Land and permitting won't stop US AI data centers

From the conversation

Elon's next argument is that you can't get the permitting to build hundreds of gigawatts on Earth. Do you buy that argument? Land-wise, America is big. Data centers don't actually take up that much space, so you can solve that. Permitting-wise, air pollution permits are a challenge, but the Trump administration made it much easier. You go to Texas, and you can skip a lot of this red tape. Elon had to deal with a lot of this complex stuff in Memphis, and then building a power plant across the border for Colossus 1 and 2. But at the end of the day, there's a lot more you can get away with in the middle of Texas. Given that Elon lives in Texas, why didn't he just go to Texas? I think it was partially that they over-indexed on grid power for a temporary period of time. That's just what they thought they needed more of. Because they had an aluminum refinery connected to the grid there. It was actually an idled appliance factory. But I think they may have indexed more to grid power, water access, and gas access. I think they bought that knowing the gas line was right there and they were going to tap it. Same with water. It was a whole host of different constraints. It was probably an area where electricians were easier to find. At the end of the day, I'm not exactly sure why they chose that site.…