Building a major AI data center could cost $200 million within six years

Data centers for training and operating AI include millions of chips, cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and if current trends apply, they will need the equivalent of a big city power grid.

That is according to New research We investigated the growth trajectories of AI data centers around the world from 2019 to this year from researchers at Georgetown, Epoch AI, and Rand. The co-authors have analyzed datasets from over 500 AI data center projects in a collective analysis and found that data centers’ computational performance is more than doubled each year, but so are power requirements and capital expenditures.

The findings illustrate the challenges involved in building the infrastructure needed to support the development of AI technology over the next decade.

Openai said recently Approximately 10% of the world’s population I’m using the ChatGpt platform. There is a partnership SoftBank and others will raise up to $500 billion to establish a network of US AI data centers (And perhaps elsewhere). Other high-tech majors including Microsoft, Googleand awscollectively pledges to spend hundreds of millions of dollars this year alone, expanding the data center footprint.

According to a Georgetown, Epoch and Rand research, hardware costs for AI data centers like Xai’s Colossus, with a price tag of around $7 billion, increased 1.9 times each year between 2019 and 2025, while Power doubled each year. (Colossus has acquired an estimated 300 megawatts of electricity and has earned 250,000 households.)

The study also found that data centers have been much more energy efficient over the past five years, with one key metric (computational performance per watt) increasing by 1.34 times each year from 2019 to 2025. By June 2030, major AI data centers have 2 million AI chips, costing $200 billion and needing 9 GW of electricity.

The need for electricity in AI data centers is not a new revelation Pacing the power grid significantly. Data center energy intake is projected to increase by 20% by 2030. According to a recent Wells Fargo analysis. It could push renewable power sources that depend on different weather to their limits – It will accelerate the ramp up Non-renewable, environmentally damaged power sources like fossil fuels.

AI data centers also raise other things Environmental threatserodes valuable real estate and state tax bases, such as high water consumption. Research by Good Jobs First, Washington, DC-based nonprofit organizations; estimate At least 10 states are losing more than $100 million a year in data center tax revenue, the result of overly generous incentives.

Of course, these projections may not pass. It is also possible that the time scale is off-quilter. Like some hyperscalers AWS and Microsofthas returned to the data center project in the past few weeks. In a note to investors in mid-April, Cowen Analyst It was observed that there was “cooling” in the data center market in early 2025, indicating the industry’s fear of unsustainable expansion.