Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Feed Link: https://www.engadget.com/
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Title: Oracle will reportedly power a giant data center with gas generators

Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2025 21:16:59 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/ai/oracle-will-repor...

Bloomberg has published a deep dive into operations at Oracle, chronicling
the software giant's rise in cloud computing and current push into powering
artificial intelligence projects. The publication reported that Oracle has
promised to develop tens of billions of dollars in data centers, which have
become a hot business. Notably, Oracle landed a deal to back operations at
OpenAI, in a partnership that will give the AI company 4.5 gigawatts of
computing power. According to Bloomberg, that's enough energy to power
"millions of American homes."

So far, Oracle has seemed willing to throw money at its AI data center
projects, no matter how expensive or irresponsible the needs might be. For
instance, a source said the company plans to spend more than $1 billion a
year powering a single data center in Texas with gas generators rather than
waiting for a utility connection to be built. When completed, this data
center is expected to be one of the largest known sites, with computing power
of 1.4 gigawatts.

In addition to the huge monetary cost, such a project can also have negative
human and environmental impact. The Elon Musk-owned xAI is under fire after a
supercomputer for its artificial intelligence operations became a primary
source of air pollution in Memphis thanks to methane-powered turbines. Other
majors, including Google, Microsoft and Meta, have chosen to try nuclear
power for their data center projects, which comes with its own potential
complications and risks.

Purely on the financial side, Oracle's decision to invest so much so quickly
meant the company reported its first negative annual cash flow since 1990.
Should the current rates of AI investment turn out to be a bubble, it could
be very bad news to have many billions of dollars on the line.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/ai/oracle-will-repor...
with-gas-generators-211658314.html?src=rss

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