In the model it sounds like you're suggesting, instead of building a datacenter in the middle of the US along an existing internet backbone (a move which is already drawing tons of public criticism), they could build in rural Canada and also buy up easements to lay an entirely new set of high bandwidth pathways through rural Canada to connect those datacenters to the rest of the world?
I'd love for rural Canada (or what is left of it) to stay as pristine as it is today. Sticking a datacenter in there sounds a bit like putting on in the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone (though, Yellowstone might be the better of the two with respect to Geothermal energy).
By and large we aren’t hesitant to take a portion of the remaining 80% of undeveloped Canada and do useful things with it. I can’t speak for all Canadians but that’s just not been a point of contention.
The amount of surveyed untapped hydro potential is something like 110GW. Though to be fair I haven’t studied any of this too deeply since grad school (which I refuse to let my brain appraise how long ago that was.)
I'd be all for it as reclamation of the territories that have already been damaged pretty much beyond recovery due to the oil industry. But the Canadian North is very precious. Besides, I wouldn't want to give my capricious neighbor yet another reason to 'protect' their investment.
How broadly have you shopped this idea? Most Americans weren't anti-datacenter-in-my-state until this recent wave of tons of datacenters popping up in their state.
Mark’s a bit busy… but I actually chatted about this with the hockey parents at the rink this morning. They’re anti data center mainly because they just feel the companies (apparently they think it’s all Google and Facebook and have no clue Anthropic or OpenAI is a thing) will ruin the town and cause blackouts and ruin the water pressure (our water pressure is kinda weak). When I suggested “what about like an hour north of Sudbury?” they went from negative to I’d say indifferent. Except our goalie’s mom who was a hard no under any circumstances.
What I found interesting was that none of them had a single thing to say about the actual AI tech. Mind you n=6 or 7.
> They’re anti data center mainly because they just feel the companies (apparently they think it’s all Google and Facebook and have no clue Anthropic or OpenAI is a thing) will ruin the town and cause blackouts and ruin the water pressure (our water pressure is kinda weak).
Whether they know who Anthropic or OpenAI or are familiar with AI tech is immaterial, they are allowed a say on what happens in their immediate environment regardless of the application of the DC. The environmental impact of datacenters is substantial, especially near residential areas.
> When I suggested “what about like an hour north of Sudbury?”
Timmins? Or somewhere along the 144? That's not going to work: that area is pretty much inaccessible a good chunk of the year, besides you won't find the personnel to man your DCs there. And to hook it up you'll be digging fairly long trenches adding quite a bit to the cost of deployment.
Take a peek at Churchill Falls NL. They’re upgrading it to something like 14,000MW. You can see the hydro corridor on the satellite imagery. It goes for hundreds of KM to get to the customers.
I’m just not convinced that the frontier logistics are a real problem for an industry that’s supposed to be worth trillions.
