Environment
fromArs Technica
1 week agoGreenhouse gases from data center boom could outpace entire nations
New gas projects for data centers in the US may emit more greenhouse gases than Morocco in 2024.
The company is seeking a $1.5 trillion valuation - the richest listing in history, per Bloomberg. Combined with other possible listings, Bloomberg estimates that as much as $2.9 trillion worth of private companies could go public next year. Other AI-linked "centicorns" - companies valued at $100-billion plus-are reportedly weighing listings, including Databricks and Anthropic. OpenAI has an implied valuation of over $500 billion, fueling speculation about a future stock listing, though it has attempted to tamp that down.
We've known for several months now that San Francisco has the fastest-rising rents in the country, and that the sharp rent increases are because of the AI boom. But the New York Times has a new analysis of how AI companies are gaming the rental market in their employees' favor, in some cases with $1,000-a-month rent stipends, or in other cases, simply paying the employees' rent for them out of the company's VC-rich coffers.
Cloudflare announced a new system to block AI companies from accessing websites without permission or compensation, following concerns over content scraping practices.