100 billion USD to build the most expensive supercomputer facility in the world

The Stargate supercomputer specializing in AI is also part of the project. This will be the largest supercomputer in a series of devices expected to be built by Microsoft and OpenAI over the next six years divided into 5 phases.

The two companies are currently in the third phase. As they enter the final phase, they will deploy the Stargate, which is expected to become operational in 2028.

The total project cost could exceed $115 billion, three times the Microsoft budget for the company's server systems, infrastructure and equipment in 2023.

The largest data centers on Earth currently cost only from 250 million USD to several billion USD. Microsoft's proposed data center costs $100 billion due to the development of artificial intelligence, requiring more power, advanced hardware cooling systems, and high chip counts. more (possibly millions), as well as greater data processing and cloud storage capacity. In addition, AI chips are also sold at high prices, in which Nvidia's latest B200 Blackwell series will cost 30,000-40,000 USD per chip.

Once this project is completed, Microsoft and OpenAI will have enough equipment to train the world's most powerful AI models.

The need for supercomputer systems dedicated to artificial intelligence, capable of taking on more complex tasks, is increasing due to the rapid popularization of generative AI.

Isabella Humphrey

Update 01 April 2024