Microsoft's $1B AI data center will "switch off half of Kenya"

windowscentral.com

6 pointspjmlp2 comments

>For context, Kenya's total installed electricity capacity sits between 3,000 and 3,100 megawatts

That can't possibly be true. In true dollars Kenya's gdp is 140B USD. You can generate that much products and services on 4GW. That is a single big powerplant. I suspect the author missed a zero somewhere.

Also if they need so much power, why UAE is not also building powerplants? It is not as if Kenya will stop growing.

Doesn't make much sense.

Don't forget that there was an economy before electrification was even a thing. I doubt a Kenyan coffee farmer is using a lot of electricity to grow coffee. Meanwhile a lot of electricity use in richer countries is for household electronics that are convenient but ultimately optional.

The company building the data center probably doesn't want to also build out the necessary support infrastructure if they could get the government to do it instead, and the president emphasizing that that is a big ask is a negotiation tactic to reduce how much assistance the government needs to provide.

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