San Marcos, Texas (Kxan) – A new artificial intelligence data center would be built in San Marcos. Construction could start in April, according to the company behind it, Cloudburst data centers.
Cloudburst has signed a contract with energy transfer to provide natural gas via a pipeline to power the installation. The company said that the San Marcos data center would be its flagship establishment.
The city of San Marcos told Kxan that the company was currently working in the development process and does not seek incentives for the city.
What is AI data center?
A data center is a large physical installation that houses servers to store information.
“The data centers have been part of IT in recent decades and have been extremely important,” said Samantha Shorey Ph.D, a guest assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh where she studies AI.
“When we think of AI, we are witnessing an acceleration of the need for storage of the data center and energy calculation,” she continued.
Shorey said AI requires much more power than traditional IT. For example, internet research that uses AI requires the energy approximately ten times that what a typical internet query needs, according to the Electric Power Research Institute.
While our lives have become more digital and the use of AI has increased, Shorey said that the need for more data centers has also increased.
Shorey said the installation would also probably be a boon for San Marcos’ economy.
“When we think of people who are necessary to protect data centers-keep them safe, observe them, make sure they work as they are intended, maintain them, keep them by working,” she declared. “These are all different types of labor and employment roles that will be necessary in a place with an important data center.”
