Building a 1 GW AI data center involves a substantial $38 billion in capital expenditure, with servers accounting for 60% of the costs, according to Epoch AI. The annualized total cost of ownership, including $900 million in operating expenses, reaches $8.5 billion. Servers, primarily NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 systems, contribute $5 billion in annual depreciation costs. Energy expenses, the largest operational cost, are $600 million annually. The cost analysis is sensitive to hardware depreciation periods, with a 5-year lifespan assumed for IT equipment. Adjusting this lifespan significantly impacts the annualized costs, ranging from $7 billion to $12 billion.