9/28/26: Ai Industry Data Center Party, Xi Plays Trump, Trump Gaslights In Midterm Ad

Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

The episode examines the intersection of technological expansion and political maneuvering, starting with the controversial push for AI data center

Key takeaways

• A 'pro-data center' event in D.C. highlighted the push for hyperscale AI infrastructure despite significant local resistance in places like Loudoun County.
• The Trump-Xi summit featured a high concentration of tech titans, including Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, and Tim Cook, emphasizing China's importance to the chip industry.

Main topics

• AI Data Center Expansion
• Trump-Xi Summit Diplomacy

Notable quotes

Virginia is for servers.

Conclusion

The episode highlights a period of intense volatility in both technolo

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:00) This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Lisa, tell them about our new show. We have a new podcast. It's called Don't Lie to Me. I'm Lexi Iwano. We're two best friends, 22 years apart, but so close at heart. And I'm Lisa DiGiulio, the old one, which means we have wildly different references, occasionally different opinions. And at this point in my 50s, I've lived it all. Now in my 30s, being the founder of New Shoes, good taste is my business. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 5 (0:35) Hi, this is Kylie Brakeman, Angela Geratana, Speaker 1 (0:38) Jeremy Colhane, Patrick McDonald, and Speaker 5 (0:40) we're the hosts of the Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists podcast, the Speaker 1 (0:43) improvised character comedy podcast, where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of Eurovision participants. Speaker 5 (0:52) And we do a little Halloween sometimes. Does the Pope dress up? He winks on Halloween. Speaker 7 (0:58) He gets right up next to the microphone. Speaker 5 (1:00) I hear you can almost hear the eyelashes hit each other. Speaker 7 (1:03) You've never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Speaker 5 (1:08) Listen to Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists every Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 4 (1:16) I'm Lacey Mosley, author, actor, stand-up comedian, creator, and host of Scam Goddess Podcast. The true crime comedy podcast all about robbery, fraud, and those who practice it. Each week I bring on an amazing guest. Speaker 8 (1:28) Ooh, I scammed him. What? I could talk to you for an hour. Speaker 4 (1:31) You're a generational yapper, like me. That's why I had to make yapping a job. And now you can catch full episodes of my show on YouTube. Start listening to Scam Goddess on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 2 (1:46) Hey guys, Ready or Not 2024 is here and we here at Breaking Points are already thinking of ways we can up our game for this critical election. We Speaker 6 (1:55) rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade the studio, add staff, give you guys the best independent coverage that is possible. If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that. Let's get to the show. Speaker 2 (2:09) So there was a hot party in D.C. over the weekend sponsored by a lot of AI industry and aligned think tanks pushing how awesome data centers are in the face of mass public resistance across ideological and rural and urban divides. Let's go and take a look at why some of the partygoers were so excited about our data center future. I'm at DC's pro-data center party and I'm asking why people love data centers. Because I love Speaker 4 (2:38) the internet. To be on the internet. They're Speaker 1 (2:41) going to power the future. Speaker 4 (2:42) Kind of necessary infrastructure. It's ridiculous to be against them. here than in China. Speaker 1 (2:48) I love data centers so I can stream sports and then cry about my sports teams for better or for worse. But yeah, I love streaming sports and that's why I love data centers. Let's go. I love data centers because America is on the verge of one of the most incredible scientific and technological revolutions. And we need to build the infrastructure to make that possible. When Speaker 4 (3:07) you think about why the S &P 500 is higher than it is. ever been. You think about artificial intelligence and how this is transforming our economy. And there's only one engine that can propel the S &P 500 to even greater heights, and that's data center. That's compute. Speaker 2 (3:27) Amazing stuff there, Sagar. Are you persuaded? They changed your mind. I Speaker 6 (3:30) am not. And I hate to say it. With no shots at Robbie or Nathan Leamer, many friends that were in the crowd, they're in attendance. I have sincere disagreements with them. But I will say, the arguments that are presented there, they always resort to, oh, so you're against using the internet? Again, the number of data centers in the United States. First of all, we actually don't even know the full number. We have to use estimates that are around. What we know is that they were approximately a fourth a couple of years ago as to what they are today. So what they are proposing in terms of the new data centers are specifically hyperscale data centers for AI use. Nobody is against streaming. Nobody was complaining about Speaker 2 (4:16) this. Yeah, Speaker 6 (4:17) nobody was complaining. Just Speaker 2 (4:18) for internet and streaming your sports or whatever. Speaker 6 (4:21) Twitter, people are like, oh, you're against data centers and you use Twitter. I'm like, well, Twitter's been around since I was like 17, and I'm 34, so I think we kind of made it out of that one. Okay, yeah, there were data centers. When was 2007? 2006, I think, was the very first tweet that was ever sent. I was literally in high school. So you could see that. It's been around for 20 years. Okay, fine. So for 20 years, yes, we lived in a, like a, you know, moderate equilibrium of, yes, we knew data centers were going up and they were largely going up for internet purposes like Twitter or Amazon or any of these. And there were legitimate questions, I think, to be asked around that. But then the scale of that literally multiplied over a three or four year period. This is the other key. It's not just the data centers themselves because they always reduce it to the data center and not the technology. It's for what? By the way, I mean you could make a very good argument that all of those data centers supporting short-form video have – done more damage to human society than anything in the history of mankind. I mean, almost single-handedly, the internet and short-form video specifically is responsible for the greatest reduction in IQ in modern human history. There is extensive amounts of data to show that you are literally dumber after you watch short-form video, and the amount of time you spend on short-form video is directly correlated to the same reduction. do not watch it. You should actually stay as far away from it as possible. So even if they're like, oh, I love streaming. I'm like, well, streaming has actually been pretty bad for people. Let's put that aside. The second part is about hyperscale AI. And what we just talked about with AI, hyperscale AI, is one of existential questions both around the technology, genuinely existential. We can all sincerely disagree and or not as to how it's getting out of control. But really what bothers me was everything that was reduced there was about consumption and economic growth. And I think that, again, is where the problem that we had with, let's say, the first thing we just said were. you know, that woman was talking about S &P 500. I'm like, well, I don't care whether the S &P 500 goes up or not. I mean, I do, I guess personally in terms of my portfolio, but like I care about people around me. Like I want us to flourish. I want us to be happier. The S &P 500 going up went 60 % up under Biden. I think the country is way worse off. I think the country right now is not doing well, despite that the S &P 500 is near a record high. So that is not correlated in any way with like human flourishing. at least the way that I would define it. And so that's where I just put it all together. And I'm like, look, that party was apparently funded by a lot of these AI companies and others. And I just think it's not going to move the needle, in my opinion. Although they look like they had fun. And so, like I said, I had some friends in attendance. And I encourage you guys, listen, in-person socialization is good. So that's Speaker 2 (7:13) fine. But, Speaker 6 (7:14) you know, I supported it. That is an irony, Speaker 2 (7:16) isn't it? Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. I mean, I can't imagine a single rural American who's right now, like, opposed to the data center being located in their town that's like, you know what? Some people in D.C. had a cocktail party and they persuaded me that I'm wrong in my belief Speaker 6 (7:31) here. Generally, just some advice. That's not really how you move the needle. Personally, that's what I would say. It Speaker 2 (7:35) does give you a little bit of glimpse into the amount of money that they're splashing into. I mean, they had all kinds of fancy drinks and whatever for this thing. Put C9 up on the screen. screen, because in a way, this motto or poster or sign or whatever that they had posted here kind of gets to the heart of the problem with the whole data center push. So Virginia's state motto is Virginia is for lovers. So they did a play on that and said, Virginia is for servers. And as a native Virginian. Let me say, no, the fuck it's not. And this is the thing. It's an anti-human ideology. Not to go too deep here because obviously this is just like a goof and it's sort of made to rage bait people like me. But it gets to the core of the issue, which is that people in towns and suburban communities, rural communities, urban communities are looking at this and saying, no, it's not for your data center. It's not for your servers. My town is for me. It's for my. family, it's for my community, it's for the creatures and the trees that live here as well. It is not for your weird techno-utopian future vision that you're forcing on all of us with zero democratic buy-in. Virginia is not for servers. Virginia is for the humans. who live here and want to have a say. You know, even in Loudoun County, which is kind of like the server data center capital of the world, which apparently they shouted out. There was like a drink there named after Loudoun County or something like that at the party. But even there, the residents, which again, this county is held up as the model of, oh, look at all the economic gains that they benefited from, from these data centers located in their town. There's a massive residence. backlash against how far they've gone with these number of data centers. And then if you actually look at the economics across the board. not in just industry-selected examples that they want to highlight. The economics of these things are not good. Right. I'd point you to that Speaker 6 (9:38) study that we covered. Speaker 2 (9:39) Exactly. There was a comprehensive study that came out that found, no, the economics of these things are not good for the communities that they locate in. And there's a lot of concern about water, about electricity usage, about the costs that come along with it. But I really think it goes to this deeper issue of small d democratic control. We didn't want this thing. Our town is not for your servers. Our town is for us. It is for our community. And we get to have a say over whether it goes in or not. The irony of the fact that, you know, D.C. is not going to be the place where they're locating a bunch of these big data centers also was not lost on people here as well. Speaker 6 (10:14) I will say this, too. And, you know, I don't know. I was advised because I was talking to a friend. I was like, you know, should we talk, too, about, like, the beautification? Because I went to Loudoun. I talked to the whole group. I was like, this is the most hideous place I've ever been. The data center alley that I drove down, every single corner, there's a gym there, the gym that I go to, and it was surrounded by data centers. I was like, this is weird, man. It's like these small parking lots and these giant, hideous data centers. It almost seems to me, and look. Irony not lost, we're here in Washington, one of the ugliest cities in America with all this brutalist architecture and all this. Maybe it can be tweaked or something, but there is something about it. It just puts me off. That's all I can say. This could be personal. I encourage you, if you live near Loudoun, go drive through. Drive through the alley. Go drive through that area of town. There's a lot of homes that are around it, too. It is very, I mean, again, to me, very off-putting. Speaker 2 (11:11) Sam Altman's vision that he has said publicly, again, you can just go and listen to what these guys say. This is, again, the positive vision that they're putting forward for this tech, is that the entire world is turned into like a giant computer chip and that these things are literally everywhere. That is their vision. And their view and their belief is that the more compute you add, and so far this is true. Like the way that they unlocked these frontier models was they were just like, hey, if we just throw more compute at it, what will happen? And that has actually worked in terms of. pushing the frontier bleeding edge of the technology. And they want to do that infinitely so that they can get super intelligence that replaces every human in your job, even if you don't get the existential risk, like if you don't buy into that, which, reason to be doubtful, sounds very sci-fi, etc. Their stated goal, their positive outcome from this. is replacing all of human labor. That's what they're after. So that's what we're talking about here at BrassTax when you get down to it with the data centers. Axios had a few details about the people behind this. Put this next element up on the screen. DC's latest viral party celebrates data centers amid growing pushback. This was called Data After Dark, a pro data center party. It happened Saturday at PubKey, DC's crypto bro clubhouse. God, this is so dystopian. 900 people were approved to attend. I think hundreds ultimately did. Sponsored by groups like the 76 Crew, the Manhattan Institute, the Bitcoin Policy Institute, and several AI companies. We'll put the next element up on the screen a little bit from Emily Kennard, who's with The Washington Sun. This is the same new outlet that Jeff Stein is with now, too. She went to the party. Apparently, one attendee estimated the ratio of men to women was like four or five to one. Not ideal, that person added. I think probably not a surprise there. That's Speaker 6 (13:07) a little snarky, in my opinion. That was a little snarky, because I'll say this, that's pretty much the same at every Washington. Speaker 2 (13:14) At many D.C. parties. So I'm like, come on, Speaker 6 (13:17) that's Washington. Especially when you add, this Speaker 2 (13:20) is like a deeply libertarian group. It's very, it's very. Well, someone Speaker 6 (13:25) made a joke. They're like, yeah, it's a tech party. You know, it's like, have you ever been to a party in San Francisco? Like, that's what it looks like. Anyway, I'll defend them on that one just because that's literally what every gathering in Washington happens to look like unless it's like the League of Women Voters or Emily's List or something like that. But look, overall, it's pretty obvious. These guys, I mean, they wanted the coverage. This is what they, you know, this is literally what they wanted. They want a controversy. They want the video. They want to go viral, etc. The question is, is about why. I think a lot of their funders, etc. They love this because it's going viral on Twitter. It's creating discussion. I mean, it's really just, if you're talking about brass tacks political judgment, and maybe they just don't care, which is my guess. I don't think they actually do because they want to win kind of the fights in the elite discourse. But actual voters who, you know, you can look across the nation to Greg Abbott, Byron Donalds, Ron DeSantis. the governor of Ohio, I mean, literally, you know, bipartisan across the board, people who are in trouble, everybody seems to say, hey, I'm not so sure about this. And you can call it a panic if you wish, but doing cocktail parties in Washington in our history has never really worked out. in your favor to be like, let's throw a celebratory cocktail party to show everybody why this is such a good idea. Speaker 2 (14:48) Let's Speaker 6 (14:48) throw Speaker 2 (14:49) a DC cocktail party in favor of data centers. I've been Speaker 6 (14:52) doing some historical things. I just remembered one from the Gilded Age. There was a couple, there was like a depression or something in New York. And so this couple, this super rich couple had an idea. Let's throw a ball. And so what we'll do is we'll throw a ball and everybody will have to go out and get all of their