9 Data Centers already exist in Tucson. Is one near you?

Part 1

This is a multi-part post. More coming in Part 2.

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After hearing that greater Phoenix has the largest number of data centers of any city on the entire planet, I began a wider search online for data centers in Arizona. That’s when I discovered that 9 data centers already exist here Pima County, specifically in Tucson. They range in size from a tiny 1,000 square feet (sounds like some company’s outsized storage closet) to over 280,000 square feet. And some are located smack dab in Mid-Town neighborhoods!

Now I have some questions:

• Why has no mention of these existing data centers been made during the continuing fight over Project Blue?
• It seems that someone could have cited these data centers as precedents or as a source of real data about operating the existing centers. Did anyone in the City government ask for actual water and/or power usage figures for these data centers from TEP and Tucson Water?
• Were any neighbors asked for their input? Did/do the neighbors even know about the data centers?
• Is the City unaware of the data centers? Or is the City trying to minimize the presence of these existing data centers (also called server farms or colocation facilities) located within and near the Tucson city limits?
• Or maybe someone decided that because the ones in the city are so much smaller than Project Blue that the data wasn’t relevant?
• Are they all using potable (drinkable) water to cool the thousands of servers in those darkened buildings already churning out grammar corrections, cute cat avatars, updated resumes, and cartoon robots lined up to represent servers on racks? If so, how much? Enough to water a football field? A golf course? Or more?

Here is a link to a map of the locations. On that page you can click through the company names on the right to see specific addresses. If you go to Google’s Street View you will see they are really boring buildings: plain brick or concrete blocks with no windows and small or vague signage that doesn’t directly disclose what the building contains. One is actually part of a consulting firm. (Not sure what kind of consulting!)

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Here is some other news

On Monday, November 24 Meta (that’s Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger +others) announced that it is now looking for data centers to rent — in addition to building their own mega-data centers with financing help from Blue Owl, the money guys behind Project Blue. And how long of a rental agreement are they looking for: 4 years!

What that seems to indicate is that they believe that 5 years from now they may want smaller or fewer facilities for their servers. Why? Because if the 60 year trend in tech continues (and there no reason it shouldn’t–Moore’s Law, speeded up, is still partially in effect) in 4 years the efficiency of the servers will have increased so much that they will be significantly smaller, much more efficient and the space needed to house them will also be significantly smaller. As savvy property owners they do not want to end up owning big empty buildings. No city or town wants to have big vacant buildings in it either.

If you are skeptical about this, one Chinese company announced recently that it developed a chip that runs 1,000 times faster and better than the most common ones currently used by top A.I. firms. This claim has not yet been confirmed by outside experts. It is, nonetheless, a sign of the direction chip-design and manufacturing is going.

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And then there is Elon who claims that A.I. will soon be powered by solar power generated in space and beamed down to earth. He pointed out that there is no night in space and that power can be generated 24 hours a day. And, of course, this space power would be controlled by Musk’s companies. Of course. Of course.

More on this and related topics in Part 2 on Wednesday, including why you may really love the idea of Elon beaming down power to our planet.

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A shout-out to Councilman Dahl for being the first to tell Beale a hard “No” on Project Blue. He also refused to sign the non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

And while I am on the topic of NDAs — how many other NDAs have City and County officials and/or their staffs signed? Is something else is in the works but hidden from public view?

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And finally, “Thank you” Gemini 3.0 for creating the image of little robots representing servers stacked in racks at the top of this post.