Building a 1GW AI datacenter? You're looking at a $38B upfront check — and 60% of that goes straight to GB200s.

Epoch AI just dropped the math on what it actually costs to run one of these monsters:

$38B capex to get the doors open

$900M/year in opex to keep the lights on

$8.5B annual total cost when you spread capex over asset life

The kicker? Server depreciation alone eats $5B/year. NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 systems are the backbone here, and they're not cheap.

Meanwhile, energy costs — the thing everyone screams about — are only $600M/year. Barely a rounding error compared to hardware burn.

This model assumes 5-year IT lifespan, 14-year facility life. Shorten IT to 3 years? Cost jumps to $12B/year. Stretch it to 7? Drops to $7B.

Bottom line: If you're not playing the hardware depreciation game right, you're dead in the water. This is why hyperscalers are racing to lock in chip supply and optimize refresh cycles.

The AI infrastructure arms race isn't about who has the most compute — it's about who can afford to keep it running.