Any such question has to account for the uncertainty about what US trade policies and tariffs will be tomorrow, let alone by the time anyone currently planning a data center will actually be finished building it.
Also, when you say offshore, do you mean in other countries, or actually in the ocean? Assuming the former, I think that would imply using the data center by anyone in the US would be an import of services. If this starting happening at scale, I would expect the current administration to immediately begin applying tariffs to those services.
@Garrett Baker Yes electronics are exempt (for now?) but IIUC all the other stuff (HVAC, electrical, etc.) that goes into the data center is not, and that’s often a majority or at least a high proportion of total costs.
Any such question has to account for the uncertainty about what US trade policies and tariffs will be tomorrow, let alone by the time anyone currently planning a data center will actually be finished building it.
Also, when you say offshore, do you mean in other countries, or actually in the ocean? Assuming the former, I think that would imply using the data center by anyone in the US would be an import of services. If this starting happening at scale, I would expect the current administration to immediately begin applying tariffs to those services.
@Garrett Baker Yes electronics are exempt (for now?) but IIUC all the other stuff (HVAC, electrical, etc.) that goes into the data center is not, and that’s often a majority or at least a high proportion of total costs.