Here is an excerpt from an interesting interview on PragerU on September 18, 2026.
Hey, welcome back to the Breeze. We have a great conversation about A.I. and data centers. We’re joined today by Joe Honan. He’s the CEO of Singularity Compute, an infrastructure company, and he is the perfect guest to discuss data centers.
So speaking of a timely subject, I am going to ask the question that is probably on most people’s minds, even if they’re not willing to admit it out loud. And that is the following I have seen when it comes to data centers, people have a wildly divergent definitions as to what a data center actually is.
So my question to you, Joe, is what is a data center?
Yeah, it’s a good question. And it has evolved over time, right? The data center is is now today a full factory of of A.I. solutions, of training, of data. And so on. Right. So the idea of what a data center was 20 or 30 years ago has rapidly evolved into this, where businesses are running critical parts of their everyday business, you know, day in, day out, through these data centers or as an extension of their own operations.
So, we’ve had data centers for more than 30 years, but why do we suddenly need so many?
Why are they seemingly everywhere now? Yeah, it’s it’s it’s really been an explosion, and it’s it’s mainly due to a convergence of technologies. A.I., obviously the one everyone is talking about. But you know, this idea of, as a generation ago, what did we use a data center for versus what is used now and why is it so different is because the density and the power consumption, the cooling requirements and so on of these new technologies is so high compared to a generation ago that the data centers of that generation just don’t work anymore.
And they don’t have the power density; they don’t have the ability to cool equipment as much or as fast as is needed. And they were really built with the idea of liquid cooling, direct-to-chip cooling. Not what all of the new data centers need.
And that’s why all we’re hearing about now are these ideas of these new data centers that are needed, everything from the very, very large hyperscalers or that term or gigafactories of very, very, very large campuses down to, you know, much smaller installations that are closer to the edge. And that’s one of the things at Singularity Compute that we’re very bullish on is the idea of edge compute, particularly as we move into this next era of A.I., which is really the idea of embodied A.I. or robotics.
When that really comes online, you need your processing to be much closer to you physically than these megalithic factories that are out somewhere in, you know, five states away.
Hyperscale data centers require an immense amount of electricity. I mean, they have evolved in the last 30 years, but that amount of electricity can really constrain local power grids.
It can drive up monthly utility costs for regular consumers. So first and foremost, how much electricity does one data center actually require to operate? And number two, how would you respond to the average consumer who is concerned that their utility bills will increase if a data center is built in their community? It’s a great question, and it is the metric driving the power consumption of entire industries, right?
So the idea of what a typical data center would be is anywhere from, let’s say, ten megawatts on the small side up to these very, very large, you know, 100, 200, 500 megawatt installations. Right. So the very, very large ones that are hyperscale data centers, those are the ones that we’re that we keep hearing about that, you know, in the news that people are protesting around and so on.
That said, you know, I think that there is somewhat of a misconception, but it should be an industry problem to solve around power consumption. Meaning I, as a homeowner in my community, should not be paying more to subsidize a large data center project and so on. That’s an industry problem. That’s and that’s an investment by companies like mine or others that are that are in the industry, that that is required to be able to offset those costs.
And those costs should not be passed on to the consumer, in my opinion,
Again, you are going to require millions, millions of gallons of water which are continuously pulled from local supplies to cool all of these massive servers.
So how much should residents, especially in those rural farmlands, how much should they worry about data center water consumption? Is this something that will require copious amounts of water on an endless loop?
There’s a lot of technology that goes into recycling of that same water, the cooling of that water, and so on to be able to reuse, you know, the amount of water that is required per day. The very, very large data centers will require, as, as you mentioned, you know, 500,000 up to a million gallons of water per day and in width in the technology.
And with proper building and planning of these things, that doesn’t mean, you know, a million gallons out of the community utility every day. It is a it is a a allocation that is reused and hopefully over time and as we get better, better density and so on for these things that process of of water consumption and utilization will also get more much more efficient.
And and that’s one of the reasons why these new data centers are being planned, is to be more efficient with the use of water and power and and, you know, even density of of how many servers you could set in Iraq. So if I can be somewhat presumptuous, just because I think it’s really important for our audience and those who are skeptical of data centers to understand, just yes or no, the water that these data centers consume, they can, in fact, be recycled, correct?
