Summary: Technology giants are purchasing isolated islands to establish vast server farms for artificial intelligence. These locations allow for energy independence and complete security away from the public and regulatory eye.
An aerial view of isolated islands in the ocean may reveal a pastoral spectacle of white beaches, tropical vegetation and absolute silence. But behind this picturesque facade, a quiet and incredibly expensive technological drama is often taking place: the world's largest technology giants, such as Microsoft, Google and Meta, are buying or leasing isolated islands and remote areas to build huge server farms and data centers on them. The main reason for this trend is the endless appetite of artificial intelligence models for electricity, cooling and protected and secure physical space.
Training large language models and advanced artificial intelligence systems requires enormous computing power that municipal power grids are unable to provide. Therefore, the selected islands become independent fortresses connected to private energy sources, including new-generation micronuclear reactors, and benefit from natural seawater used to cool the systems. Control of these locations gives technology companies complete independence from countries and governments, making them de facto sovereign geopolitical actors. Whoever owns the island and the most powerful server farms will ultimately determine the face of humanity’s economy and technology for decades to come. Is this the Bay of Dreams or the AI gold mine?
Former Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer (Fuad) promised 20 years ago to build an artificial island in Haifa Bay between Acre and Haifa to which the petrochemical industries would move. Of course, no one built any islands and the whole thing was forgotten and disappeared.
There was definitely room to build a large island in Haifa Bay. The feasibility of this is already demonstrated by the drying up of the bay port.
Between Acre and Haifa, an infrastructure island measuring 3-4 square kilometers can be established 2 kilometers from the coast, which will be connected by bridges and a system of pipes, and to which polluting factories and refineries from Haifa Bay will be transferred. Already 20 years ago, it was estimated that the benefit to the economy would return the investment in such an infrastructure island within 25 years, despite the construction cost of 50 billion shekels.