Meanwhile, in a release issued last week, CoreWeave stated, “it has been unequivocal — to Core Scientific and publicly — that we will not modify our offer. Our offer is best and final.”
Alvin Nguyen, senior analyst at Forrester Research, said what happens next with the overall data center market “depends on when AI demand slows down (when the AI bubble bursts).”
He added, “if AI demand continues, prices continue to go up, and data centers change in terms of preferred locations (cooler climates, access to water, lots of space, more remote), use of microgrids/energy production, expect [major] players to continue to dominate.”
However, said Nguyen, “if that slowdown is soon, then prices will drop, and the key players will need to either unload property or hold onto them until AI demand builds back up.”
Generational shift occurring
Asked what the overall effect of AI will be on CIOs in need of data center capacity, he said, “the new AI mega-factories alter data center placement: you don’t put them near existing communities because they demand too much power, water, land, you build them somewhere remote, and communities will pop up around them.”
Smaller data centers, said Nguyen, “will still consume power and water in contention with their neighbors (industrial, commercial, and residential), potential limiting their access or causing costs to rise. CIOs and Network World readers should evaluate the trade offs/ROI of not just competing for data center services, but also for being located near a new data center.”
