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Residents furious as Utah approves datacenter twice the size of Manhattan
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Overview
Utah has approved the construction of a datacenter that will span over 40,000 acres, more than twice the size of Manhattan. The facility, known as Stratos, will require approximately 9GW of power, raising concerns about its energy consumption and impact on local water supplies.
Summary from theguardian.com.
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Hacker News · theguardian.com
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Based on 5 sampled comments from this thread. Analyzed 2026-05-14.
- Concern: The proposed data center's power consumption of 9GW exceeds the entire State of Utah's current usage, raising significant concerns about energy sustainability.
- Concern: Residents are rightly worried about the environmental impact, including water consumption and pollution, especially in a drought-stricken area.
- Concern: There are fears that this project is primarily designed to serve military interests, which could lead to increased surveillance and manipulation of citizens through AI.
- Concern: The scale of the data center, being twice the size of Manhattan, evokes fears of dystopian scenarios, highlighting the potential for unchecked AI development.