More and more mainstream analysts are identifying the coming AI crash, which is a good indication that it will happen soon.
So, what happens to all the data centers? They are already built but probably very expensive to maintain. Will many of them just be abandoned? Bought up by cloud computing companies? Scammers? Crypto miners? Can they be parted out and sold off piecemeal?
Will they be put to some productive use, or just become massive e-waste sites left to the locals to deal with?
Not sure about the buildings themselves, but I’m pretty confident at least their contents will flood the secondhand market with cheap secondhand gear. I won’t say the crypto bubble has burst, but a lot of the mining rigs are being parted out and sold fairly cheap, and one specific crypto mining board has become popular as a DIY gaming system. (Currently doing a BC-250 “DIY SteamMachine” build myself).
As for the buildings, maybe we’ll see some creative uses like indoor farms or something. Or, perhaps, it’ll just be a mundane “AI datacenter becomes a generic data center”.
I’d guess they’d be repurposed into business centers or office space like we’ve seen with old malls, but malls were usually in populated areas where datacenters aren’t.
The equipment that AI data centers use isn’t really usable as consumer hardware, though.
It’s like the ASIC rigs used for Bitcoin mining, not the GPU rigs.
Based on where brick and mortar retail is right now (and assuming e-commerce continues to thrive), there won’t be much conversion of the data centers into anything useful due to how many buildings are already sitting idle. Maybe some will become distribution centers. But most will probably sit dormant and slowly crumble into disrepair.
They have great electrical connections. Fill them with batteries (not spicy lithium ones) and you have loads of local energy storage.
Lots of the difficulties with green projects right now is the electrical hook up, so they have all done the hard work!
Good point!
Crypto equipment has always cycled out to the market cheaply, it’s just usually not super useful second hand.
It’s kinda hard to reuse datacenter hardware for home use. Many connectors are different, form factors too. Not to mention the noise, in servers noise is about the last priority.
Selfhosting enthusiasts will get great deals, but I doubt it will become mainstream.
If my gaming PC dose not sound like a jet taking off, I’m not satisfied.
the bigger problem is, that AI optimized GPUs have terrible gaming performance
My stupid Ai side project would be fast as fuck though.
I’m pretty confident at least their contents will flood the secondhand market with cheap secondhand gear.
What market? Certainly not the consumer hardware market…?
My Need -> eBay -> [server part search term] -> Multiple inexpensive listings with large quantities available -> Buy -> My Need Met
Replace “server part search term” with full rack servers, switches, SFP+ modules, RAM, power supplies, pulled HDDs/SSDs, and/or any other part I’ve bought used that was a corporate/data center pull.
I don’t…none of that answered my question?
“Homelab nerds” are a market unto ourselves. We get most if not all of our gear secondhand from eBay or similar, and those storefronts on ebay are run by electronics recycling companies that get their inventory from data centers or corporate offices.
As for the buildings, maybe we’ll see some creative uses like indoor farms or something.
Nope, though I admire your optimism. They’ll get repurposed into concentration camps.
Datacenters aren’t only used for AI. They could be used for cloud gaming, or in general for hardware-as-a-service models as a capitalist solution to high hardware prices for consumers.
Or just good old server hosting.
I’ve heard these can’t be repurposed as general servers, but I don’t know enough about it to say if that’s accurate.
Hardware can’t, but the DCs definitely can. Their power and cooling capabilities will be over engineered for what you need but you can combat that by turning off excess capacity. It already has the base of what you need for normal DCs: space, Cooling, power and internet with corresponding redundancies.
I mean, disposable vapes can be repurposed as servers, it’s just a matter of how much compromises you’re willing to make
Oh just wait and see, you’ll find out how fast people will come along and scrap the metal and scavenge the RAM and other parts…
Hopefully cheap parts, but more likely just another excuse for higher consumer prices on everything.
The RAM is the HBM kind that won’t fit in your motherboard at home. The GPUs tend not to have video outputs, require power supplies around a kilowatt, and powered external cooling. The whole lot of going to landfill when the bubble bursts.
The storage is reusable, I think. You might get a deal on SSDs and hard disks.
Apparently the US government is looking to give a massive bailout under the guise of “public partnership” so the public will pay for them and then corporations will get to use them and not pay us more than likely. They’ll be put to use, we’ll pay for them to take our jobs. It’s really the best situation possible…
/Wrist
This is the most accurate assessment of the situation I have heard thus far.
2008 with hardware.
Hardware that dies in 5 years. At least the houses are still around assuming they didn’t get wiped out with those fires
American houses are built with cardboard paper, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve been destroyed by now.
I hate that this is actually pretty accurate, depending on which contractor you go with.
Whole neighborhoods were built during the housing bubble that had contaminated drywall (gypsum board) with sulfate VOCs that had to be gutted or torn down completely.
I asked a chatbot that question a few months ago when I was trying them out. It came up with lots of bullshit ideas that make no sense to me, and one genuine use for some of that surplus data centre capacity: Scientific computing. Physics, astronomy, climate simulations, that sort of thing.
Aside from that maybe when all the big AI companies go bust their assets will be bought up by new operators who will continue to flood the market with cheap generative AI, without the burden of having to pretend that it’s possible to pay off all the debt incurred in building it. There are only so many high-energy physics simulations it’s worth doing and having that many GPUs is not really useful for much else that anyone’s discovered so far.
According to the Internet though it is said that the useful lifespan of a big Nvidia data centre GPU is something like 5-10 years, so it won’t be a problem for long.
One thing not mentioned here: Hardware has an expiration date. As hardware improves and becomes more performant, with reduced power consumption and heat generation, older hardware loses its value (I’ve got free servers and switches this way).
AI data centers have been built anticipating a demand that won’t happen, therefore they are in a market already over saturated, dominated by few and just selling allocation won’t let them cover costs if they are supposed to compete against the big 5.
I would say that in EU or few other countries where they care about data locality that could help, but chances are some providers won’t get paid, some people will lose their jobs, and taxpayers will give a bailout to the wrong people.
It’s actually l worse. The die shinks that help increase speed and density decrease durability. You can’t run lightning between walls a few atoms thick forever.
Do these datacenters even exist or are they just plans on paper?
My impression is we aren’t axtually building anywhere near what these investors are investing in.
Will there even be anything to repurpose or scrap on the other side?
I am not so sure.
The one about 30 minutes from me most certainly exists. The one 15 minutes away they are building at this moment is just as real. The noise is ruining everything. The air is smoggy. It’s not just an interweb myth or something. These things are a blight on the places they appear in DC area for reference.
Oracle is building one of there several plans and even that one is gonna be years behind schedule. The rest are hardly more than a slab of concrete right now. So forget parting out computer hardware, they barely even have more than a couple of new buildings to sell off and so much debt that cannot possibly be paid because it depends on openAI suddenly having astronomical increases in revenue to even finish the existing plans.
Other players might be further ahead but I suspect the biggest gain for the gaming hardware market will simply be the cancelation of supposed contracts to buy up things like RAM and the drying up of money to buy AI-specific GPUs, forcing NV to actually care a tiny bit about the gaming segment again.
They think they can be parted out (maybe), or at least that’s how they pitch it to investors. Never mind the fact that chips get old and depreciate.
What happens is recession for all, not just us.
Some will continue working just drop the compute price by a lot. Others will be mothballed for a while until someone can figure out how to run them profitably.
Expect a lot of new (or even resurrected old) use cases to pop up. For example I expect cloud gaming to make a huge comeback driven by cheaper prices. Us mortals won’t be able to afford our own GPUs for a while, but there will suddenly be a surplus of data center units for rent.
Honestly, I imagine a combination of all of these things. Some will probably be abandoned, some liquidated, some bought up by other keen companies. Whatever is most economically viable at the time.
Indoor golf. Karts. Lazer tag.
converted into lasertag arenas
They become the go to place for huge LAN parties.
I miss LAN parties
I remember an internet cafe I used to go to to play counter strike because my home computer was not even close to good enough. Ah, nostalgia.
This is from October of last year, it’s way more than I thought:
Nearly 3,000 new data centers are under construction or planned across the U.S., per a new analysis shared first with Axios — adding to the more than 4,000 already in operation.
https://www.axios.com/2025/12/18/data-center-growth-map-states
Is that counting traditional data enters which have basically been around for almost two decades? Or is this specifically AI data centers which have different hardware and environmental requirements?
More like 4 or 5 decades.
They originated with telephony switching centers.
It’s only AI, here is the source they linked: https://americanedgeproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Americas-AI-Surge-Powering-Growth-in-Every-State.pdf
It never indicates these are only AI datacenters.
Data Center Boom: There are currently 4,149 active data centers across the United States, with another 2,788 announced or under construction.
Idk. Even if it’s half the number, which I doubt that it’s that low, it’s still way too fucking many. Also, aren’t AI datacenters more power hungry and huge monstrosities compared to the other ones?
Idk, read your own sources.
