Blog
Notes on AI data centers, from rack to grid, and to orbit
Plain-language explainers and news on the power, cooling, equipment and economics behind AI infrastructure. Every figure links to its source.
- Data centers in space, the state of play Where orbital data centers stand in late 2026, what has actually flown, what is only planned, and the hard problems of heat, radiation and launch cost.
- How much electricity do data centers and AI use What the US national lab and the International Energy Agency say about data center electricity use today and where it may be heading.
- Liquid cooling and the water question Why hotter AI racks pushed liquid cooling into the mainstream, and what the numbers say about how much water data centers use.
- PUE and cooling without the jargon What power usage effectiveness (PUE) means, how air and liquid cooling differ, and why the number matters for AI data centers.
- The grid connection and equipment bottleneck Why plugging a new data center into the grid can take years, from interconnection queues to transformer lead times, and what is being done about it.
- What is an AI data center A plain-English tour of an AI data center, from a single chip to the rack, the building and the power grid that feeds it.