Epoch AI modeled the power budget of a frontier AI data centre built around Nvidia's GB200 architecture, and found the GPUs themselves -- the part everyone pictures when they think 'AI compute' -- account for only about 40% of total facility power at peak
Epoch AI estimated the power usage of GPUs in frontier AI data centers at peak operation. Their analysis, based on reference architectures and specifications for NVIDIA GB200 systems, found that GPUs account for about 40% of the total facility power. The remaining power is used by other IT equipment, cooling, lighting, and power conversion losses.
Verified 2026-09-11
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