The widespread adoption of generative artificial intelligence has ushered in a new gold rush in which the tech giants are scrambling to build up data center capacity, new players are angling to get skin in the game, and consumers are watching as their power bills rise and resources in their communities are strained.
Bloomberg News published a series of data-driven, online features chronicling the buildout and its impacts on communities; the circularity of business between companies across the AI ecosystem; how these deals are inflating everything from electricity prices to company valuations; and what’s at stake if the boom goes bust.
Our package exemplifies modern online journalism. Through data visualizations, maps, interactive storytelling, photography, and other multimedia elements, our reporters unpack complex deals and the ecosystem underpinning the AI infrastructure boom; reveal the new players driving the AI gold rush; and expose this boom’s large-scale impacts on utility costs and water resources.
Our visualization of the web of circular deals among AI players and a database we established to track such arrangements hit at the heart of growing fears over an AI infrastructure bubble. Our dive into wholesale electricity data at thousands of regional nodes across the U.S. established for the first time that the AI data center boom is driving up wholesale electricity prices. And our analysis of thousands of data center projects worldwide laid bare the people and companies that will be left holding the bag if AI doesn’t live up to its promise of riches.
