AI Is a Dangerous Billionaire Boondoggle

Billionaires want to use the US public's tax dollars to put nuclear-powered AI data centers in drought-prone farmland. What could go wrong?

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By Kendra Kay

There’s a reason people say “Don’t Mess with Texas.” Texans know you can’t take BS to the bank.

So when I heard Fermi America, an energy startup run by former Texas governor Rick Perry, wants to open a nuclear-powered AI data center they call “Project Matador” down the road from my home in the Panhandle, I smelled something bad.

Perry and his pals claim their “Hypergrid AI” data center will create thousands of new jobs for Texans, but that sounds like BS to me. Some predict AI could eliminate up to half of entry-level office jobs in the next five years, and drive unemployment into double digits.

Fermi also claims the Hypergrid project, which will cost $300 billion and cover 5,263 acres, will “transform the Panhandle into a hub for clean energy innovation.” What they’re not saying is it will rely on dangerous nuclear energy.

Fermi plans to build four nuclear reactors on the site, which sits next to the Pantex Plant, where the Department of Energy takes apart nuclear warheads and stores plutonium. Pantex is a Superfund site that needs toxic waste cleanup.

In Fermi’s own filings, they admit there’s a “risk of an accidental explosion or other catastrophic incident” at the site. That’s not the kind of thing I want me, my children, or my neighbors to face. Where are we supposed to go when what happened at Three Mile Island happens here?

Project Matador will also deplete our water, which is already in short supply. Nuclear power plants use huge amounts of water to cool reactors — and without water, nuclear power plants melt down. AI data centers also use huge amounts of water to dissipate heat.

The Ogallala Aquifer, which waters all of our farms, has seen drops of over 300 feet over the last 50 years, and the Texas Panhandle already suffers from droughts. We don’t have enough water for ranchers and farmers, much less a nuclear plant and an AI data center.

So what’s in it for Perry and his pals? A big payday.

First, they want loans from the Department of Energy to finance the first phase of construction, which could cost $2 billion over the next year. Then they plan a public stock offering to raise as much as $90 billion more.

That’s where Perry can cash in. When Fermi goes public, he and other executives will become ultra-rich overnight, if they aren’t already. Meanwhile, taxpayers foot the bill. Fermi has already applied to be exempt from paying property taxes for the next 10 years.

Project Matador is far from a done deal. The company has generated no revenue so far, and no tenants have signed on to occupy the data center. Like other data-center projects across the country, it will likely bring few if any benefits to our community.

That’s why on September 20, I joined a national day of action with tens of thousands of others attending marches, rallies, and teach-ins across the country. We’re saying no to AI data centers, no to higher utility bills, no to water theft, and no to CEOs stealing our public dollars. There’s more than enough for all of us to thrive if greedy corporations like Fermi don’t steal it.

We called our national day of action Make Billionaires Pay. Because it’s time for billionaires to pay back the tax dollars they’ve stolen from us, pay what they owe in taxes, and pay to clean up the crises of pollution, health care, housing, and other problems they’ve caused by profiting off the pain of the rest of us.

What we need is clean water and good jobs, not the risk of nuclear disasters. And we can’t pay our bills or feed our kids with false promises of a glittering AI future. Ordinary families shouldn’t be forced to foot the bill to expand the wealth of tech bro billionaires.

Kendra Kay is a small business owner and community advocate from Amarillo, Texas. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org