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Downtown datacenter? AI plan floated for boarded-up San Francisco mall

Global Published 20 October 2026, 17:00 · archived 20 Oct 2026

Developers propose turning San Francisco Centre into not a server-based facility but a ‘community-based AI exhibit’Downtown San Francisco has shown signs of revival since being battered by the Covid pandemic, which led to what many called a “doom loop” of vacant buildings, a worsening homelessness crisis, and dwindling public transit. But one highly visible reminder of the city’s struggle to recover remains: the San Francisco Centre mall, which sits at the heart of these urban renewal efforts and has been conspicuously boarded up since January of this year.A number of ideas have been floated f...

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