06-reference

not boring thank god for data centers

2026-05-27·reference·source: Not Boring·by Packy McCormick
data-centersai-infrastructurelearning-curvepower-cyclehyperscaler-capexreindustrializationhard-techbuyer-of-capabilities

"Thank God For Data Centers" — Packy McCormick

Why this is in the vault

McCormick's "Buyer of Capabilities" frame is a clean intellectual spine for the RDCO Power Cycle thesis: it explains why hyperscaler capex de-risks the hard-tech / energy layer faster than markets price, by analogy to how Apollo/DoD procurement pulled the integrated circuit down its cost curve. Directly reinforces the innermost-loop AI-infra thesis and the SpaceX/data-centers-in-space note filed the same day.

⚠️ Sponsorship & bias disclosure

Two separate layers, disclosed independently:

  1. Explicit paid sponsor — Deel. The issue carries a Deel ad block (Employer of Record / global hiring). Standard Not Boring sponsor placement, unrelated to the essay's data-center argument. No bias on the thesis content itself.
  2. Portfolio-adjacency ambiguity (Not Boring Capital). This is a single-author Packy essay — NOT the co-written "founder hands the keyboard" pattern, so no GTM-collateral flag on that axis. However, the essay is enthusiastic about the exact hard-tech categories Not Boring Capital invests in (enhanced geothermal, nuclear, solid-state transformers, silicon photonics, modular construction, HVDC). Verification result: Not Boring Capital does not publish a public holdings list — LP updates are redacted to protect private-company info, so individual positions can't be confirmed or ruled out. Treat the category enthusiasm as thesis-aligned advocacy from an investor talking his book, not neutral analysis. No specific named companies are pitched (categories only), which keeps it on the softer end of the disclosure-ambiguity spectrum.

The core argument

There is a large pool of technologies that could beat today's incumbents but are stuck in a local maximum: they need scale and a learning curve to get cheap, and in normal times no buyer will stick their neck out to fund that scaling. Historically two mechanisms break the stalemate — Alpha Products (e.g. the Sony Handycam pulling lithium-ion batteries down the curve; the calculator for microcontrollers) and extraeconomic Buyers of Capabilities (DoD/NASA buying capability almost irrespective of price).

McCormick's thesis: AI data centers are now a third kind of Buyer of Capabilities — "a commercial analog operating on DoD-style procurement logic but commercial timescales." With backlogs in every traditional input, developers have a near-bottomless bid and will pay up for anything that delivers fast, giving novel tech a shot at scale and cost-down years earlier than otherwise. The list of beneficiaries extends well beyond GPUs/DRAM to supersonic turbines, enhanced geothermal, modular construction, HVDC, solid-state transformers, silicon photonics, optical fiber, lasers, batteries, and nuclear. This funding is dilution-free (real revenue, negative working-capital cycle) and rescues companies that would otherwise die in the Valley of Death.

Supporting arc:

(Email body truncated at the paywall after the GDP-context section; argument above is complete through the thesis statement.)

Mapping against Ray Data Co

Strong. This is a higher-resolution version of the mechanism the Power Cycle thesis already bets on.

Net: file as thesis-reinforcing narrative and a clean explanatory frame to cite, not as new evidence. The mechanism is sound; the conviction is an investor's.

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