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This is the biggest story in economics - and we're in uncharted territory
If you ever fly to Washington DC, look out of the window as you land at Dulles Airport - and you might snatch a glimpse of the single biggest story in economics right now.
There below you, you will see scattered around the fields and woods of the local area a set of vast warehouses that might to the untrained eye look like supermarkets or distribution centres. But no: these are in fact data centres - the biggest concentration of data centres anywhere in the world.
For this area surrounding Dulles Airport has more of these buildings, housing computer servers that do the calculations to train and run artificial intelligence (AI), than anywhere else. And since AI accounts for the vast majority of economic growth in the US so far this year, that makes this place an enormous deal.
Down at ground level you can see the hallmarks as you drive around what is known as "data centre alley". There are enormous power lines everywhere - a reminder that running these plants is an incredibly energy-intensive task.
This tiny area alone, Loudoun County, consumes roughly 4.9 gigawatts of power - more than the entire consumption of Denmark. That number has already tripled in the past six years, and is due to be catapulted ever higher in the coming years.
Inside 'data centre alley' We know as much because we have gained rare access into the heart of "data centre alley.
Amir Nisi
Creative and experienced content writer with 6+ years of experience lazy to create unique content strategy for News5 to turn website visitors into customers.
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