Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Inside "Data Center Alley" near Washington, DC: what it physically takes to run AI – copper, cooling water, and backup power at massive scale.
Sky News economics and data editor Ed Conway toured the data centers clustered around Dulles Airport in Virginia for the Century of Plenty podcast. He describes the enormous copper busbars and cables that deliver power, the water these facilities consume for cooling, the backup generators lining the site, and the copper shrouding each GPU. AI's infrastructure is intensely physical – and it's reshaping the debate about energy, materials, and where all of it comes from.
From the Century of Plenty podcast: mck.co/cop-ed-conway
Inside "Data Center Alley" near Washington, DC: what it physically takes to run AI – copper, cooling water, and backup power at massive scale.
Sky News economics and data editor Ed Conway toured the data centers clustered around Dulles Airport in Virginia for the Century of Plenty podcast. He describes the enormous copper busbars and cables that deliver power, the water these facilities consume for cooling, the backup generators lining the site, and the copper shrouding each GPU. AI's infrastructure is intensely physical – and it's reshaping the debate about energy, materials, and where all of it comes from.
From the Century of Plenty podcast: mck.co/cop-ed-conway
