Google’s AI Energy Thirst Runs into a Problem in Ireland

It makes sense that the Emerald Isle is serious about staying green.

Google’s hopes for a new data center just outside Dublin were dashed this week when South Dublin County Council refused planning permission for the project. The impasse shows the enormous infrastructure problems that Big Tech companies face in their eagerness to ramp up generative AI products.

Over-Energetic AI 

Ireland is American Big Tech companies’ gateway to Europe. Silicon Valley giants including Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple have European HQs in the country, partly due to its generous tax incentives. All of those companies are, to some degree, chasing after generative AI products. But to build and run the large language models (LLMs) that underpin them, you need a heck of a lot of compute power — which in turn requires a heck of a lot of energy. Ireland has seen a big expansion of data centers in recent years. According to the country’s central statistics office, data centers’ consumption jumped 20% from 2022 to 2023, and they consumed 21% of the nation’s metered electricity in 2023, up from 5% in 2015.

The council that rejected Google’s plans for a new data center, which was supposed to be built and ready to rumble by 2027, gave two reasons:

• It’s concerned about the strain the center would place on the local grid, saying Google didn’t explain in enough detail how it would impact local energy supply by the time it was built. 
• It also said plans for the center didn’t feature enough on-site renewable energy to comply with the region’s plan for green infrastructure. Big Tech’s clamor to snap up electricity for its AI ambitions is majorly tarnishing its reputation as a large industry that favors green energy.

You’ve Been Served: While local council members in Ireland gum things up for Big Tech’s AI ambitions, another big AI player just got drenched with a bucket of ice water. Hindenburg Research, the investment research firm with a penchant for big, market cap-gutting reports, announced a new target on Tuesday in the form of Super Micro, a data center server that has been buoyed up this year by the AI frenzy. Hindenburg announced it has taken a short position on Super Micro, and accused it of “glaring accounting red flags, evidence of undisclosed related party transactions, sanctions and export control failures, and customer issues.”