HackerTube.dev

Exposing The Dark Side of America's AI Data Center Explosion | View From Above | Business Insider

Business Insider · 8.2M views · 2025-09-12 · 31:10

Open on YouTube ↗

If playback is restricted in your region, try opening the original video. Use Mark watched to add it to your marked videos.

Overview

A Business Insider investigation into the US boom in AI data centers, mapping where they are, who owns them, and how much power and water they consume. It looks at the costs borne by communities, with a focus on Virginia.

On Hacker News

Cited in threads on AI infrastructure as evidence of the water, power and community costs of data centers.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2025–2026

Topics

Cloud, DevOps & reliabilityPower grid, heating & buildingsEnvironment, agriculture & food systems
Search by tags
data centerswater useelectricityai infrastructurevirginia

What people said

e40 · 2026-01 · Strong recommendation

What? A 5 minute drive is miles, and that's plenty far enough. They are currently being built within 100 meters of homes. It's absolutely insane. EDIT: [VIDEO] Just watch that and not get hoppin' mad.

Read the original HN comment ↗
xavdid · 2026-06 · Recommendation

> People will claim real harms but the connections are spotty at best. This is a wild claim because it's trivially provable. There's been tons of reporting around the effect they have on the immediate vicinity, and that's without even getting into the unknown long-term effects. Here's a decent piece, but there's plenty more out there if you look at all: [VIDEO] Is every single mad person doing investigative reporting and / or living next to a data center? No. But something doesn't have to personally affect me to know it's harmful.

Read the original HN comment ↗
e40 · 2026-05 · Recommendation

Watch these [LINK] [VIDEO] [LINK] Then, tell me if you want to live anywhere near those. Then, tell me of a nuclear power plant that has that bad a repo.

Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by Business Insider, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks
  • SaaS & AI candidates: Topic keywords do not match
  • Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources