-
-
The Cloud Is America’s New Critical Infrastructure. Three Companies Run Most of It.
Beneath the apps and headlines sits a quieter reality: more of modern life now runs on three cloud platforms. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google didn’t “take over the internet” so much as win the race to build the world’s default plumbing, and their scale brings real benefits, from security to speed. The real worry isn’t whether these companies are good or bad. It’s how much everything else depends on them, and how hard it is to leave once your data, software, and workflows are stitched into the same stack.
-
The New Boomtowns: How AI Data Centers Are Rewiring Power, Water, and Local Politics
AI data centers look like ordinary warehouses, but inside they function like nonstop factories for computation, turning electricity into heat at a scale that forces tough local tradeoffs. In fast-growing clusters, they can strain power grids, push expensive upgrades, and intensify fights over who pays, while cooling demands raise new questions about water use in places already under stress. The debate is no longer abstract. It is about infrastructure, rates, reliability, and whether the AI boom gets built in a way that communities can actually live with.
