The JHB1 hyperscale date center in Midrand, South Africa, on Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025.
(Leon Sadiki / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Hyperscale data centers are not an inevitable infrastructure, but a product of capitalist financialization pushing us further from a livable future. Ingrid Burrington interviews Paris Marx about his new book Hyperscale, discussing the history behind the rise of hyperscale data centers and how companies are obscuring their true social and environmental costs to maximize profits before the overinflated bubble bursts.
Ingrid Burrington is the author of Networks of New York and host of RIP Corp. She’s been writing about internet infrastructure for over a decade, including an 18-story online series for The Atlantic in 2015.
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