The Not-So-Public Digital Infrastructure That Runs Your AI

👉 There are 1.48 million km of submarine cables (30X the circumference of the Earth) connecting countries to move DATA

👉 Example 99% of data to the outside world in UK is carried through 60 cables

👉 95% of data still move by cables (sea or land)

👉 Most of this infrastructure is owned by the private sector (99%)

👉 A disruption of a cable leads to slow internet - take 2008, 2 Mediterranean cable were cut affecting 14 countries (100% of Maldives and 82% of India)

👉 Few players in fabrication: USA, France, China, Japan...

👉 Choke points - Think Egypt - 90% of Eurasian traffic flows through Egypt (via Telecom Egypt)

👉 Data servers store data and allow for cloud compute - 50% of which are hypescalers (more than 1 million Sq. Feet)

👉 Only 25 companies qualify as hyper scalers - includes your BigTech

👉 Hyperscalers are now looking at Energy infrastructure to fuel these monsters

👉 Cables lifecycle is around 25 years, Hyperscalers servers need to be replaced every 3-8 years -- E-waste is the fastest growing waste - we do not have any AI National Strategies that outline e-waste recycling!!! Very few tech companies are investing directly in e-waste recycling!!!

👉 E-Waste affects health, contaminates water, food chain, is a result of dirty mining... and also is trafficked to poorer countries by richer ones!