transceiver and retimer power NVIDIA says an optical NVL72 scale-up would have needed, avoided by copper NVLink

Name: transceiver and retimer power NVIDIA says an optical NVL72 scale-up would have needed, avoided by copper NVLink
License: https://aidatacenterguide.com/terms#intellectual-property

~20 kW/rackestimate

Value kind	estimate — Interpret this value according to its displayed kind, scope, source, and as-of date.
Scope	Counterfactual vendor estimate for the named NVL72 design as reported; not measured per-module power and not a saving transferable to another fabric.
As of	2024-03
Source	SemiAnalysis, Nvidia’s Optical Boogeyman, 25 March 2024, quoting NVIDIA’s GTC 2024 keynote: the transceivers and retimers alone would have cost 20,000 watts — 20 kilowatts — per NVL72 rack had scale-up used optics instead of copper. · Keynote quotation on NVL72 copper NVLink cabling
Review	checking…review by 2027-03-08 · standard cadence
Recorded changes	last 2026-09-16
Claim id	p2b-8-9-nvl72-transceiver-power

Where the guide uses it

8.9 Physical-Layer & Interconnect Taxonomy

← Full numbers register — every date-stamped figure in the guide, with revision history.