David Friedberg: The datacenter is the new temple of the wealthy, and people hate the rich

In this solo episode, David Friedberg explores the concept of data centers as the new temples of wealth in the modern economy. As artificial intelligence and cloud computing have become essential to virtually every major technology company, data centers have evolved from mundane infrastructure into some of the most valuable and strategically important assets in the world. These massive facilities, which house millions of servers and consume enormous amounts of electricity, have become symbols of corporate power and technological dominance. Friedberg argues that the wealth concentration around data center ownership and control mirrors historical patterns where religious or civic institutions served as markers of societal power and influence. The comparison to temples is apt because data centers have taken on an almost sacred status in the eyes of tech companies and investors, representing the physical embodiment of digital transformation and computational capability. However, this concentration of power and resources has not gone unnoticed by the broader public. There is a growing undercurrent of resentment and hostility toward the wealthy tech entrepreneurs and companies that control these critical infrastructure assets. This backlash reflects deeper anxieties about inequality, technological displacement, and the consolidation of power in the hands of a small group of billionaires and mega-corporations. The episode explores how data centers have become lightning rods for criticism on multiple fronts. Environmentalists point to their massive energy consumption and carbon footprint. Communities concerned about resource depletion worry about the water usage required to cool these facilities. Labor advocates question the relatively few jobs these automated facilities create compared to their economic value. Additionally, there is a sense among ordinary people that they have no stake in or control over these temples of technological progress, which operate largely outside of democratic oversight or public input. Friedberg discusses how this resentment is part of a broader cultural moment where the gap between the ultra-wealthy and everyone else has become increasingly visible and intolerable to many. The data center becomes a convenient symbol for this inequality because it is so tangible and geographically specific. Unlike abstract financial instruments or remote corporate headquarters, a data center is a physical monument to concentrated wealth and power that people can literally see and point to. The episode touches on whether this backlash will eventually force changes in how data centers are developed, operated, and who benefits from them. It raises questions about whether society will move toward more distributed models of computing, whether governments will increase regulation and oversight, or whether we will see renewed populist movements demanding greater democratization of these critical resources.