On the same day, the data center news released by the two companies was surprisingly consistent: local residents will not suffer.
SpaceX issued an update called "Building the Future" and plans to build a super-large computing power park in Texas and Arizona, with a total investment of more than US$74 billion. The one in Arizona is planned to use about 6 gigawatts of electricity, with 24 gigawatt hours of energy storage. The announcement spent a lot of time talking about the benefits to the community: the Texas campus generates its own electricity and also spends money to improve local water services; the Arizona campus will strengthen the power grid and strive to reduce the electricity bills of local electric cooperative members.
At Microsoft, Walsh, the head of cloud operations, stated that the company will bear the electricity costs caused by the expansion of the data center itself, without relying on government subsidies or passing them on to other electricity users. Microsoft plans to invest US$117 billion in AI and cloud computing this year. Although the Project Kilby project in western Texas, which it is cooperating with Chevron, was once blocked by a local suspension of approval, it still plans to start construction in 2028 and be fully operational in 2031.
Why do you say that? Since the beginning of this year, the attitude towards data centers in many places in the United States has obviously become colder: electricity prices have increased, water shortages have been imposed, approvals have been suspended, and the direction of local politics has also changed after the midterm elections. The larger the data center is built, the more local nods are needed.
"Paying for the electricity bill yourself" sounds like a profit, but it turns out to be the cost of keeping the permission to start construction. For AI companies, things that are harder to get than chips are becoming a ground that can be connected to electricity.