South Park's new season takes aim at AI data centres and billionaire wealth

The latest episode of South Park continues the show's long tradition of skewering the wealthy and powerful, this time setting its sights on the artificial intelligence boom and the data centres built to power it. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone use the episode to question whether the rush to build AI infrastructure serves ordinary people or mainly enriches a small circle of billionaires.

The satire arrives a little over a year after Parker and Stone renewed their deal with Paramount following a contentious negotiation that had held up production of the show's 2025 season. That agreement, reportedly worth around $1.5 billion, raised questions at the time about whether Paramount, newly under the ownership of David Ellison, would genuinely preserve the show's creative freedom.

Critics note the irony of two of television's most prominent critics of billionaire excess operating within a deal of that scale themselves. The episode leans into this tension directly, using its trademark crude humour to suggest that even satirists are not immune from the economic forces they mock.

The episode's targets include the physical footprint of AI data centres, which have drawn growing public attention over their enormous electricity and water consumption. Communities near proposed or existing data centre sites in the United States have raised concerns about rising utility costs and strain on local power grids, concerns that have fed into broader unease about the pace of AI investment.

South Park has built its reputation over more than two decades on rapid-turnaround commentary, often airing episodes within days of the news events they reference. This latest instalment continues that approach, folding commentary on AI infrastructure and wealth concentration into the show's usual mix of absurdist plots and pointed cultural references.

The show's creators have not commented further beyond the episode itself, letting the satire speak for the show's long-standing scepticism toward unchecked corporate and billionaire power.