up their mess.

[–] ChaosSpectre@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

My money is on Ikea acquiring the leftovers to easily set up new locations lol

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

You mean Costco, à la Idiocracy?

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

The Democratic People's Republic of Costco.

Welcome to Costco, I love you.

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[–] MushuChupacabra@piefed.world 35 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Those data centers are jam packed with copper, and have far less security per kg than you'd think.

Lots and lots of RAM kicking around too, if you're a little short.

[–] modus@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Is it even the type of RAM peasants like me are interested in?

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That depends, are you interested in money?

[–] Burninator05@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 16 points 3 weeks ago

I can't believe you like money too. We should hang out.

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[–] Zron@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

Remember your LOTO before you snip the wires

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.cafe 34 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

All those shithole Red states are going to get raped by data centers, while the Blue states will force them to pay their way.

[–] snapoff@sh.itjust.works 33 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It’s not that black and white (or red and blue as the case may be). I live in a blue state that is also selling out to data centers under the guise of “job creation”.

[–] this_1_is_mine@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Make them quantify jobs that they are creating

They city council is too busy counting the money they were given to pass this

[–] 00xide@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 weeks ago

They do quantify them. There's been counters for that. The people speak out against them at town halls. It still goes up.

[–] Paranoidfactoid@lemmy.world 31 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

What are these data centers to be used for? People say AI, but that's not specific enough. This shit is surveillance state.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 3 weeks ago

AI for the surveillance state.
Sort of like the center point of skynet.
Soon there will be heavily armed autonomous mechs walking the perimeter shooting everything organic within 100m the property border

[–] Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Have you ever played Cyberpunk 2077?

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[–] hushable@lemmy.world 25 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)
[–] cabillaud@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That's astonishing. How many servers will be running in that thing? Billions? Am I missing something?

[–] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago

Zero servers are ever gonna run in this thing, it's just... even more obvious than with all the other fucking absued data center proposals.

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[–] cranakis@reddthat.com 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Welcome to Costco, I love you.

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[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Wtf would you even want to make something that big.

Thats a huge geographic vulnerability. You could still make huge ones but spread it out.

[–] Insekticus@aussie.zone 14 points 3 weeks ago

Greed. That's the entirety of the answer.

Whoever ticks and flicks these data centres is paid with grotesque amounts of money to approve this shit and to deal with the fallout.

[–] nomadman@piefed.social 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It would be a shame if the builders had to restart their work every day...

[–] IHeartBadCode@fedia.io 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Good luck. The data center is classified as a national security site and has the Utah Test and Training Range base nearby.

They're building it with the intention of military security.

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[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Okay. How is Mr Wonderful actually going to pay for this?

[–] MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip 8 points 3 weeks ago

High-royalty, low-equity that sounds better than it is.

[–] Gsus4@mander.xyz 7 points 3 weeks ago

Can we finally call them machine cities? And we're losing the war against the machines, by the way.

[–] Medic8eme@piefed.ca 5 points 3 weeks ago

Who was really driving the boat Kevin?

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