HIVE (HIVE.T): Can you build an AI data centre company without pissing everyone off?

The AI boom has caught us all and, whether we want to be or not, it has become inextricably entwined with our lives. At first we embraced it as a loyal assistant. Then, as the race for AI domination hit full speed, it became a hungry industry gobbling land, power and water.

And our enthusiasm began to shift.

What was once a race for GPU compute capacity and the power to support it has become something far more complicated: a race for permission.

That’s because a data centre is more than just a warehouse with pretty flashing lights that generate funny cat videos.

Take a 100 MW data centre. It admittedly isn’t small, but the International Energy Agency uses 100 MW as representative of a hyperscale facility. Running continuously, it can consume up to 876 GWh of electricity per year. With traditional evaporative cooling, it could theoretically consume close to a billion litres of water annually.

Then there’s the land, substations, transmission infrastructure, backup power and cooling equipment. Suddenly, constructing an AI data centre turns into a local infrastructure decision, not a simple technology investment.

And yet, by the standards of the AI arms race now underway, even 100 MW is beginning to look modest. Meta’s new Alberta campus is expected to draw as much as 1,800 MW at full build-out.