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Meta putting up tents across the US to house AI servers, like ‘a scene out of the movie Mad Max’ — structures take three months to build and use jet engines for power (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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These "makeshift" structures are housing hardware that costs millions of dollars in total.

"Putting AI servers inside tents, officially called “rapid deployment structures,” is one of the more unique approaches to the AI build-out, Thomas said. They’re certainly not as sturdy as physical buildings made from steel and concrete, with one commenter comparing it to the “classic $10k racing bike with a $9 lock” situation."

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[–] 20 points 5 months ago (1 child)

This is fairly common I think. In Belgium it's one of the back-up plans in case of power shortage. (article)

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago

    Not very common. Those engines are 50 years old and are only powered up a few times per year to stabilize the power grid as they can quickly scale up and down in contrast to nuclear, wind and solar.

    Most countries do not use them as they are only about 30% efficient and loud. A modern gas power plant can reach double that efficiency.

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