Comment by Symbiote

Racked servers pre-GPU used about 1kW each at high load. 5-10kW for a rack (20 to 40 servers) was common, much more than this would be a special thing.

AI use has driven this to 20, 50, 100kW per rack or more. Supposedly 1000kW for the hyperscalers.

Extrapolate to the whole building and you have a lot of waste heat that has to go somewhere.

Instead of being similar to light industry, the hyperscale AI datacentre is using as much energy as a large steelworks.