1 GW AI data center: up-front capex ~$37.9B (servers ~$21.2/W with GPUs inside that line, facility ~$11.4/W, network ~$4.9/W, land + utility works ~$0.3/W) and all-in annual TCO (~$8.5M/MW-yr)
~$38B / ~$8.5B/yrmodeled
| Value kind | modeled — Interpret this value according to its displayed kind, scope, source, and as-of date. |
|---|---|
| Scope | Epoch’s modeled US hyperscaler, 1 GW IT, GB200 NVL72. Default IT life about 5.3 years; annualized economic cost includes capital opportunity cost, not a literal debt-service bill or exact five-year sensitivity. |
| Caveat | Epoch's May-2026 CSV (per 1 GW IT): servers $21,188M — the accelerators live INSIDE this line — facility $11,433M, network/cluster infrastructure $4,925M, land $172M, utility works $164M; total $37,883M up-front. Financing is NOT included; land IS (trivially). The earlier '~$27.5–27.9/W core stack' decomposition (IT 17.5 / power+cooling 7–10 / shell 1.9) no longer appears in Epoch's current insight, CSV, methodology, or workbook — do not quote it as current Epoch. |
| As of | 2026-05 |
| Source | Epoch AI, Amelia Michael and Ben Cottier, May 2026 model and linked workbook. May 19 is the article’s up-front CapEx CSV revision date; annualized-cost CSV is marked May 14. This record’s asof_date identifies the CapEx data revision, not article publication or verification. |
| Derivation | Epoch modeled US hyperscaler, 1 GW nameplate IT capacity, GB200 NVL72. Workbook total upfront $37.8825B; annualized baseline $8.5111B at 5.320776256 IT years and 13.75 facility years, WACC 7.83%. Annualized economic cost includes opportunity cost of capital; not a literal annual debt-service bill or exact five-year sensitivity. |
| Review | checking…review by 2026-12-05 · fast cadence |
| Recorded changes | last 2026-09-16 · 3 revisions tracked |
| Claim id | 1-gw-ai-data-center-total-program-capex-core |
Where the guide uses it
← Full numbers register — every date-stamped figure in the guide, with revision history.