Inside the Data Centers Powering the AI Boom: Why Secrecy Is Fueling Public Backlash

Inside the data centres powering the AI boom

AI feels invisible. Inside a test server hall in Virginia, it is anything but: "demented white noise," gold-painted Nvidia racks worth $1m each, and nearly 40 diesel generators out back. A rare tour shows why the industry's secrecy is fuelling a backlash. AI can seem like magic, a voice from a phone, an answer from nowhere. Step inside the buildings that make it, and the magic evaporates. What is left is noise, heat, metal, and an enormous appetite for power. Axios's Amy Harder toured a test server hall run by Digital Realty in Ashburn, Virginia, the heart of America's "data center alley." The first thing she noticed was the sound, which she called "demented white noise." It comes from fans fighting the heat of racks of AI chips. A glass floor showed the cooling pipes running beneath her feet. At the bottom of one closet-sized rack sat a gold-coloured Nvidia system. The colour is deliberate, if fake. "Gold is associated with high value and performance," an Nvidia spokesperson said. The value is real enough. "That's about $1 million right there," a Digital Realty engineer said of the rack. Built to be boring For all the money, a data centre is dull by design. "If excitement is happening inside a data center, something has probably gone wrong," Harder wrote. From outside, the buildings are windowless warehouses. The drama is in the power and the cooling: substations, water towers, or long rows of industrial air conditioners. The scale shows in the details. Harder counted almost 40 diesel generators bolted to one building, for backup only, the company said. Virginia's grid, which normally feeds the site, runs largely on gas and nuclear. The nearby Digital Dulles campus could eventually hold 13 data centres, a bet worth more than $10bn. Cooling here will lean on energy rather than water, so no giant towers. Why the doors stay shut Getting in is the hard part. Some operators refused a tour outright. Others demanded non-disclosure agreements, and server halls are usually off-limits. That secrecy, Harder argued, is part of what feeds the backlash now spreading through communities worried about power bills and water. She left convinced firms could show the public far more without giving away secrets. The buildout is only accelerating. Digital Realty is scouting innovation labs in Singapore, São Paulo, and Johannesburg. AI's physical footprint is growing fast, and mostly out of sight. The less people see of it, the more they seem to distrust it, which may be the industry's real design flaw.

What it's like inside the data centers powering the AI boom

Why it matters: Seeing how AI is physically made helps sharpen our understanding of the unprecedented data center buildout that is becoming increasingly unpopular around the country. Behind the scenes: I recently toured an innovation lab by Digital Realty in Northern Virginia, home to the world's largest concentration of data centers. * Digital Realty is one of the world's oldest and most established data center operators. * The lab, which opened in September, allows the company to test new technologies and show visitors -- like customers, lawmakers and journalists -- what it's like to be inside. * A similar one opened in London in June. Inside the room: I was immediately hit with what I can only describe as "demented white noise." * The sound comes from fans cooling racks of AI chips that generate enormous amounts of heat. * It felt like standing inside one giant computer. Even beneath my feet, a glass floor revealed pipes and other infrastructure helping keep the servers cool. Zoom in: At the bottom of one of the closet-sized racks sat a gold-colored Nvidia AI system packed with multiple AI chips. * The gold is intentional -- but not real. "Gold is associated with high value and performance," Nvidia spokesperson Kira Sarkisian said by email. * "That's about $1 million right there," said my tour guide, Digital Realty engineer Tor Nyström, referring to the entire rack. Reality check: Getting inside a data center is not easy. * Some companies flatly declined my request for a tour, while others require signing a non-disclosure agreement to get inside the walls of a campus (server halls are typically off-limits altogether). Friction point: This type of secrecy is part of what's fueling the backlash against data centers, alongside strains on electricity and local water supplies. My thought bubble: Digital Realty let me photograph its innovation lab and tour a nearby campus under construction. I came away convinced companies can show the public how these facilities work without revealing proprietary information. The big picture: AI feels invisible. It isn't. It's racks of servers, cables, cooling systems and enormous amounts of electricity -- and sometimes water. * Compared with an offshore wind farm or an underground coal mine, it's remarkably uneventful. That's by design. * If excitement is happening inside a data center, something has probably gone wrong. Zoom out: After the tour of the test server hall, we drove a few miles to what Digital Realty calls its Digital Dulles campus, which could eventually include 13 data centers with an investment north of $10 billion over the next decade. State of play: The most notable parts of a data center are also the most controversial: the infrastructure needed to power and cool AI. Otherwise, from the outside, data centers look like massive, windowless warehouses. * Multiple electricity substations are visible, along with whatever cooling technology is used, which includes either huge water-filled cooling tours or rows of dozens of industrial air conditioners that require large amounts of power. * Although plans are still being finalized, Digital Realty anticipates these data centers will use a type of cooling that relies more on energy than water. * This means no huge cooling towers were on site, which would be easily visible at those that do use water-based cooling. Stunning stat: I counted almost 40 diesel generators hooked up to one data center building. * Digital Realty spokesman Kevin Gundersen said those are only used for backup power purposes and occasional testing, so they aren't on most of the time. * Normally, the campus draws power from the broader electricity grid. In Virginia, that's largely natural gas and nuclear power. What's next: In a sign of the AI's global footprint, Digital Realty is eyeing at least three more locations for new innovation labs: Singapore, São Paulo, Brazil and Johannesburg, South Africa.