Our Mom-and-Pop Data Center

The New Yorker presents a satirical profile of Hillsbrook Servers, a purported family-owned and operated data center in rural Iowa. The company, supposedly founded by Joseph Glunt in 2028, claims to champion a "small-batch, handcrafted, and hyperlocal" approach to data processing, even alleging to source its own minerals and rare-earth metals from its front yard. Despite its folksy facade, the article subtly highlights the broader concerns surrounding data centers, such as community subsidization of utility bills and disproportionate water consumption, with Hillsbrook Servers admitting to consuming "ninety-nine per cent of the town's water." The piece concludes with a satirical punchline, revealing Hillsbrook Servers as an "Amazon-Nvidia-Disney-ExxonMobil-Monsanto company," undermining its initial "mom-and-pop" image and critiquing the corporate interests behind seemingly local operations.