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Compute is leaving land. Recoverability isn’t following

The limits of land may push datacenters to the ocean or even outer space, writes Vishal Gupta. But these options introduce new challenges.

View of the earths oceans from space - stock photo

The cloud is a misleading metaphor. Every digital transaction happening at any time ultimately depends on limited physical infrastructure, such as servers occupying land, cooling systems consuming water and electricity, and cables crossing oceans.

Artificial intelligence is just exposing those physical limits. The International Energy Agency expects global datacenter electricity consumption to rise from about 485 terawatt-hours in 2025 to roughly 950 TWh by 2030, while electricity consumption by

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