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Meta putting up tents across the US to house AI servers, like ‘a scene out of the movie Mad Max’ — structures take three months to build and use jet engines for power (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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These "makeshift" structures are housing hardware that costs millions of dollars in total.

"Putting AI servers inside tents, officially called “rapid deployment structures,” is one of the more unique approaches to the AI build-out, Thomas said. They’re certainly not as sturdy as physical buildings made from steel and concrete, with one commenter comparing it to the “classic $10k racing bike with a $9 lock” situation."

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[–] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

This isn't for power peaks, it's for a temporary data center. There is nothing usual about it.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago*

    If these are supposed to be used as backup generators then gas turbines are a good fit in technical sense. Can start quickly, don't need a lot of space or cooling, can work on partial load; lead times are somehow short, and you can just pack it all in containers and set up anywhere which seems to be important. The catch is that efficiency is probably just below 40% instead of 60% and slightly above for regular CCGT plant, thst is you need to burn extra 50%-ish gas (methane is cheapest fuel and can just be piped). about anything that burns and can be pumped through a nozzle can be used

    Then there's matter of smog. You're supposed to put giant catalytic converter (sorta) on this thing and normal powerplants do just that. Apparently techbro oligarchs decided it's not disruptive enough this way

    but dw this won't last, talking about bubble broke to the mainstream now

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