Comment by LarsDu88
If you build the actual datacenter, less than half the cost is the actual compute. The other half is the actual datacenter infrastructure, power infrastructure, and cooling.
So in that sense it's not that much different from Meta and Google which also used server infrastructure that depreciated over time. The difference is that I believe Meta and Google made money hand over fist even in their earliest days.
Last time i ran the numbers -
Data center facilities are ~$10k per kW
IT gear is like $20k-$50k per kW
Data center gear is good for 15-30 years. IT is like 2-6ish.
Would love to see updated numbers. Got any?