Can you share a simple data center capex - out of 100 - what do various segments/products get? Keep brief on words - first a table, and 1 line on explanation of each line item.
I'll interpret "out of 100" as asking for a percentage share breakdown of data center capital expenditure across major segment/product categories. Let me note this is an estimate-based industry view, not a single company's disclosed figure.
| Segment / Product | Est. Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Servers & compute (CPU/GPU/accelerators) | 45–55 |
| Networking (switches, optics, NICs) | 15–20 |
| Storage (SSD/HDD, controllers) | 8–12 |
| Power & cooling infrastructure | 10–15 |
| Racks, cabling, facilities (shell/mechanical) | 8–12 |
| Software & services (management, installation) | 3–5 |
One-line explanations
- Servers & compute — the bulk of spend, driven by high-cost GPU/accelerator systems for AI and general compute.
- Networking — high-speed switches, optical transceivers, and NICs that connect nodes at scale.
- Storage — flash and disk arrays plus controllers for hot and cold data tiers.
- Power & cooling — UPS, distribution, and increasingly liquid cooling for dense racks.
- Racks, cabling & facilities — the physical shell, racking, and structured cabling to house gear.
- Software & services — management/orchestration licenses, plus installation and integration labor.
These are approximate industry ranges and shift meaningfully with AI-heavy builds (compute and cooling skew higher) versus traditional cloud/enterprise data centers.
If you want this tied to a specific company (e.g., Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Nvidia, or a hardware vendor), I can pull the actual disclosed capex or segment figures.
Can you further split the line items? Assume its a AI inference data center. And in explanation - write the names of providers
Here's a further split for an AI inference data center (per 100 units of capex).
| Segment / Product | Est. Share (%) | Key Providers |
|---|---|---|
| Servers & compute | 48–55 | |
| — GPU/accelerators | 30–35 | Nvidia, AMD |
| — CPU | 6–8 | Intel, AMD |
| — Server boards/system (OEM) | 8–12 | Dell, Supermicro, Quanta, Foxconn |
| Networking | 14–18 | |
| — Switches | 6–8 | Arista, Broadcom, Cisco, Nvidia (Mellanox) |
| — Optical transceivers | 4–6 | Coherent, Lumentum, Innolight, Eoptolink |
| — NICs/DPUs | 3–4 | Broadcom, Nvidia, Intel |
| Storage | 6–10 | |
| — SSDs | 4–6 | Samsung, SK hynix, Micron, Kioxia |
| — HDDs | 2–4 | Seagate, Western Digital |
| Power & cooling | 12–16 | |
| — Power (UPS/PSU/distribution) | 6–8 | Vertiv, Eaton, Schneider Electric |
| — Cooling (liquid/air) | 5–8 | Vertiv, Delta, CoolIT, Boyd |
| Racks & facilities (shell) | 6–10 | |
| — Cabinets & cabling | 3–5 | Rittal, Panduit, CommScope |
| — Construction/mechanical | 3–5 | Turner, DPR, general contractors |
| Software & services | 2–4 | |
| — Management/security software | 1–2 | VMware, Red Hat, HashiCorp, Palo Alto |
| — Integration/installation | 1–2 | IBM, Accenture, HPE services |
One-line explanations
- GPU/accelerators — dominant cost in inference builds, dominated by Nvidia (with AMD emerging).
- CPU — host processors, split between Intel and AMD.
- Server OEM — system assembly and boards from Dell, Supermicro, Quanta, Foxconn.
- Switches — high-speed fabric from Arista, Cisco, Broadcom, and Nvidia (Mellanox).
- Optics — pluggable transceivers from Coherent, Lumentum, Innolight, Eoptolink.
- NICs/DPUs — SmartNICs and DPUs from Broadcom, Nvidia, Intel.
- SSDs — flash storage from Samsung, SK hynix, Micron, Kioxia.
- HDDs — bulk/cold storage from Seagate and Western Digital.
- Power — UPS and distribution from Vertiv, Eaton, Schneider Electric.
- Cooling — increasingly liquid cooling from Vertiv, Delta, CoolIT, Boyd.
- Cabinets & cabling — Rittal, Panduit, CommScope for physical infrastructure.
- Construction — Turner, DPR, and general contractors for the shell/mechanical.
- Management software — VMware, Red Hat, HashiCorp, Palo Alto for orchestration/security.
- Integration — IBM, Accenture, HPE for deployment and integration services.
Caveat: these are directional estimates for an AI-inference-focused build — inference skews slightly higher on accelerators and networking versus training, and liquid cooling share is rising fast.