Vitalik Buterin says slowing AI data center growth could buy time for security

The Ethereum co-founder argues a slower buildout of AI compute would cost science little and give society room to harden cyber and biological defenses Vitalik Buterin has picked a side in one of tech’s touchiest fights. The Ethereum co-founder says slowing the growth of AI data centers could give society extra time to prepare for cyber and biological risks. What Buterin actually said In a post on X on November 8, 2026, Buterin defended the recent movements opposing new data center construction. His focus was hyperscale AI compute, the warehouse-sized facilities that train and run the largest models. His core claim is about algorithmic efficiency. Buterin suggested that work which would need more data centers two years from now could potentially be handled by existing infrastructure within four years, and likely sooner. The second part of his argument concerns what a slowdown would actually cost. Buterin indicated that an expected one-year slowdown in AI scaling would cause only minimal delays to scientific progress. His reasoning: many of the things holding science back are not compute problems at all. Running experiments, gathering data and testing results all take time no matter ...