Why Are Data Centers Crowding Out Housing?

Derek Thompson says data centers are crowding out housing: in the last year, data center construction is up by more than 60%, while construction of housing, hospitals, offices, and manufacturing facilities is down.

He does not treat a data center as a house. A data center is an igloo for chips, a very cold house for chips, and a house is a house for people. He is passionate about removing barriers to housing where people want to live, and less passionate about clearing the way for every AI company to put a data center wherever it wants. Jason Furman, an economist at Harvard, published the graph behind the 60% figure. Derek Thompson says data centers are eating the economy and crowding out other investment. He does not want data center construction to stop, and he says he is less anti-AI than the average person who shares his views on redistribution, poverty, and healthcare. He still draws a line between houses for chips and houses for people.