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How Big Tech builds data centres

Author
Madison Reidy,
Publish Date
Thu, 16 Jan 2025, 5:48pm

How Big Tech builds data centres

Author
Madison Reidy,
Publish Date
Thu, 16 Jan 2025, 5:48pm

From acquiring land to securing power supply, building data centres globally is a detailed operation.

鈥淚 seems like it鈥檚 effortless and it鈥檚 not,鈥 Amazon Web Services vice-president of global data centres Kevin Miller told Markets with Madison in Las Vegas.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of effort every day, adding network capacity, adding data centre capacity, bringing in more servers.鈥

Amazon was one of three hyperscalers, alongside Microsoft and Google, who together held most of the data centre market share globally.

They had been building hundreds around the world for almost 20 years, with  opening last week and Amazon鈥檚 due to open next year.

It builds them out in regions 鈥 which could be a city or a country. For example, New Zealand is a single region for Microsoft and Amazon.

Each region has availability zones within it, which house one or more data centre.

The regions were all connected by thousands of miles of fibre optic cable touching more than 20 countries.

Data centres could use between two and 60 megawatts of energy annually, and that was always taken from the grid, Miller explained.

However, Amazon and other hyperscalers were investing significant amounts into the development of nuclear energy to power their centres internationally.

鈥淲e see a lot of opportunity with that new nuclear and the next generation of nuclear reactors.鈥

Watch Kevin Miller discuss data centres in-depth in today鈥檚 episode of Markets with Madison above.

Madison travelled to Las Vegas courtesy of Amazon Web Services.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this programme is of a general nature, and is not intended to be personalised financial advice. We encourage you to seek appropriate advice from a qualified professional to suit your individual circumstances.

Madison Reidy is host and executive producer of the NZ Herald鈥檚 investment show Markets with Madison. She joined the Herald in 2022 after working in investment, and has covered business and economics for television and radio broadcasters.

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