Onward, a Fundrise Production 49: Data centers will be the largest investment in US history, with Kervin Pillay, former CTO of Cisco
Jul 9, 2025
Kervin Pillay, former CTO of Cisco's Automation Group, dives into the transformative future of data centers. He emphasizes the enormous investment looming in the U.S. to build AI infrastructure, potentially dwarfing the capital spent on the Interstate Highway System. Pillay tackles the innovative cooling solutions needed for AI data centers and compares the energy strategies of the U.S. and China. He also discusses the shift from training to inferencing in AI, affecting hardware demands, and highlights the hybrid models that tech giants are using to enhance user experiences.
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Data Centers as Future Utilities
- AI's growth requires massive data center infrastructure to handle data processing and delivery.
- Data centers will become as ubiquitous and essential as utilities like electricity or the internet.
Trillion-Dollar Data Center Boom
- By 2028, global investment in data centers may exceed a trillion dollars due to AI demand.
- More than 200 countries, plus hyperscalers, are building sovereign and large-scale data centers worldwide.
Gigawatt Power Scale Explained
- One gigawatt of data center power can supply California for under a year.
- Large data centers consume power levels equivalent to or exceeding major cities or states.