European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread

European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread - Page 1421

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Jankisa

Croatia1359 Posts

4 hours ago

#28401

On April 29 2026 08:01 GreenHorizons wrote:

Show nested quote +

sounded suspiciously high to me. Upon reading the linked ~~article~~ press release from the AI company I learned they claim:

Show nested quote +

What happened there?

I twisted my numbers up, not sure where the 3k came, other then it being 2 x 1500. I'll leave it up for posterity and add an edit.

1500 permanent jobs is pretty great given the location. We are talking about a power plan, solar fields and the Data Center.

The municipality where this is being announced to be built has a tad over 2000 people. This would be an incredible boon for this little town, as well as the 3 surrounding bigger ones, all of which are some of the most impoverished parts of Croatia, both because of the war and the 2021 earthquake that destroyed a lot of houses and killed 15 people.

All the local media and commentators are just parroting the USA angle, it's going to devastate nature (compared to most industries, DC and a LNG power plants are pretty chill), it's going to use up all the water (unlike Arizona or Utah mega projects, this one is smack dab in the middle of a very river and water rich area), it's being built by Americans and we don't like them (well, I obviously can't stand Trump but this is a very long term investment and the driver from USA side seems pretty politics free).

On April 29 2026 18:17 Harris1st wrote:

Show nested quote +

On April 29 2026 04:59 Jankisa wrote:
The geopolitics of business are finally touching Croatia, and oh boy, it's a doozy:

Business wire article on the $50 billion DataCenter investment in Croatia

Basically, this DataCenter would, if completed account for roughly 1/3 of power consumption of Croatia. Of course, the people behind the project have thought about it and the DC would come with it's own power sources, a lot of Solar and a LNG power plant.

The whole project would take about 5000 people working on construction and around 3000 to operate it after it's complete.

It would be built in one of the most economically dead parts of Croatia.

It's been incredibly fascinating to see these arguments developing in Croatian media, both traditional and social. The price tag of the project is about 40 % of our GDP, so, obviously, even if none of the profits from operating it stay in Croatia, it would be a boon for our economy.

Now, the downsides are abundant. It takes a lot of water, which is likely why they choose the location with plenty of water and 0 issues with droughts, already much better then the US projects.

To me, as a tech guy and a progressive, I'm split, but mostly because I know how corrupt our politics are, so the benefits of this would mostly go to them and I doubt that any ecological and power overdraw issues would be issues with this chunk of money being available for bribes.

The overwhelming amount of Luddites in the comments are really depressing me. This area of Croatia has seen protest against any and all investments. It's basically just a place where people live before moving on to Zagreb because every piece of industry and production died and every time investments were attempted they were blocked. Sure, none of the projects were perfect, but come on, you can't be against everything!

Anyhow, it's interesting for me to compare this to the situation in the US, we have SOOO much more regulations and these investors really seemingly tried to get ahead of every talking point, and yet, no one cares and everyone just keeps regurgitating "draining rivers for AI slop" and "we'll pay 3 x for electricity" like this is the USA, it's honestly depressing.

Sounds like a no brainer to me TBH. This should be done asap. They should also use excess heat of the data center to heat homes and living quarters and stuff.
Also, if Croatia regulations are already strict, what do you call Germany regulations then? xD

Funnily enough, the articles I've been reading are quoting "a town in Germany already refused a similar project", from the looks of it, that one was supposed to be much closer to the residential areas.

The one here is to be built well outside of town, which would address the noise and heat pollution quite well, since it would be surrounded by woods, dampening the impact.

GreenHorizons

United States23929 Posts

4 hours ago

#28402

On April 30 2026 02:15 Jankisa wrote:

Show nested quote +

1500 permanent jobs is pretty great given the location. We are talking about a power plan, solar fields and the Data Center.

+ Show Spoiler +

The municipality where this is being announced to be built has a tad over 2000 people. This would be an incredible boon for this little town, as well as the 3 surrounding bigger ones, all of which are some of the most impoverished parts of Croatia, both because of the war and the 2021 earthquake that destroyed a lot of houses and killed 15 people.

All the local media and commentators are just parroting the USA angle, it's going to devastate nature (compared to most industries, DC and a LNG power plants are pretty chill), it's going to use up all the water (unlike Arizona or Utah mega projects, this one is smack dab in the middle of a very river and water rich area), it's being built by Americans and we don't like them (well, I obviously can't stand Trump but this is a very long term investment and the driver from USA side seems pretty politics free).

You said

The whole project would take about 5000 people working on construction and around 3000 to operate it after it's complete.

The corporate press release (which typically overstate jobs numbers) wasn't even close to that.

The project will create 1,500 permanent jobs on completion, with a further 3,000 roles during the construction phase

I was literally asking how that discrepancy happened?

I was also pointing out it's a press release to promote the project from the corporation trying to convince people to support it, not a detailed independent economic analysis. We probably also want to take those corrected numbers with a grain of salt.

I don't really have an opinion on the project itself, I just found that (and your failure to address it) peculiar.

EDIT:

I twisted my numbers up, not sure where the 3k came, other then it being 2 x 1500. I'll leave it up for posterity and add an edit.

Where did the 5000 come from?

Again I'm pretty agnostic about the project, but I doubt most of the people living there will be working however many jobs actually get created. So while geographically it should be a boon, it's reasonable to expect it to basically completely obliterate the existing local culture (for better or worse).

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