Comparing AI data centers to 1900s power buildout: the anti-DC craze will look silly in a decade
GabGarrett · x · 2026-10-16
The author defends AI data centers by analogy to the 1900s electrification buildout: back then, hideous factories, smokestacks and hundreds of thousands of miles of poles and power lines were widely resented, yet today nobody could live without electricity. He argues the data-center buildout is far less invasive than that was, and the current anti-AI data center craze will seem silly in a decade when no one can imagine life without it.
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