Sign in
Data center capex allocation breakdown

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.

about 13 hours ago
3 replies Ask a follow up

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.

about 13 hours ago
2 replies Ask a follow up

Can you further split the line items? Assume its a AI inference data center. And in explanation - write the names of providers

about 13 hours ago
1 reply Ask a follow up

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.

about 13 hours ago