Post by @jalefkowit@hachyderm.io

"I keep coming back to this graph because it’s so eye-popping, almost impossible to believe. As you see in the legend, the blue line is data centers. The grey line is everything else. Everything else. Commercial properties. Rental properties. Single family homes. Multiple family homes. Pick your preferred flavor of development, NIMBY, YIMBY, urban, rural, it’s in there. You basically have rapid data center growth and everything else contracting."

🎁 https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/its-the-ai-economy-were-just-living-in-it/sharetoken/ca52578d-d5d9-4d8b-9789-2c7a019b291f

Graph showing private construction spending relative to December 2023 for data centers and all other private construction. Data center construction has steadily grown to $5 billion over the baseline today. All other private construction fell off a cliff in 2025 and is now $10 billion below the baseline.

TPM – Talking Points Memo

It’s the AI Economy … We’re Just Living In It

I corresponded with a TPM Reader from the tech world recently who marveled at the political salience of data centers when data centers have been around since…

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mossman

@mossman@social.vivaldi.net 14 hr. ago

@jalefkowit I'm presuming this in in the USA. If so, you might want to make that clear - not sure the picture is the same globally.

Ameise

@Ameise@mastodon.social 14 hr. ago

@jalefkowit Crazy fact. It looks like the U.S. is ruining its own economy because of a bubble. AI isn't a business model that can really generate sustainable profits—at least not as much as is currently being invested in it. There are so many good, free alternatives.

Greg Bell

@ferrix@mastodon.online 14 hr. ago

@jalefkowit I've been thinking we were in an undeclared recession, but maybe it's actually a depression

Matthew Cambion

@matthewcambion@metalhead.club 14 hr. ago

@jalefkowit So, basically, the economy is fucked but there's an asset bubble masking the true extent of the problem?

Looks like it's gonna be 2008 all over again. Dammit.

GhostOnTheHalfShell

@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai 15 hr. ago

@jalefkowit

We destroy AI because we want to.

Murderers build AI because they want to.

Walkerjly

@Walkerjly@mastodon.social 15 hr. ago

@jalefkowit yes, but the graph doesn't show the actual numbers. Is that information also available?

MarjorieR

@marjolica@social.linux.pizza 15 hr. ago

@jalefkowit I find it unhelpful that we aren't told or shown what the baseline spends in 2024 were: if all other private construction spend was much larger than data centre spend in 2024 it would seem much less worrying, albeit there's quite a big aggregate drop in the sector since 2024.

Mr. Lance E Sloan (IRL) 👤

@sloanlance@mastodon.social 15 hr. ago

@jalefkowit
I hope data center buildings will be fit for future habitation. I expect that eventually, data center usage will drop, like that of indoor shopping malls. Malls are now being repurposed as residences and other uses. I hope the same happens with data centers.

Mike Whitney

@mhhwhitney@hachyderm.io 15 hr. ago

@jalefkowit

I do fear that some great, powerful, unfeeling entity is going roll over us, our neighbors and civilization and grind it into dust.

AI?! That's laughable. The problem is the same as it's been for the last half-century. It's the corporations run by fools that are willing to sacrifice the world on burning pyre of excess so long as they can keep themselves convinced that through some miracle they will be in a position to rule over the ashes.