The Ferrari Problem No One Wants to Talk About

Imagine owning the most powerful engine ever built.

Now imagine discovering there’s nowhere to run it.

That’s where artificial intelligence is right now.
For the past three years, Big Tech has focused on building the brain of AI:

  • faster chips

  • larger models

  • massive data centers

That part worked.

But something critical was overlooked.

A brain without a body — or fuel — doesn’t scale.

And suddenly, the most advanced technology on Earth is running into the most old-fashioned constraint of all.

Why AI Is Quietly Hitting a Wall

Here’s the part most press releases skip.

A single large AI data center can consume as much electricity as a small city.

In many parts of the U.S., the grid is already at capacity.

If a company tries to connect a new facility today, utilities may tell them to wait years — sometimes until the end of the decade.

For companies whose entire business depends on speed, that’s not an option.

So the race has shifted.

Not toward better code.
Not toward smarter models.

But toward something far more physical.

Why Big Tech Is Suddenly Looking at “Dead” Towns

This brings us back to Kemmerer. At first glance, it looks like the past:

  • shuttered coal infrastructure

  • empty industrial buildings

  • a town the economy moved on from

But beneath that surface is something incredibly rare.

Infrastructure that already exists.
Connections that cannot be built quickly anymore.

What looks abandoned to most people looks like a shortcut to the companies trying to keep AI alive.

And that’s why Jeff Brown went there with a camera.

The Part Wall Street Is Still Missing

Markets are still obsessed with the “engine”:

  • chips

  • models

  • software

But engines don’t matter if you can’t run them.

In every major technological shift, the biggest money isn’t made where the headlines are. It’s made in the bottlenecks.

And right now, AI has one.

Jeff Brown believes what’s happening in Wyoming is the first clear piece of evidence that the next phase of AI has already begun — quietly, off the map, and far from Silicon Valley.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

By the time this story becomes a debate on cable news, the opportunity is already gone.

The real repricing happens earlier — when the constraint is recognized, but before the solution is widely understood.

The brain is built.

What’s happening now is about keeping it alive.

And the proof is sitting in a forgotten coal town in Wyoming.

Warren Blake

Editor-in-Chief, Smart Trade Insights

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