20VC: The Future of Datacentres: What You Need to Know | Why Everyone Gets GPU Depreciation and AI's Energy Costs Wrong | Who Really Makes Money From AI & Why Most Moats Don't Exist with Chase Lochmiller

Scaling artificial intelligence requires a fundamental shift in infrastructure, moving away from centralized hubs toward distributed, energy-abundant locations. Chase Lochmiller, CEO of Crusoe Energy, outlines the necessity of vertical integration—controlling data centers, compute, and energy resources—to navigate supply chain bottlenecks like power availability and specialized labor. By treating AI infrastructure as a commodity-based value chain, similar to oil and gas, companies can optimize for efficiency and speed. Contrary to public concerns, modern data centers act as economic catalysts, providing significant tax revenue and lowering local energy costs through increased generation capacity. As AI demand shifts toward inference, the ability to manage memory and hardware life cycles becomes the primary differentiator. Success in this sector depends on the agility to adapt to evolving model capabilities while maintaining a resilient, long-term approach to physical infrastructure deployment.