GoKawiil
Tech News
In Ulanqab, a farming region in Inner Mongolia known as China's 'potato capital', large-scale data centre construction is underway alongside agricultural land. Workers described the project as proceeding in multiple phases, with one phase completed roughly every year and more planned. These facilities are intended to provide the computing power behind China's AI ambitions.
BBC correspondent Laura Bicker visited data centre sites in Inner Mongolia, part of a wave of construction underpinning China's AI ambitions. Her report contrasts public attitudes toward data centre development in China with those in the US, coming just before a planned meeting between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in Washington.
Google announced a record €13bn investment in Finland to build three new data centres, expand its existing Hamina facility, and support energy infrastructure for AI growth. As part of the deal, Google signed a 22-year agreement with Fortum to purchase up to half the electricity output from the Loviisa nuclear plant.
The Economist reports that despite fears of AI-driven job destruction, US employment data shows no broad downturn: unemployment sits at 4.1% and young workers' job prospects remain strong. While companies like Microsoft, Meta, Block and Intuit have cut roles tied to automation—averaging about 16,000 AI-related layoffs monthly—the publication estimates AI has simultaneously generated roughly 1 million new jobs through data-center construction, startup hiring and new corporate AI roles, dwarfing the roughly 200,000 layoffs attributed to the technology since mid-2023.
Australia now hosts 162 data centres with 90 more planned and over A$155bn in investment lined up, driven by cheap energy, gas reserves and available land. Residents near facilities in Sydney's Lane Cove and Marsden Park report constant humming and worry about proximity to homes, while a proposed one-gigawatt facility in western Sydney could become the country's largest single energy consumer.