The fossil-AI nexus: How petrostate capitalism and computing power drive infrastructure expansion
By
Justin Kollar
Summary
This academic article theorizes the "fossil–AI nexus" as a coalition between fossil fuel industries, finance capital, and platform companies that is driving massive infrastructure buildout. The author argues that AI's speculative computing demand is being converted into bankable fossil fuel generation, transmission expansion, and resource-intensive industrial sites. The concept of "powered land" is introduced as an emergent asset form whose value depends on territorial governance and the social production of compute resources. The article bridges digital infrastructure studies and state capitalism literature to analyze how computing power availability depends on governance decisions.
Source
bskyThe fossil-AI nexus: How petrostate capitalism and computing power drive infrastructure expansiontandfonline.comKey quotes
· 3 pulledThe so-called AI boom is part of an infrastructure-led industrial strategy, converting speculative computing demand into bankable fossil generation, transmission expansion, and water- and land-intensive industrial sites.
I argue that the buildout is being assembled through a fossil–AI nexus, a fossil–finance–platform coalition that produces powered land: an emergent asset form whose value...
In a 2024 meeting of G7 business leaders in Rome, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink warned that the energy demands of artificial intelligence were being radically underestimated.
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