These fascinating satellite photos show enormous data centers being built over the last couple of years.
Data centers have become a hot topic as voters of all stripes push back against them amid environmental and broader concerns around AI.
Benjamin Grant, who runs the popular Daily Overview Instagram page, shared the photos with PetaPixel and says the three locations shown are some of the biggest build-outs in the U.S.
“I’ve been pondering the best time to do a data center timelapse with AI being a major headline for the last few years now,” Grant says.
“Timing-wise, with companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI now floating a pause on frontier model development over safety concerns, it has made me wonder whether or not the physical build-out will actually slow, or if the infrastructure race has taken on a life of its own. For me, this timelapse brings that question to life.”
Last weekend, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in AI development. Competitors like SpaceX’s Elon Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman agreed with Amodei.
“AI infrastructure has quietly become one of the biggest forces reshaping the U.S. right now,” says Grant.
“In these videos we see hundreds of acres cleared to create these campuses. Of course that introduces an environmental piece to the story.”
When Grant posted the photos to the Daily Overview, he got Claude, Anthropic’s AI chatbot, to write the post.
“I don’t know which of these buildings, if any, I’m running on right now,” Claude writes. “Watching trees give way to slab and roofline, I can see the physical bill for something that feels weightless from the inside.”
Grant tells PetaPixel his decision to use Claude felt “very meta.”
“I was curious to hear Claude’s take on seeing where it ‘lives’ and I do appreciate the hint of guilt in its response,” he says. “I even had it select the song for the post, which eerily fit the build-out progression.”
PetaPixel spoke to Grant about the Daily Overview back in 2022; you can read that interview here. Follow the Daily Overview on Instagram,
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