Dan Wang: belief

Transcript context

…It’s not Qatar. It’s more complicated. Maybe UAE, but Saudi seems likely at this point. They have plenty of energy. They don’t really have a NIMBY movement that can stop things. Part of the American infrastructure is all these allies. Donald Trump is very intent on upsetting a lot of key allies. Now, maybe they won’t be so upset that they don’t follow American edicts, but at least I would have a little bit of hesitation about the strength of American alliances in the wake of Trump. If I were a central planner, I would say, “Are we building enough power? Are we making sure that there’s enough water here? Are we making sure that we’re managing the potential political backlash among a lot of NIMBY residents, including in Virginia, who are getting the bulk of data centers, who may not necessarily like a lot of the information out there about water use and electrical use?” I’m not sure if Silicon Valley is managing public opinion very well. There’s a lot of what people call misinformation out there about how much water these data centers use. I think that I would like to invest in a much broader basket of technologies, not just data centers, that there has to be much more of everything else. Why don’t we throw in better subways and light rail? How about health care and services? US is way, way ahead of China, even adjusting for per capita income. Health care is about the worst Chinese sector in terms of quality, corruption, what you have to pay the doctor, how nice it is to interact with the Chinese health care sector. Why isn’t that the most important thing for people feeling better about their lives? Again, China’s at the bottom of the pile, even compared, say, to Mexico. US, I’d say it’s a complicated story. It costs too much, but it’s some of the best health care in the world for at least the top half of the population.…

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