AI Amplifies Data Centers' Impact—Let's Make Sure It's For Good
Like hospitals where life-saving procedures are performed, schools where innovators are educated and farms where sustenance is grown, data centers' impact can be measured by the work that goes on inside them. Just a few examples: When you make a financial transaction, it is processed in a data center. When you join the work meeting online, it's hosted in a data center. When you turn to ChatGPT for therapy or companionship, you're interacting with an AI model in a data center.
Steffen Ball, the mayor of Heusenstamm, Germany—a suburb of Frankfurt that is a new hot spot for data center development—was exactly right when he said, 'Without data centers, there is no digitization.' Without data centers, there is no internet, no cloud and no AI. Artificial intelligence makes up an increasingly large share of the work being done inside data centers (27% by 2027, up from 14% today).
The Positive Impacts Of AI
AI model training and inference, which happens on GPU clusters inside data centers, has demonstrated dramatically positive impacts across industries. For example:
• In healthcare, the World Economic Forum predicts AI could get us back on track to meet the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal of universal health coverage by 2030. AI is accelerating the rate of protein discovery (45,000-fold), predicting disease diagnoses years in advance and scaling tuberculosis and breast cancer screenings by millions in India alone.
• In education, AI enables learning experiences tailored to each individual, even in places with significant teacher shortages, significantly improving educational outcomes (tutored students consistently outperform 98% of their peers).
• In agriculture, AI might be the key to sustainably feeding a population of 9.3 billion in 2050 (which will require 60% more food than today). AI is helping farmers make better-informed decisions to improve yields and resource consumption; one application has led to a 57% reduction in water usage, a 15% reduction in fertilizer usage and up to 70% yield increase.
The Economic, Environmental And Community Impact Of AI Data Centers
Like hospitals, schools and farms, the impact of the data centers running AI models extends beyond the work that goes on inside them. They are also impactful for their effects on the economies, the environments and the communities in which they operate.
Data centers are engines of economic growth. A 2025 impact analysis conducted by PwC for The Data Center Coalition found the U.S. data center industry positively impacted the economy in terms of jobs, labor income, GDP and fiscal contributions. Data centers directly and indirectly supported 4.7 million jobs and contributed $727 billion to GDP in 2023. The industry's total contribution to government finances (federal, state and local) increased by 146% between 2017 and 2023.
Data centers also impact the environment, and that is often a focal point for critics of the industry. It's true that because AI workloads are much more power-intensive than traditional workloads, AI is driving large increases in data center power consumption. As a result, data centers are consuming more water (indirectly in power generation and, in many data centers, for cooling). Without proportionate offsetting, higher power consumption also means higher carbon emissions.
Leading data center operators are leveraging AI to mitigate these environmental impacts and even enable net positive impacts. As far back as 2016, Google was using DeepMind to reduce the energy used for data center cooling by 40%. Meta's open-source AI model is generating concrete mixtures with up to a 40% lower carbon footprint than the regional industry standard. AI applications that ease the burden of hourly time matching are enabling data centers to run on 24/7 carbon-free energy.
In addition to economic and environmental impacts, data centers also impact the communities in which they're located. It is incumbent on data center operators to be good neighbors. That means mitigating impacts like noise pollution and habitat destruction. Leading developers are modifying their designs to reduce noise and proactively support biodiversity through efforts like preserving habitats for bees and planting new trees.
Being a good neighbor also means taking steps to generate positive impacts for the community. In Europe, for example, leading data center developers design their facilities to recover waste heat and channel it to local district heating systems. Many data center operators support local community initiatives with investments of time as well as monetary donations. Supporting education and career development is another way data center operators are positively impacting their communities.
AI Data Centers' Impacts Should—And Can—Be Positive
The rapid rise of artificial intelligence is dramatically amplifying the impact of data centers—by the AI work they do and their effects on economies, environments and communities. AI presents tremendous opportunities for positive impact in healthcare, education, agriculture and many other industries. It can also help us ensure data centers' economic, environmental and community impacts are positive.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US licenses Nvidia to export chips to China after CEO meets Trump, FT reports
(Reuters) -The U.S. has licensed AI chip bellwether Nvidia to export some chips to China after CEO Jensen Huang met with President Donald Trump, the Financial Times reported on Friday. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
OpenAI's GPT-5 Met With Mixed Reviews, Confusion in First Day
(Bloomberg) -- For months, OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman has been hyping up the capabilities of GPT-5, setting up the launch as a seminal moment for the company. But in the first 24 hours after its release, the new model was met with mixed reviews. All Hail the Humble Speed Hump Three Deaths Reported as NYC Legionnaires' Outbreak Spreads Mayor Asked to Explain $1.4 Billion of Wasted Johannesburg Funds Major Istanbul Projects Are Stalling as City Leaders Sit in Jail Chicago Schools' Bond Penalty Widens as $734 Million Gap Looms In its announcement Thursday, OpenAI said GPT-5 was better at coding and reasoning through complex problems, and touted it as advanced enough to turn chatbot ChatGPT into a Ph.D.-level expert. Some with early access praised the model, with caveats. 'It's my new favorite model,' developer Simon Willison wrote in a blog post, calling it 'competent' and 'occasionally impressive.' He added: 'It's not a dramatic departure from what we've had before.' On various social media platforms, however, ChatGPT users expressed frustration that GPT-5 continued to make up information and trip over simple math and spelling questions. Noah Giansiracusa, an associate professor of mathematics at Bentley University, said he felt the launch was 'underwhelming.' While there were 'some improvements,' he said, 'they were much more marginal than I would've hoped.' At least some of the reaction may come down to confusion over what's happening under the hood. Unlike OpenAI's prior software, GPT-5 automatically switches between models of varying levels of sophistication depending on the query. This approach can help maximize the company's computing resources, but it also means users may not always be engaging with the most powerful version of OpenAI's technology. Asked to identify how many times the letter 'b' shows up in 'blueberry,' for example, GPT-5 initially said 'three' in one test. When told to 'think harder,' however, GPT-5 appeared to engage its more advanced reasoning model and came up with the correct answer. On Friday, Altman responded to some of the feedback and said there was an issue with the system. 'GPT-5 will seem smarter starting today,' he said. 'Yesterday, the autoswitcher broke and was out of commission for a chunk of the day, and the result was GPT-5 seemed way dumber.' The stakes are high for the rollout. OpenAI is vying to keep ahead of growing AI competition from rivals in the US and China. The company is also fighting to convince businesses and individual users to pay up for its premium services to help offset the enormous amount it's spending on talent, chips and data centers to support AI development. The San Francisco-based company kicked off the generative AI boom nearly three years ago with the release of ChatGPT, which was originally powered by an earlier model called GPT-3.5. Since then, the company has released a series of increasingly sophisticated systems, including multiple options that mimic the process of human reasoning. As AI systems advance, it's become harder to say definitively how various services stack up. As of midday Friday, GPT-5 had risen to the top of various categories on LMArena, a popular leaderboard for AI models based on user rankings. But a different benchmark, ARC-AGI-2, puts GPT-5 behind the latest version of Grok from Elon Musk's xAI. In the absence of more definitive assessments, the model wars sometimes come down to vibes. And with nearly 700 million people now using ChatGPT each week, some are bound to disagree over how the model feels. It also takes longer than a day to gauge the value of a new AI system in someone's personal and professional life. Ethan Mollick, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who frequently experiments with AI models, marveled at GPT-5's ability to do research, come up with clever written responses and make programming simple, even for a novice. 'GPT-5 just does stuff, often extraordinary stuff, sometimes weird stuff, sometimes very AI stuff, on its own,' he wrote in a blog post. 'And that is what makes it so interesting.' On Reddit, however, the reactions were very different. During an 'Ask Me Anything' session Friday on the platform, Altman fielded pushback from users who were frustrated not to have more say and visibility into which model responds to their queries. Altman said OpenAI would take some steps to address these complaints, including making it 'more transparent.' At one point, Altman responded to a Reddit user's question by noting that OpenAI thinks the 'writing quality' in one version of GPT-5 is better than GPT-4.5. Then he asked: 'Do you find it to be worse?' One user after another were quick to respond: yes. The Pizza Oven Startup With a Plan to Own Every Piece of the Pie Digital Nomads Are Transforming Medellín's Housing Russia's Secret War and the Plot to Kill a German CEO It's Only a Matter of Time Until Americans Pay for Trump's Tariffs The Game Starts at 8. The Robbery Starts at 8:01 ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Is Nvidia Stock Likely to Rally After Aug. 27?
Key Points Nvidia's stock has been rallying this year after a tough start due to tariffs. Easing China-U.S. relations should have a positive impact on Nvidia's business. Tech companies continue to spend heavily on artificial intelligence (AI), suggesting demand for Nvidia's chips remains robust. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) had a rough start to 2025, with macroeconomic concerns and tariffs weighing on the stock. But it has seemingly shaken off those fears, and year to date, the stock is now up close to 30% (as of Aug. 4), becoming the first to reach a valuation north of $4 trillion. While its valuation is undoubtedly high, there's one thing that has the potential to send its shares up even more, and that's a strong earnings report. With Nvidia's earnings set to come out later this month, on Aug. 27, is that likely to be a catalyst that sends the chipmaker's scorching-hot stock to new heights? How has Nvidia's stock typically performed after earnings? The chart shows how Nvidia's stock has performed over the past few years, while also indicating when it reported earnings. There has been notable movement following earnings in both directions, but it hasn't normally been a move straight up or straight down afterward. This suggests that other factors may play much more important roles in Nvidia's stock's performance, and that strong earnings numbers may already be priced into its valuation. Nvidia last reported earnings on May 28. At the time, the stock was trading at around $135, and it has gone on to surge since then. But in the first few days after reporting earnings, its shares didn't take off -- a clear sign that the earnings report itself wasn't likely the reason for its recent rise in value. Instead, the rally may be due to progress in China-U.S. trade talks, with the U.S. government recently permitting Nvidia to sell its H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China. Another catalyst is tech companies still expecting to spend more on AI in the near future, indicating that demand for Nvidia's chips isn't likely to slow down anytime soon. Could Nvidia's high valuation make it too difficult for the stock to rally after earnings? Back in April, when the U.S. government announced reciprocal tariffs, Nvidia's stock was trading at close to 30 times its trailing earnings. And that low valuation may have made it easier for it to rally since then. But by the same token, now, with the AI stock looking much more expensive and valued at a price-to-earnings multiple of over 56, that could restrict gains from here on out, even if Nvidia does demonstrate strong growth for the upcoming quarter. While the stock isn't trading at the elevated premiums it was at in late 2024, if its growth rate isn't strong and its guidance isn't better than what analysts are expecting, then its upcoming earnings report may not provide the stock with much, if any, of a boost. Should you buy Nvidia stock today? I don't expect Nvidia's stock to surge after earnings, only because I wouldn't expect too-rosy guidance from the company at a time when there's so much uncertainty in the global economy. And with the stock trading at elevated levels again, it may not be easy to convince investors that it's a cheap buy. However, for the long term, Nvidia can still be a good investment, given its dominance in the AI chip market. And as long as you're not in a rush to turn a quick profit on the stock, it can be a solid buy -- I just wouldn't get my hopes up for a big rally after it releases its upcoming earnings numbers. Should you buy stock in Nvidia right now? Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $636,563!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,108,033!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,047% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 181% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 4, 2025 David Jagielski has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Is Nvidia Stock Likely to Rally After Aug. 27? was originally published by The Motley Fool
