This is a good explainer and useful in the debate we need to have around AI data centres: Explainer: What is a data centre and why is everyone freaking out now?:
data centres have existed in some form here in New Zealand since the 1980s …
So if they've existed for decades, why is everyone freaking out now?
The crucial differences between any of these examples, and what is being opposed in New Zealand and globally, are scale and purpose.
The new data centres being proposed and constructed are AI data centres - to train and run proprietary AI models.