>Growth trend matters more than absolute present value.

Only if the current absolute present value is enough that the resulting trend matters.

It was only 2 weeks ago when someone posted an article claiming data centers worldwide use 24x less water than golf courses worldwide.

And I mean, you need somewhere to collate all that climate data? You need telecoms to let scientists communicate?

>Driven by AI use, the US economy is set to consume more electricity in 2030 for processing data than for manufacturing all energy-intensive goods combined, including aluminium, steel, cement and chemicals. In advanced economies more broadly, data centres are projected to drive more than 20% of the growth in electricity demand between now and 2030, putting the power sector in those economies back on a growth footing after years of stagnating or declining demand in many of them.

If horse use trends continue at their current pace, London will be covered in 20 meters of horse manure by the end of the decade.

> In advanced economies more broadly, data centre's are projected to drive more than 20% of the growth in electricity demand between now and 2030

20% of the growth isn't much overall either is it? That's likely assuming that the million and 1 spruiked projects actually get off the ground.

>or with a doubling time of 5.8 years

So that in ~6 years they will account for 1%, and still a fraction of the percent of the world total energy use?