Derek Thompson
Journalist and author who spent 17 years at The Atlantic before moving to independent writing on Substack, covering housing, energy, technology and changes in s...
“I don't see data centers and houses as being equivalent. I think data centers are houses for chips. Really, they're igloos for chips because they're very, very cold houses. A data center is an igloo for chips, and a house is a house for people. And those are different things.”
Recode Media · Media & Creator Economy · October 2026
The host asked the Abundance co-author whether his build-more argument means people should drop their opposition to AI data centers. Thompson said no. He cited data showing data center construction rising while construction of hospitals, offices and housing falls, and said he takes AI safety concerns seriously.
Transcript
…century, because it's about how we spend our time and about the economy that animates our downtime, that touches everything from film and television to music and social media. And so I find sort of cheat codes to get into all sorts of subjects by just saying, I'm interested in American time use.
…that people should get over their hatred of data centers and their concerns. And this is obviously better for us if we build more of these and shut up and move on. In the same way, you would say that maybe about people who don't want low-income housing built around them or something like that.
Right. I don't see data centers and houses as being equivalent. I think data centers are houses for chips. Really, they're igloos for chips because they're very, very cold houses. A data center is an igloo for chips, and a house is a house for people. And those are different things. And so while I feel incredibly passionate about removing barriers to building housing where people want to live, I would say I feel less passionate about saying we need to make sure that every AI company can cite every data center wherever it wants to build it. I think that there are costs to an economic infrastructure project that leans so heavily into data centers that, in fact, it now seems…
It's funny because on the one hand, our tech overlords seem to be surprised about the blowback against data centers. And that's why they're like, well, it must be a Chinese PSYOP or something. On the other hand, as much protest and angry council meetings as you've seen, these things are getting…
Yeah, the issue is the lesson to take is be literally the richest country in the history, richest company in the history of capitalism, and then you can build basically as much as you want to build. I mean, a really important moment in terms of understanding why the AI infrastructure project is…
And I'm going to be able to just write checks to people as Meta is essentially doing in Louisiana, where teachers are going to get $50,000 bonuses. I'll be right back with Derek Thompson, but first this. At T-Mobile, the new iPhone 18 Pro is here with a big leap in battery life, and you can get it…
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