What makes @Google's data center flex announcement today so significant, in my view: (1) These are the first known contracts between a hyperscaler and US utilities around AI data center flexibility; (2) This is the first known case of US data center flexibility being incorporated into the utility planning realm, instead of limited to operations; (3) This is the first time Google is providing data center flexibility via machine learning workloads; (4) The contracts are definitive and long-term in nature; and (5) The announcement notes that flexibility applies to “certain hours or times of the year,” indicating a time-limited arrangement.