The project to build the world's most expensive supercomputer facility is worth $100 billion

Even the largest data centers on Earth only cost from 250 million USD to several billion USD, why does Microsoft's data center cost 100 billion USD?

In fact, Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI, and has actively supported the company's AI activities since 2019. Much of the computing power and cloud servers that power ChatGPT come from from Microsoft.

In the latest move, Microsoft can sponsor the world's most expensive data center project. They are planning to build a supercomputer facility with OpenAI at a cost of more than 100 billion USD, with a focus on the Stargate supercomputer.

Tech giant Microsoft is currently looking for a location in the US where they can set up their data center.

Even the largest data centers on Earth cost anywhere from $250 million to several billion dollars. So why does Microsoft's data center cost $100 billion? (Photo: MAXIPHOTO / GETTY IMAGES).

This project will take six years to complete, consisting of five phases. In the fourth phase, Microsoft plans to develop and launch a supercomputer smaller than Stargate, but more powerful than most existing systems. They hope to achieve this feat by 2026 and this supercomputer could be used to support OpenAI's speech recognition, or text-to-video AI tools.

In the fifth phase of this data center project, Microsoft and OpenAI will develop an advanced AI supercomputer called Stargate , which is expected to go into operation in 2028.

Once this project is complete, Microsoft and OpenAI will have enough equipment to train the world's most powerful AI models, including future top-notch ChatGPT versions. A Microsoft representative said: ' We are always planning for innovation for the next generation of infrastructure, which is essential to continue advancing the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI)'.

Experts estimate that all these stages could cost Microsoft a total of about $115 billion , most of which, about $100 billion, will be consumed in the fourth and fifth stages. .

Normal data centers do not cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Even the largest data centers on Earth cost anywhere from $250 million to several billion dollars. So why does Microsoft's proposed data center cost $100 billion?

This high cost is related to the development of artificial intelligence . Compared to traditional data centers, AI data centers require more power, advanced hardware cooling systems, higher chip counts (possibly millions), as well as data processing capabilities. Data and cloud storage must be larger.

Tracy Woo, an IT research analyst, told the WSJ: ' As AI-generated workloads require more computing power, and also have a broader impact on energy efficiency, and in the data center, cloud costs will undoubtedly continue to rise as more companies adopt generative AI. So you shouldn't be surprised if you hear about a future data center costing over $100 billion '.