fully-built cost of a gigawatt-scale AI campus incl. IT (all-in ~$30/W; Epoch models ~$38B of up-front capex for a stylized 1 GW-IT US hyperscaler campus, plus ~$0.9B/yr opex)
~$30–40Bobserved
| Value kind | observed — Reported measurements, counts, and specifications keep the precision and scope stated by their source; an exact specification is not treated as a range. |
|---|---|
| Caveat | The ~$38B is Epoch's UP-FRONT CAPEX for a stylized 1 GW-IT campus (May-2026 CSV: servers 21.2 + facility 11.4 + network 4.9 + land 0.17 + utility 0.16 = $37.9B). Financing is not included; land is, at a trivial $172M — correcting an earlier note here that placed land in opex. Epoch's annualized TCO for the same campus is ~$8.5B/yr. |
| As of | 2026 |
| Source | cross-ref: Ch 6.3 (McKinsey ~$30/W) / Ch 1.8 (Epoch AI ~$38B) · Opening summary: typical 1 GW AI data center requires $38B in up-front CapEx |
| Review | checking…review by 2026-09-29 · fast cadence |
| Recorded changes | last 2026-07-07 |
| Claim id | fully-built-cost-of-a-gigawatt-scale-ai-campus |
Where the guide uses it
← Full numbers register — every date-stamped figure in the guide, with revision history.