[constance_chlore]

This from The Logic

​ Here’s your Friday briefing.​

​ Meta, Pembina near deal to build massive Alberta AI data centre The social media giant plans to locate the facility in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland region near Edmonton, using gas supplied by infrastructure company Pembina Pipeline, according to three sources. Companies behind the proposal, as well as the Alberta premier’s office, did not immediately respond to inquiries. (The Logic)​ Talking point: If built, Meta’s data centre would be a major catch for the Alberta government, which has tried to position the province as an AI compute hub. Final details of the potential data centre were still being worked out, but two sources said the facility would be powered by Calgary companies Pembina and Kineticor, which earlier this year proposed a 1,800-megawatt natural gas power station in the Industrial Heartland region. One source said Beacon AI, a Calgary-based company with ambitious plans to build several AI data centres, is also involved in the proposed project. - Jesse

Infuriating that Meta is the partner here—the company that thinks it's fine for chatbots to engage in 'sensual' (their words) conversations with 13-year-olds. (And that's not all that's in that Reuters article...)

 

[northlands]

Overall it’s not really clear to me what the benefits are with having a multitude of data centres built locally. Are they really even integral for attracting tech talent/corps here?

Post-commissioning they assumedly employ very few but consume a ridiculous amount of power, which for those connected to the grid or generating stations connected to the grid, it creates upward pressure on local electricity prices. I guess at least there’s taxation revenue from these data centre corp revenue?

 

[archited]

^ The proposal is to have their own power generating plant using Natural Gas as the energy source to drive turbines so I don't see how it would drive up power prices for residential consumers -- it seems it would be isolated from the grid for security reasons. As to employment -- the build-out would be labor-rich and there would, in follow-up, be good paying tech jobs continually upgrading servers for alternative AI solutions; it certainly wouldn't be as employee needy as a data bank but it would be more staff needy than say a commercial bank on a square-foot basis.

Infuriating that Meta is the partner here

Are you saying that there is someone betta than meta? (If you are then I agree -- but maybe operational regulations in Canada can be stiffer than those in the U.S.)

 

[NicolBolas]

Given the snails pace that AUC, AESO and AEPA operate at, this thing won't get built for 5 years if you are lucky.

 

[NateTheUrbanist]

This from The Logic

​ Here’s your Friday briefing.​

​ Meta, Pembina near deal to build massive Alberta AI data centre The social media giant plans to locate the facility in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland region near Edmonton, using gas supplied by infrastructure company Pembina Pipeline, according to three sources. Companies behind the proposal, as well as the Alberta premier’s office, did not immediately respond to inquiries. (The Logic)​ Talking point: If built, Meta’s data centre would be a major catch for the Alberta government, which has tried to position the province as an AI compute hub. Final details of the potential data centre were still being worked out, but two sources said the facility would be powered by Calgary companies Pembina and Kineticor, which earlier this year proposed a 1,800-megawatt natural gas power station in the Industrial Heartland region. One source said Beacon AI, a Calgary-based company with ambitious plans to build several AI data centres, is also involved in the proposed project. - Jesse

It's going to be amazing for the Province.

 

[NicolBolas]

It's going to be amazing for the Province.

It would be a good news story for the province.