Are today’s data centres the equivalent of the pyramids of yesterday?

Yes, in some important ways hyperscale data centres function like contemporary pyramids, but in other ways the analogy breaks down. They are monumental concentrations of power and resources that serve elites and symbolism as much as material needs, yet they are also core infrastructure rather than pure vanity projects.forbes+1​

How the analogy fits

• Monuments to power and surplus: Like pyramids, large data centres crystallize political and corporate power, showcasing that a state or firm can mobilize immense capital, land, energy, and technical labor. In many jurisdictions, politicians grant huge tax breaks for “nearly jobless” server farms mainly to signal modernity and competitiveness, echoing how pharaohs used pyramids to project authority rather than meet everyday needs.universitypressscholarship+2​

• Resource-hungry mega-structures: Hyperscale and AI-optimized data centres already account for an estimated several percent of U.S. electricity use and a bit over 1% of global demand, with projections of rapid growth that could reach mid–single-digit shares of national loads and a notable fraction of demand growth worldwide. They also consume substantial water for cooling and can strain grids and aquifers in regions with limited capacity, reproducing a pattern of diverting common resources into prestige infrastructure.cordiantcap+5​

• Built for rulers, not locals: Centuries from now, it is plausible that many server campuses will appear as enigmatic ruins whose original purpose is obscure, much like pyramids; analysts already note that their benefits to local communities (jobs, integration with local economies) are often minimal relative to the subsidies and resource burdens.brookings+2​

Political economy and symbolism

• Symbolic infrastructure: Scholars of internet governance and critical infrastructure argue that data centres are part of a broader ideological project that treats digital build-out as synonymous with progress, even when it deepens inequalities and environmental harm. As with pyramids, the symbolism—“we are advanced, we matter in the global order”—can override sober accounting of opportunity costs.criticalinfralab+1​

• Territory and opacity: Corporate narratives around “where the cloud lives” use glossy imagery of pristine server halls to claim territory and legitimacy while obscuring labor practices, supply chains, and ecological footprints, analogous to how monumental tombs masked the extractive systems that enabled them.newyorker+1​

Where the analogy fails

• Functional core vs. pure monument: Pyramids were largely funerary and ideological; data centres, by contrast, sit at the heart of communications, finance, logistics, governance, and everyday social life. Shutting them off would immediately disrupt critical services in a way that losing a pyramid never would have.geronimopower+1​

• Dynamic, not static: Data centres evolve quickly—hardware cycles, workloads, and energy systems change over years rather than centuries, and operators are under strong pressure to improve energy efficiency (for example, pushing power usage effectiveness close to 1.1 in leading facilities). That dynamism contrasts with the once-and-done nature of stone monuments.wri+2​

A more precise framing

• Dual character: infrastructure and monument: The strongest reading is that hyperscale data centres are both essential infrastructure and monuments of a political–economic regime that treats computation and data accumulation as ends in themselves.isocfoundation+2​

• Risk of “modern pyramid syndrome”: The danger is not their existence per se, but unchecked expansion driven by prestige, financial speculation, and AI hype, absorbing grid capacity, water, land, and public subsidies that might otherwise support broader resilience, decarbonization, and social needs. In that sense, they can indeed become our pyramids: technically impressive, socially ambivalent, and potentially symptomatic of a civilization misallocating its surplus.carbonbrief+2​

1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewleahey/2025/07/22/the-pharaohs-built-pyramids-we-build-data-centers/
2. https://www.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.5406/illinois/9780252039362.001.0001/upso-9780252039362-chapter-3
3. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-future-of-data-centers/
4. https://www.cordiantcap.com/the-hot-topic-of-data-centres-data-centres-demystified-series-2/
5. https://www.wri.org/insights/us-data-centers-electricity-demand
6. https://www.carbonbrief.org/ai-five-charts-that-put-data-centre-energy-use-and-emissions-into-context/
7. https://www.criticalinfralab.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/CIL011.pdf
8. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/10/24/what-we-know-about-energy-use-at-us-data-centers-amid-the-ai-boom/
9. https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-center-energy-needs-are-upending-power-grids-and-threatening-the-climate
10. https://www.isocfoundation.org/2025/07/critical-infrastructure-lab-launches-new-report-on-internet-governance/
11. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/11/03/inside-the-data-centers-that-train-ai-and-drain-the-electrical-grid
12. https://geronimopower.com/uncovering-the-truth-data-centers/
13. https://arxiv.org/html/2509.07218v3
14. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/farshadas_agi-llms-artificialintelligence-activity-7395253167984164864-TS56
15. https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/bitstreams/3fdda619-d3e8-4875-af3c-4d2b6bc1d228/download
16. https://dhq-static.digitalhumanities.org/pdf/000463.pdf
17. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/guymassey_decode-data-centres-in-7-steps-engineers-activity-7368177527074217986-N88M
18. https://www.societyandspace.org/articles/monument-as-method-transforming-collective-memory-in-canada
19. https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtificialSentience/comments/1ohodne/ai_as_modern_day_pyramids/
20. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/modern-pyramids-building-meaning-from-surplus-age-ai-jonathan-millard-9ryyc