11.04.2026 –, Seminarraum 1 Sprache: English
This talk is meant to analyse of the political economy of data centre expansions. I diverge from both mainstream narratives of haphazard data-centre construction as useful for digital economies, and critical narratives of data centres as intrinsically domestically harmful. Instead, I describe them as a rational, manageable asset — yet one that is rooted in imperialist extraction.
Media reports on data center expansions have tended to focus on how these data centers immiserate people in their vicinity — through, for instance, increased power bills, emissions, or increased strain on water supply. This narrative, while true, conflicts with the observation that data centres are also being constructed en masse in wealthy regions with strong labour movements, such as the Nordic countries. Framings of data centres here have framed their construction as desirable for digital economies, while also spurring job growth in construction. Negative externalities are framed as manageable, such as by relying on renewable energy, or by reusing excess heat.
I make the argument that the core logic driving the data center boom in the age of the generative AI bubble — rather than job creation or digitisation — is to attempt to accumulate capital through charging or taxing fictitious capital circulating within Big Tech. The difference between the accumulation strategy in the Nordics and elsewhere is rather a question of how strong labour movements are able to both offset negative externalities and distribute the gains from this “casino” domestically. Unlike stock market speculation, however, the material infrastructures underlying this casino require vast quantities of critical minerals — effectively implying that the existence of the casino is predicated upon the imperialist violence required to maintain low primary commodity prices in mining regions.
Vinit is an interdisciplinary researcher, writer and editor based between Copenhagen and Berlin; he is presently employed as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen. His research focuses on Marxian analyses of the political economy of contemporary technology. He serves on the editorial board for The Left Berlin and the newly-launched Disjunctions Magazine.