5 questions for the Data Center Coalition's Josh Levi
Hello, and welcome to this week's installment of the Future in Five Questions. This week I spoke with Josh Levi, president of the Data Center Coalition, the primary trade group for one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States. Levi, a former vice president of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, discussed why he thinks government needs to do more to boost U.S. energy generation and capacity, the influence of science historian James Burke's 'Connections,' and the astonishing rate of growth and spending in his own industry. An edited and condensed version of the conversation follows:
What's one underrated big idea?
How digital infrastructure has become foundational for everything we do. Data is the lifeblood of our daily lives and the 21st-century economy. All the convenience we often associate with the cloud, whether it's streaming a movie, participating in a Zoom call, having a telehealth appointment with your doctor, or participating in online learning is facilitated by data transferred and stored in physical locations, the servers located in data centers.
In fact, the average American household now has 21 connected devices. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit my family has over 50. The world is expected to generate as much data in the next five years as it did over the previous 10, especially as an additional 2 billion people start connecting to the internet. We're seeing a massive increase in demand for the data that fuels economic growth. Ninety-five percent of Fortune 500 companies now leverage cloud-based tools and apps in their daily operations, and business sectors of all types, like manufacturing, healthcare, cybersecurity and finance, among many others rely on cloud-based data processing. With the increasing deployment of AI applications, these trends will continue and accelerate.
What's a technology that you think is overhyped?
I think there's too much attention paid to technologies potentially being overhyped, to the extent that we may instead risk underhyping the potential for significant advancements. I've been proven wrong multiple times in the past by technologies I thought were overhyped. Some that were literally science fiction when I was growing up are now accepted facets of our daily lives.
I remember reading an article in the late 1990s that introduced the concept of a single device that would replace your watch, phone, electronic communications, beeper, camera, and even your wallet. This was in the flip-phone era, and the idea of using a phone for payments and credentials was hard to fathom. By being too cautious or moving too slowly, we may miss the tremendous positive upside of new technologies rather than leaning in to help support their creation and adoption.
What could the government be doing regarding technology that it isn't?
Access to reliable electricity has become the pacing challenge to building out America's digital infrastructure. After 20 years of relatively flat electricity load growth, today nearly all new investment and growth throughout the 21st century economy fundamentally relies on the availability of power.
Previously, data center companies have been able to construct and power facilities in 18 to 24 months. Now in some markets, power will not be available to support major projects for four to seven years or longer. An overly cautious view bears risks for our entire economy. The federal government has an important leadership role to play, and while efforts are underway, more can be done and speed is important. Load forecasting processes should be standardized and improved to build greater confidence and right-size investments. Permitting reform for needed transmission investments and projects should be expedited. New grid configurations, including co-located load arrangements, should be permissible with reasonable parameters in place. Energy supply chains, particularly for transformers, breakers and turbines, should be prioritized and secured.
The Trump administration recognizes the essential role of data centers and has been a strong leader in helping to accelerate additional investments that support our national security and economic competitiveness today and into the future. The data center industry will continue engaging with the White House, Congress, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and various agencies to help inform how the federal government can ensure we have the power needed to meet this moment.
What book most shaped your conception of the future?
I read a book in middle school by James Burke called 'Connections,' which was a companion to a related documentary series. 'Connections' significantly influenced how I think about the future and the present. In the book, Burke identifies a series of inventions that are important in our modern lives, such as airplanes, TVs and the industrial production line. He then looks back at previous technologies, inventions and discoveries over centuries that influenced and contributed to the development of that modern-day technology. These connections and chains of events were not immediately obvious, and Burke's skill is in identifying and weaving them together.
'Connections' provided an extraordinary view of everything that had to come together to inform many of our modern technologies. It expanded my awareness of all the innovations we know today and the certainty I have that many will come together in the future to create extraordinary new innovations we cannot anticipate. 'Connections' influenced my decision to focus my career in the technology industry.
What has surprised you the most this year?
The size and scale of investments made by data center companies in continuing to build out digital infrastructure. How quickly these announcements and investments have grown from hundreds of millions of dollars, to billions of dollars, to more than $100 billion in some cases, has been extraordinary. Meanwhile, the number of jobs and economic opportunities associated with those investments has continued to increase; the industry now supports 4.7 million jobs and $727 billion in annual GDP as of 2023. Companies are investing to meet this unprecedented moment and responding to the growing demand signals for more data and digital infrastructure across all facets of our society and economy.
grok-splaining
xAI offered a measured explanation for its chatbot Grok's sudden obsession with 'white genocide.'
In a post on X Thursday evening, the company said 'an unauthorized modification was made to the Grok response bot's prompt on X … This change, which directed Grok to provide a specific response on a political topic, violated xAI's internal policies and core values.' The message did not disclose who made the change.
xAI continued to say, 'We have conducted a thorough investigation and are implementing measures to enhance Grok's transparency and reliability.' The company outlined steps it's taking to increase transparency for Grok's output, including publishing system prompts on GitHub, adding 'additional checks and measures to ensure that xAI employees can't modify the prompt without review,' and starting a '24/7 monitoring team' to catch future incidents.
openai tries to clear the air
OpenAI is trying to convince California's attorney general that it's complying with the legal obligations of being a nonprofit.
POLITICO's Christine Mui reported for Pro subscribers today on a letter from the company to California AG Rob Bonta, pushing back on criticism from figures like Elon Musk and other nonprofits that OpenAI is not meeting its requirements as a nonprofit.
Critics accuse OpenAI of breaching its charitable trust by abandoning its original nonprofit mission and allowing its assets to be diverted for private gain.
'Despite (and likely because) of OpenAI's achievements, its most powerful detractors — many of whom, including Elon Musk, stand to massively profit if OpenAI falters — have sponsored a false narrative about OpenAI to advance their own commercial interests,' wrote two lawyers hired by OpenAI, Gov. Gavin Newsom's former chief of staff Ann O'Leary and William Savitt.
Bonta has been investigating OpenAI's compliance as a nonprofit since 2024. Amid the company's abortive attempt to put its for-profit portion in control of the nonprofit last month, nonprofits, labor groups and philanthropists signed a letter asking Bonta to 'transfer OpenAI's charitable assets to a truly independent nonprofit or nonprofits.'
ai in albania
European Union leaders visiting Albania today received a deeply weird AI-powered welcome.
POLITICO's Clea Calcutt reported from the opening ceremony of the European Political Community in Tirana, where EU leaders were greeted by a short film showing each of them … as an AI-generated baby, saying 'Welcome to Albania' in their native language.
Clea writes that the video could have been dreamt up by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, a former painter in France with a reputation for playful quirkiness. (He was reelected by a wide margin this week.)
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni laughed heartily at the strange welcome, while Clea writes that Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen smiled incredulously. Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was 'stony,' but he 'let a slight smile slip when his version came up, a small baby with a mustache.'
post of the day
THE FUTURE IN 5 LINKS
Stay in touch with the whole team: Mohar Chatterjee (mchatterjee@politico.com); Steve Heuser (sheuser@politico.com); Nate Robson (nrobson@politico.com); and Daniella Cheslow (dcheslow@politico.com).
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