How Few Jobs Does a Huge Data Center Create?

Azeem Azhar says a huge data center may cost billions of dollars and still employ a handful of people. Two to six people is a normal staff for a multi-billion dollar facility. In the UK, there is an attempt to get people developing data centers to reinvest annuities into the local community.

Azeem Azhar says subsidies for one data center in New Mexico come to four million dollars per job created, leaving aside the cost of the center. Tax abatements and the required improvements to local utilities make the numbers insane, and none of that works long term.

Profits are being made up and down the stack, so there is money in the system and an obvious place for the bill to land. Azeem Azhar says self-regulation does not work. Real rules are needed, whether local, national, or international, about how the systems work and the harms and damages they might cause.