This article repeats the claim it's NZ's first datacentre, in the headline and in the article, but I think it might be the first AI one or the first of it's size. It's certainly not the first datacentre in NZ!

Datagrid has approval to ... remove a nearby wetland, an Environment Southland regional council reports show.

Great. Duck the environment so a Singaporean data center operator can get cheap electricity.

Its a tough situation for a lot of people. Many want to keep as much of their data on sovereign land and not utilize foreign infrastructure. Simultaneously for multiple reasons people don't want to build infrastructure.

Thought the billionairs who build their doomsday bunkers there would be apposed to poisoning their own sacred land.

I guess they still need data centers after civilization, or data centers are so unpopular that they have to consider having them in their own back yard.

Don't do it NZ! The fellowship of the ring and the rest of middle earth didn't go through everything it did just for you to invite the Dark Lord back!

I have quite a few thoughts about this. If you use the internet, where do you think your web pages and content are served from? It’s a Datacenter (private or cloud, both Datacenters). If you’re going to consume it, you should also be prepared to have the infrastructure as part of your life too. I’m not talking that you need to live right next to the DC, but within the country isn’t that much of a stretch (especially with how small NZ is).

Now that being said. If it’s a regular DC (private or cloud) that’s fine, but if it’s an AI DC, fuck it sideways with a cactus and get that shit out of there. We don’t need more AI and it just needs to go away.

Edit: to anyone downvoting me, please tell me where you think that the people of New Zealand should get their (non-AI) content from and who should support the infrastructure for it?