New York's governor signed an executive order Tuesday blocking new AI data centers. Trump wants the state to reverse it immediately. The state that can't keep its subway from flooding now regulates the future of computing.
This is the same government that took fourteen years to open a single subway extension. They built three stops. Cost four billion dollars per mile. Now they're making policy decisions about artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The moratorium targets crypto mining operations disguised as AI facilities. Fair enough. But the ban hits actual data centers too. New York just told every tech company to build somewhere else. Congratulations on solving your commercial real estate crisis by making it worse.
Trump called the policy stupid. He's right, which should tell you how bad this is. When the guy who wanted to nuke a hurricane makes more sense than your energy policy, you f*cked up.
The governor's concern is power consumption. Data centers use electricity. Shocking stuff. So does everything else in a city of eight million people. But sure, let's ban the industry that might actually generate tax revenue instead of fixing the grid.
Every pension fund manager in America just added "regulatory risk from governors who don't understand what a data center does" to their models. That's a new line item. It goes right below "acts of God" and right above "elected officials with vibes-based tech policy."
New York became the first state to do this. That's like being the first person to show up at a party and immediately shit in the pool. Technically you're a pioneer.
The people who brought you congestion pricing, rent control, and a tax system that makes millionaires flee to Florida now have opinions about server farms. This will end well for exactly nobody, especially the pension funds counting on those tax revenues to pay out in thirty years.
Photo by Alex Haney on Unsplash
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