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what will happen to all the datacenters when the bubble bursts? (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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More and more mainstream analysts are identifying the coming AI crash, which is a good indication that it will happen soon.

So, what happens to all the data centers? They are already built but probably very expensive to maintain. Will many of them just be abandoned? Bought up by cloud computing companies? Scammers? Crypto miners? Can they be parted out and sold off piecemeal?

Will they be put to some productive use, or just become massive e-waste sites left to the locals to deal with?

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[–] 37 points 5 months ago (15 children)

Not sure about the buildings themselves, but I'm pretty confident at least their contents will flood the secondhand market with cheap secondhand gear. I won't say the crypto bubble has burst, but a lot of the mining rigs are being parted out and sold fairly cheap, and one specific crypto mining board has become popular as a DIY gaming system. (Currently doing a BC-250 "DIY SteamMachine" build myself).

As for the buildings, maybe we'll see some creative uses like indoor farms or something. Or, perhaps, it'll just be a mundane "AI datacenter becomes a generic data center".

I'd guess they'd be repurposed into business centers or office space like we've seen with old malls, but malls were usually in populated areas where datacenters aren't.

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  • [–] 21 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    It's kinda hard to reuse datacenter hardware for home use. Many connectors are different, form factors too. Not to mention the noise, in servers noise is about the last priority.

    Selfhosting enthusiasts will get great deals, but I doubt it will become mainstream.

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  • [–] 8 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    If my gaming PC dose not sound like a jet taking off, I'm not satisfied.

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  • [–] 9 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Based on where brick and mortar retail is right now (and assuming e-commerce continues to thrive), there won't be much conversion of the data centers into anything useful due to how many buildings are already sitting idle. Maybe some will become distribution centers. But most will probably sit dormant and slowly crumble into disrepair.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (4 children)

    I’m pretty confident at least their contents will flood the secondhand market with cheap secondhand gear.

    What market? Certainly not the consumer hardware market...?

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago* (3 children)

    My Need -> eBay -> [server part search term] -> Multiple inexpensive listings with large quantities available -> Buy -> My Need Met

    Replace "server part search term" with full rack servers, switches, SFP+ modules, RAM, power supplies, pulled HDDs/SSDs, and/or any other part I've bought used that was a corporate/data center pull.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    I don't...none of that answered my question?

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago* (1 child)

    "Homelab nerds" are a market unto ourselves. We get most if not all of our gear secondhand from eBay or similar, and those storefronts on ebay are run by electronics recycling companies that get their inventory from data centers or corporate offices when they shut down or do hardware refreshes.

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