Derek Thompson

So what's the reasonable prediction here?

If consumers are going to, I think,

start to be much more explicitly nimby about the construction of local data centers.

If they see these data centers as essentially, not just, you can either say it, stealing energy or basically a very clear lever on raising energy prices.

The data centers have enormous political power of their own, enormous economic power of their own.

These are large, rich companies that can spend a lot, pay a lot maybe for that energy.

I mean, how is this going to play out, do you think, in two years?

I want to talk about how some of this might go badly in the next few years.

And I want to preface that discussion by saying that when I talk about AI as a bubble, I think some people see me as being pessimistic about the technology.

The railroads were a bubble.

There was a panic of 1857, of 1873, 1891, I think.

There were constant railroad depressions.

And also the railroads changed the world.

Broadband was a bubble.

It also changed the world, right?

Big infrastructure build-outs that changed the world often pass through a bubble phase.

So it's not particularly pessimistic to say that AI is currently in a bubble.

You could say it's actually incredibly historically in tune to say that we are very likely in the middle of a bubble because every industrial revolution like this passes through bubble phases.

So let's start here.

How close are the hyperscalers?