Spending on building data centres in the United States has grown about fivefold since late 2022. Data centres house the servers behind email, streaming, games and social media, and increasingly the chips that train and run AI. The surge followed the arrival of generative AI tools, which require huge amounts of computing capacity. Building a facility means large spending on land, buildings, power and cooling equipment, as well as the servers themselves. The boom is visible in construction and electricity demand across the country.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.