Aug. 17 at 10:17 PM
The AI boom is driving a massive race to build data centers and secure electricity, but an unexpected threat to the industry’s infrastructure could come from something far less sophisticated: rats.
Kade Thomas, CEO of Cerv Property Solutions, warned that rodents, poor maintenance and other basic property risks could disrupt highly automated data centers that depend on uninterrupted power and connectivity. Rats can chew cables and wiring, potentially causing outages or equipment damage.
Other risks include overgrown vegetation, dry leaves and poorly maintained trees blocking HVAC air intakes, raising local temperatures and increasing fire risks. In Texas, which has 335 active data centers and 248 more planned, seemingly minor maintenance issues could quickly cause major damage.
As AI companies and data-center operators invest billions in computing capacity, power availability, grid connections and cooling are becoming major growth constraints.
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