So basically we are emulating the gold rush, the cost of gold is determined by how much the producers of it are willing to part with for their time mining it minus expenses, mining it happens because it is naturally scarce in nature, there would be no reason to mine it if it wasn't scarce. The centralized data centers are not going to sell Bitcoins to you at a loss. And with all this hash power being nessecary to accomodate such a network for all of the planet (the network is so small right now), once all of it comes online difficulty is going to sky rocket and therefore the amount of BTC produced by said data centers will be much less. Thus meaning each BTC will have to become worth more over time to accommodate the costs in producing and keeping these huge data centers online. If they are not happy with the current prices then they are just going to sit on the Bitcoins that they have mined. Or they can take a two layer approach like how they are doing now and still sell consumer miners, but time it right so that they get delivered where they won't meet a ROI, this way they are able to increase the price of a BTC by creating less supply from retail miners as they won't sell at those prices to see a profit (think $38 million worth of hardware in one batch being shipped out, don't underestimate it). With an increased cost of expense (non centralised mining is more costly, retail electricity prices etc). this is guaranteed to happen. Either way the price is only going to go up and up, the price spike we are going to see in 1st-10th of June 2014 is what is going to smash psychological barriers as it will be in the several thousands (I predict 7k-9k peak), and the perception of Bitcoin worldwide and will be splattered across every media channel across the globe (except Russia hue). Gas pedal, Gas pedal, you should be all welcoming the increased network hashpower, bring it on. There is nothing left for us peons to do but buy BTC. Gold will become a tenth of its worth or worthless when Bitcoin becomes mainstream, services so that Bitcoin can become viable for mainstream use will be built by those willing to reap the rewards for doing so, and this is already in motion now. I can't help but feel this is a globalist plan from the start, and this is a way for all the main super powers in the world to default on their huge debts in the end (the globalists are behind these countries right now any ways, knc is likely just a seed organisation for them, NSA scientist invented Bitcoin breowz run at me), have a monopoly on the entire planet, and once this is achieved they can see their agendas fufilled with whatever they have planned for the human race, maybe the "globalists/illuminati" know better and are good people who envision what needs to happen on the planet to advance the human race further, maybe they are evil. Who knows in the end?
I think you are right in the sense the psychologically if people see "big investment" in hashing farms the trend will be to get in on it ..the small fry us that is...and either mine or buy bitcoin just seeing a large amount of cash flowing into hashing farms (remember some of this money is 'locked in" from when bitcoin was around 900 bucks a coin...if they had to do it now I don't think they'd be 'completing the farms as big or as fast ...but most of the major players are committed imho to finish them at this point or at least what they started imho)
just to take the other side (which most economist's take yet on bitcoin) you could have the 'worst of both worlds' ie difficulty goes up and up at a pre-arranged set pace of difficulty due to $$ and infrastructure already in the pipeline but due to "silly primate humans" that we are and the fragile psychology on our thoughts...the demand to use bitcoin does not keep up....ie the small miners the cheerleaders of bitcoin drop out and hold more then they invest either in miners or btc...the general public is told bitcoin is a scam by those who have the power to move money now..and want it to fail....and it flatlines.....to a point where it is impossible to stay up and keep the ballon filled (ie the difficulty problem of equip investment) because demand/pressures by gov'ts and just not enough individuals to move bitcoin along the timeline....then the next crash....happens for whatever reason say Venezuela bans bitcoin or some other heavy handed move by a gov't ... it will be 'big money investors' not people who believe in bitcoin yelling for their investment back sell sell and boom...tulip craze bust.....again taking the opposite argument for devils advocate sake....
truth be told if I was the head of google or apple or some such 'player" of note.... right now or say steve jobs was still alive ...I'd get a bunch of corporation types together and say we are gonna get on the virtual currency bandwagon....we are gonna make something called say Qazzcoin or some such and it will be backed by some major corporations say 40 or so...BUT instead of doing like corporations do and try to control the whole situation. They announce it is sha-256 independently run just like bitcoin they are hands off completely ...just their reputations for taking this coin to the future is on the line....and they announce such a coin sha-256 difficulty 0 will start with no pre-mine at midnight june 1st 2014 say
all hell would break loose imho ....my then defunct bitcoin knc 555gh miner at that point would be fired back up along with every laptop computer..usb asic 333mh unit I had..it would be a wild ride with all the obsolete sha-256 asic hardware out there getting a NEW life...talk about speculation!....all the stuff out there and/or gpu bitcoin rigs drag'd down from the attic..would be quite the hoot imho
even if it was only as successful as litecoin and or this was done mostly as PR for the various corporations involved....they likely would have more influence if not then later
on how alternate currencies are used/made/controlled in the future (just look at the push for getting rid of net neutrality on the internet by corporations who were on the band wagon in the past)
but it never will happen ..(steve jobs might have done it for kicks/fun and PR but don't see anyone else with the b*lls)...they will always have to have a hook into the coin
to do so some kinda catch (even in the above case the catch would be to kill bitcoin)....and corporation types are so short term motivated by 2yrs max....it will never fly
but again if I ran google/apple or whatever.. I'd do this for the PR and just to shake things up towards regulation .which is what these large banks and corporations want with virtual currencies to trend to anyway imho..the option to influence at best and control at worst in the future...but it is unlikely they would have the skills to play this "long game" on virtual coins imho
(these dark times brought to you by my demented mined....don't get me going on zombies it could get worse)
anyway this nightmare will not happen..but if I had a billion dollars I could have a lot of fun with PR just throwing this idea around
(the lengths i'll go to keep my old asic gear running)
Searing
The infrastructure for Bitcoin is going to roll out nicely in the next few years along with regulation. Also if the globalists are behind it then Stevejobscoin is never going to happen 
I was basically agreeing with you. 