Artificial intelligence companies are pouring extraordinary sums into massive data centers. One estimate now puts a 100-gigawatt artificial general intelligence effort at about $8 trillion.
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) CEO Arvind Krishna recently told the “Decoder” podcast. He said filling a 1-gigawatt data center costs about $80 billion and called it “today’s number.”
Krishna said a company committing 20–30 gigawatts could face about $1.5 trillion in spending using current costs, telling “Decoder” host Nilay Patel that the estimate reflects announced AI infrastructure plans. Krishna also described the short lifespan of AI chips and said the hardware needs to be used within about five years before being replaced.
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Krishna said an $8 trillion investment would require about $800 billion in profit to cover interest payments alone. Patel referenced comments from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who has said OpenAI could generate a return on its capital spending.
OpenAI has announced roughly $1.4 trillion in long-term buildout agreements with partners including Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO), Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL, GOOG)), CNBC reported.
Krishna told the “Decoder” podcast that expectations around AGI spending remain beliefs rather than confirmed outcomes. He told Patel the current wave of infrastructure commitments illustrates how quickly companies are scaling capacity for AI, adding that the pace reflects industry activity rather than a guaranteed path to AGI.
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Krishna said he gives the current technologies only a “zero to 1% ” chance of achieving AGI. He said today’s large language models do not reach the level associated with AGI and that additional advances will be required. He said current tools already offer significant value in enterprise settings.
Several leaders have questioned AGI projections. Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PLTR) Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar told the “Interesting Times with Ross Douthat” podcast in late October that extreme AGI narratives often function as “a fundraising shtick.”
