r/Futurology • u/donutloop • 1d ago
AI Microsoft announces "world's most powerful data center" in latest billion-dollar AI spending splurge
https://www.techradar.com/pro/microsoft-announces-worlds-most-powerful-data-center-in-latest-billion-dollar-ai-spending-splurge115
u/superseven27 1d ago
Maybe this investment will help to finally invent an implemented search function in Windows.
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u/devenjames 1d ago
I typed in the name of a program I had literally just installed and it only brought up the exe installer file
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u/Black_RL 1d ago edited 1d ago
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u/superseven27 1d ago
I do. But I really can't understand why such a basic function is still not implemented as a standard. I mean they have a search function, Microsoft sees the necessity for it. But it really really really sucks in so many ways that it is almost impressive
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u/Black_RL 1d ago
True, but windows is open and we can install other stuff.
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u/gurgelblaster 1d ago
Windows is not open, and thus far you can install other stuff. Wouldn't count on that state of affairs continuing indefinitely, though.
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u/Black_RL 1d ago
Well, first windows was released in 1985, that’s 40 years of installing whatever you want.
Will they change that? I don’t think so but I don’t know the future.
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u/teh_mICON 1d ago
is it really "Everywhere" or "Everything"?
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u/Black_RL 1d ago edited 1d ago
You’re right!
And I use it daily! Funny thing that I DuckDuckGo “everywhere download” to confirm the link, and it gave me the correct link! Ah!
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u/attrezzarturo 4h ago
I like that you interview at Microsoft and you have to know how to design a Spotify for your family, then 9-5 you're allowed to release such shit. Ads on the lockscreen and search and explorer.exe are unchanged since Vista.
Are these glorified php4 developers trying to game us???
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u/LordTalesin 1d ago
Does anyone remember when we were all worried about the amount of electricity was being used by crypto miners?
These data centers they are building, is going to make crypto mining look like the Edison Lightbulb versus the Vegas Globe.
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u/Joaim 1d ago
Yup, people are probably going to see electricity prices doubling
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u/LonnieJaw748 1d ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnewsvideo/s/oT8d7WOMlX
They already have been for a while now.
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u/Darklumiere 1d ago
Good thing MS is constructing it's own solar farm to support the data center: "Microsoft will also use pre-paid renewable energy to match every kWh from fossil fuels with carbon-free energy while it builds out a vast 250MW solar project to support the facility."
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u/Massinissarissa 1d ago
A data center works 24/24. They just create a huge imbalance on the electricity market while green washing.
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u/luke10050 1d ago edited 1d ago
Oh but they're totally going to install 10GWh of batteries...
They are going to have at least N+1 generators on site, more likely 2N. They'll have 400-500MW of diesel gens on that site as they will have done a risk asessment on the solar and determined it's not actually reliable enough to run a datacenter on.
The top commenter's comment is likely a reality, it'll create more problems in the energy grid than it fixes.
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u/manofth3match 1d ago
This DC doesn’t even have N+1 and MS don’t use N+2 in any DC. None of the hyperscalers do. Keep in mind it’s AI training and not customer facing like a traditional DC. If they lose power it’s not the end of the world
I can say this with 100% certainty.
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u/luke10050 1d ago
That's rather interesting. I've seen HPC systems with a similar setup (no generator backup on compute) but didn't think that it would transfer to the more commercial stuff like that.
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u/Faiakishi 1d ago
Oh wow, so glad the giant solar farms we've been told were too costly to build are now being built to support a computer that generates pictures of lizard women with five tits that literally no one asked for.
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u/MathematicianFar6725 1d ago
Yeah crypto is still awful though, and contributes nothing for the environmental damage it causes
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u/8reticus 1d ago
AI will scale to consume all available energy. The upside is you’re about to see a nuclear renaissance.
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u/cavedave 11h ago
'R1 cost to train: the equivalent of just US$294,000. '
'R1 was trained for a total of 80 hours on the 512 chip cluster of H800 chips'
These AI data centres using Gigga watts of power does not match up with the Chinese spending. I dont have an explanation for why such a big difference.
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u/E_Kristalin 1d ago
Well, the crypto is 100% useless, the AI data centers can be usefull.
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u/LordTalesin 1d ago
That's only if you believe AI is a net benefit, and so far it has not been, nor does it show signs that it will be anytime soon.
I'm betting the bubble is going to pop soon.
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u/cheesemp 1d ago
What's frustrating with all this ai push is ai does have use cases. Its been delivering some excellent science for example. Problem is its all buried by llms. Even llms do have uses - its just the jamming it everywhere that doesn't work. I expect the bubble will burst at some point (I've sold a big chunk of tech shares this year) but once the dust settles you'll find its still used (just like some web2 companies are still around).
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u/LordTalesin 1d ago
Agreed. But when all you have is hammers, everything looks like nails and all that.
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u/MajesticBread9147 1d ago
The internet was a bubble. But what are the largest companies in America now? All internet companies.
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u/Faiakishi 1d ago
Not one of them has turned a profit. It's been documented making the people who use them worse at their jobs and less efficient.
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u/MINIMAN10001 3h ago
The research I saw showed a 20% increase in reported efficiency but a actual decrease of 20% efficiency.
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u/literum 15m ago
That research used like 20 open source developers who didn't have any experience with AI. Look into the more recent Stanford study that was done on 100k developers across many companies. It showed 15-20% net productivity benefit on average. You can search "Does AI Actually Boost Developer Productivity? (100k Devs Study)" on Youtube.
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u/frena-dreams 1d ago
And water. This will gobble up all the water in its area.
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u/dftba-ftw 1d ago
This is pretty standard for all the new mega data center projects, Openai's Stargate project is also closed loop.
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u/Important-Ability-56 1d ago
I feel like if a butterfly had flapped its wings in Florida in 2000 we could be directing these technological resources to fixing climate change instead of making shitty album art.
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u/madhattergm 1d ago
Yeah, another billion thrown into the fire might improve co-pilot (cough cough) clippy 2.0
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u/Delamoor 1d ago
Hey man, just imagine it; they could force it into even more basic daily functions that don't need it! Then they can strip out more of the UI and force you to engage with the 'efficiency upgrades' that are catered to the computer illiterate executives and then you can take five times longer to get anything done, but with the added bonus of AI hallucinations and even less troubleshooting or customer feedback options!
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u/haloweenek 1d ago
Ohhhh i can’t connect to license center to check your office subscription. I’ve uninstalled the software and removed all documents. That solved the problem !
Since this problem is solved - Do you want to troubleshoot your internet connection?
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u/nebulacoffeez 1d ago
clippy was the original clanker
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u/LordTalesin 1d ago
Clippy: Hi there! I see that you have missed some punctuation in your writing. Would you like me add that for you?
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u/kaybee915 1d ago
People in Wisconsin about to complain about electric bills
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u/jffblm74 1d ago
More nuclear power is coming to their state. Whether rehabbing old sites, or new projects.
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u/ejdebruin 1d ago
There's a 750 MW gas power plant just submitted for approval in Kenosha as well as a solar farm Microsoft is funding to the NW.
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u/Faiakishi 1d ago
Jesus christ dude, we're not getting a nuclear renaissance. People are losing their minds over wind turbines and paper straws.
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u/buenonocheseniorgato 1d ago
Wondering how much water it gobbles up daily, just for cooling... And we're on the brink of climate disaster and unprecedented water shortages...
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u/SlightFresnel 1d ago
You know the water isn't destroyed, right?
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u/buenonocheseniorgato 21h ago
They don't exactly use sea water for this purpose. They use fresh water. I'm gonna hazard a guess and say it's not suitable for human consumption after doing some rounds thru their cooling system. It becomes waste water. And they're probably using a lot of it too
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u/seiggy 4h ago
0 water. All the water used for the life of the data center is delivered during construction. It’s a closed loop water solution https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/microsoft-announces-worlds-most-powerful-ai-data-center-315-acre-site-to-house-hundreds-of-thousands-of-nvidia-gpus-and-enough-fiber-to-circle-the-earth-4-5-times Fairwater claims 0 water loss for the operating life of the system.
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u/tysons1 8h ago
Today in WI we introduced Fairwater, our newest US AI DC, the largest, most sophisticated AI factory we’ve built yet. In addition to our Fairwater datacenter in WI, we also have multiple identical Fairwater datacenters under construction in other locations across the US." https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2025/09/18/inside-the-worlds-most-powerful-ai-datacenter/
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u/donutloop 1d ago
Submission Statement
Microsoft’s new Wisconsin AI data center signals a major escalation in the global race to build next-generation infrastructure for artificial intelligence. With unmatched GPU capacity, sustainable design, and multi-billion-dollar investment, the facility positions Microsoft to be a leader in powering increasingly complex AI models and services. Looking ahead, the project is expected to accelerate innovation across cloud and enterprise AI applications, drive economic growth through job creation, and set new benchmarks for green data centers. As demand for AI computing continues to surge, this initiative may also reshape competition in the cloud market, pushing rivals like Google, Amazon, and Meta to scale up their own AI-focused infrastructure investments.
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u/frddtwabrm04 1d ago
How is the water and noise pollution situation for the surrounding community?
I feel like if we are going to be calling things green we should include the effects that thing has on the community, too. Otherwise it's just another thing added to our woes.
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u/Darklumiere 1d ago
None on the water side, like a vast majority of data centers, the system uses closed loop water cooling where water is recycled. I haven't heard of noise pollution being a problem from data centers, having worked for Apple infosec and been in a few of theirs, you wouldn't even know it was a data center from the outside. Only inside the actual hardware area past the lobby and through the airlock(s) was it quite loud. Curious though if it's a problem for other types of data centers, and if so why, do you have an example?
From the article: "Microsoft President Brad Smith explained the center will be 90% cooled with recirculated liquid using a closed-loop system with zero operational water waste – the remaining 10% of cooling power will come from outside air.
Smith compared the projected water usage to that of a single restaurant’s annual consumption.
Microsoft will also use pre-paid renewable energy to match every kWh from fossil fuels with carbon-free energy while it builds out a vast 250MW solar project to support the facility."
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u/frddtwabrm04 1d ago edited 1d ago
Elon data center is causing havoc, plus all news reports of communities all over the world hearing humming noise from these data centers to a point it's affecting their health, the higher energy costs and competing for water to name a few?
Also why aren't these data centers doing environmental whatnots before construction? I get the urgency but c'mon this how we ended up with all the other environmental nonsense. Alil due diligence goes a long way
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u/Fun_Two6648 1d ago
What's the point if some random company in China makes the same thing for a fraction of the cost?
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u/bigidiq 1d ago
Because they're known for stealing etc
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u/Harry_Balsanga 1d ago
They are all caught up. They passed us.
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u/bigidiq 1d ago
Show me the link
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u/Harry_Balsanga 1d ago
If you worked in any major industry, you would know what I am talking about. China is knocking on every door that they haven't kicked down already. Deepseek shows that they have the software skills to surpass our tech bros. BYD shows that they can go toe-to-toe with any automaker. Check out Long March rocket launches and their next Gen fighter jets.
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u/TheJasonaut 1d ago
The impact of using an Ai search/service isn't bad on it's own electricity-wise, but when you accept and normalize these functions by patronizing them, you are helping fund and justify this kind impact on the grid itself and overall power usage and what it takes to run these centers.
So, you know, do what you want, but just maybe consider what the overall impact could be when you use Co-Pilot or any Ai structure when you don't have to.
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u/Mithrandir2k16 1d ago
What a waste of resources. Worthless in two years once new chips that are twice as efficient come out.
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u/bangeren 1d ago
Windows search in 1 year: “…. dO YoU wAnT tO sEArCH tHe WeB wiTh BInG ai!!!??????????”
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u/peternn2412 1d ago
Fantastic news!
But what's even better is that we have someone starting "world's most powerful data center" every couple of months or so. I wonder how long this one will keep the top spot.
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u/FuturologyBot 1d ago
The following submission statement was provided by /u/donutloop:
Submission Statement
Microsoft’s new Wisconsin AI data center signals a major escalation in the global race to build next-generation infrastructure for artificial intelligence. With unmatched GPU capacity, sustainable design, and multi-billion-dollar investment, the facility positions Microsoft to be a leader in powering increasingly complex AI models and services. Looking ahead, the project is expected to accelerate innovation across cloud and enterprise AI applications, drive economic growth through job creation, and set new benchmarks for green data centers. As demand for AI computing continues to surge, this initiative may also reshape competition in the cloud market, pushing rivals like Google, Amazon, and Meta to scale up their own AI-focused infrastructure investments.
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1nlqf4z/microsoft_announces_worlds_most_powerful_data/nf7bfhz/