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Santa Teresa, New Mexico, is in the extreme southeastern corner of the state, not far from El Paso, Texas, and Cuidad Juárez in Mexico. Most readers have probably never heard of it, but today it is ground zero in the fight between local residents and the owners of a massive data center designed to feed the insatiable appetite of artificial intelligence for computing power.
Apart from concerns that AI will supplant the human brain and take over the world, people are concerned all these data centers will suck up every available electron, which will cause their utility bills to go up as the suppliers of electricity race to build more generating stations. Recently, the wise leaders of the state of Utah gave their blessing to a new data center that will use twice as much electricity as the whole rest of the state combined — because nothing must be allowed to slow the advance of AI.
Last fall, construction began on the Project Jupiter data center in Santa Teresa. Developed by BorderPlex Digital Assets, the complex will be powered by a self-contained power system that is separate from the grid that supplies electricity to the public. It is being built for Oracle, which will use it to host artificial intelligence infrastructure for OpenAI.