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CNET2026-06-25

AI-Powered War Is Coming. This Fight Over a Data Center Just Made That Case

PolicyIndustrySafety

Ah, splendid — the Pentagon has decided that a data centre powering Elon Musk's Grok is a matter of national security, because of course it is. The DoD's chief digital and AI officer waded into a legal spat over environmental concerns to declare that shutting down the facility would be a threat to the realm. Because nothing says 'defending democracy' quite like ensuring a chatbot that sometimes thinks 2+2=5 has uninterrupted server juice.

The really delicious part is the logic: Grok isn't just a glorified shitpost generator; it's supposedly vital for 'national security.' So now, any data centre that hums with enough compute can wave the flag and sidestep pesky environmental regulations. Expect every hyperscaler from here to Ashburn to suddenly discover their racks are 'critical infrastructure.' The only thing missing is a bald eagle landing on a cooling tower.

Let's be clear: this isn't about safeguarding the nation. It's about the military-industrial complex cosying up to tech bros who want to burn gas to run inference on celebrity gossip. The environment loses, the neighbourhood loses, but hey — at least Grok will keep generating memes about wokeness while the planet cooks. Cheers to progress.

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● REC · 2026