Nvidia
Company-reported
Vera Rubin platform in full production.
“Vera Rubin, now in full production, was built to power exactly this moment.”
NVIDIA, Q2 fiscal 2027 results, Aug 26, 2026
The biggest AI data centers
Where the power is drawn.
Power for the computing equipment (IT power), as Epoch AI estimates it from satellite images, permits and filings. Planned figures are Epoch's projections, not the owners' claims.
25 of the largest sitesHalo size: power now · ring: planned
- 1Anthropic-Amazon New CarlisleAmazon · New Carlisle, Indiana, USA1,037 MW1,925 planned, Mar 17, 2028
- 2Colossus 2SpaceXAI · Memphis, Tennessee, USA946 MW1,531 planned, Q1 2027
- 3Microsoft Fairwater AtlantaMicrosoft · Fayetteville, Georgia, USA636 MW
- 4DayOne NusajayaOwner not stated · Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia473 MW
- 5Meta PrometheusMeta · New Albany, Ohio, USA471 MW1,022 planned, Q3 2028
- 6DayOne KempasOwner not stated · Kempas, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia422 MW
- 7OpenAI Stargate AbileneOracle · Abilene, Texas, USA421 MW843 planned, Q4 2026
- 8Microsoft Fairwater WisconsinMicrosoft · Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, USA369 MW2,263 planned, Q2 2028
- 9Google Pryor (North)Google · Pryor, Oklahoma, USA368 MW
- 10Colossus 1SpaceXAI · Memphis, Tennessee, USA340 MW
- 11Google New AlbanyGoogle · New Albany, Ohio, USA333 MW
- 12Google ColumbusGoogle · Columbus, Ohio, USA303 MW386 planned, Jul 1, 2027
- 13Amazon Madison Mega SiteAmazon · Canton, Madison County, Mississippi, USA284 MW683 planned, Mar 15, 2028
- 14CoreWeave Denton TXCoreWeave · Denton, Texas, USA262 MW282 planned, May 31, 2027
- 15Bridge Data Centres MY06ByteDance (likely) · Sedenak Tech Park, Johor, Malaysia243 MW
- 16Amazon RidgelandAmazon · Ridgeland, Mississippi, USA228 MW840 planned, Sep 29, 2028
- 17VNET Bayin UlanqabVNET · Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, China221 MW700 planned, Q3 2027
- 18Huawei HoringerHuawei · Horinger (Hohhot), Inner Mongolia, China184 MW346 planned, Q1 2028
- 19Alibaba ZhangbeiAlibaba · Zhangbei, Hebei, China169 MW
- 20Google Waltham CrossGoogle · Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, UK88 MW
Still being built
1,632 MW plannedMeta HyperionMeta · Holly Ridge, Louisiana, USA · Q1 20281,400 MW plannedOpenAI Stargate ShackelfordOracle · Shackelford County, near Abilene, Texas, USA · Q4 20281,000 MW plannedOpenAI Stargate UAEG42 · Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates · about 2028-01-01988 MW plannedOpenAI Stargate MichiganOracle · Michigan, USA (Epoch: Benton, Michigan) · Dec 31, 2028857 MW plannedOpenAI Stargate MilamSoftBank · Burlington, Milam County, Texas, USA · Q4 2028
Source: Epoch AI, AI data centers (CC BY 4.0), Oct 19, 2026. The list is the 20 largest by power now, plus the largest in China and the UK. Owner names are Epoch's. Epoch's figure for New Carlisle is an estimate; its last satellite reading was 910 MW in June.
The chips
What's inside, and how strong.
Each maker's AI chips, rated against Nvidia's H100 (H100 = 1) by Epoch AI. A rating of 2.5 means about two and a half H100s of computing power.
AMD
Company-reported
AMD says it launched the Instinct MI400 Series (MI455X, MI430X) and the MI350P; Helios rack-scale systems starting to ramp; Anthropic deal for up to 2 GW of MI450 Series GPUs (2026-07-22).
AMD, Q2 2026 results, Aug 4, 2026
Google (TPU)
Company-reported
Ironwood, seventh-generation TPU: 4,614 TFLOPs FP8 per chip, pods of up to 9,216 chips.
“Ironwood represents a significant shift in the development of AI and the infrastructure that powers its progress.”
Google blog, Ironwood, Apr 9, 2025
Amazon (Trainium)
Huawei (Ascend)
Company-reported
Roadmap (company-reported, Sept 2025): Ascend 950PR Q1 2026, 950DT Q4 2026, 960 Q4 2027, 970 Q4 2028; Atlas 950 SuperPoD of 8,192 Ascend 950DT chips in Q4 2026.
“Generally, we will follow a 1-year release cycle and double compute with each release.”
Huawei Connect 2025 keynote, Sep 18, 2025
Cambricon
Ratings and release dates: Epoch AI, AI chip types (CC BY 4.0), Oct 19, 2026. Epoch gives ratings for Rubin and the Ascend 950PR without a release date.
Who owns the computing power
Five companies, most of the world's.
Epoch AI's estimates of the AI computing power each company had bought by the end of 2025, counted in H100s.
71%
held by Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle together, up from 63% in early 2024.
Epoch AI, Apr 14, 2026
~5M
H100s' worth at Google, about a quarter of the world's total, mostly its own TPU chips.
Epoch AI, Apr 7, 2026
5%+
“Chinese companies collectively own just over 5% of the cumulative computing power” of leading AI chips, Epoch says of Chinese companies.
Epoch AI, Apr 6, 2026
Estimated computing power owned, end of 2025
In millions of H100-equivalents. Each figure is our sum of Epoch's middle estimates for that owner's chips by designer, so treat it as approximate. China's includes Epoch's estimate of smuggled chips (1.2M without them). Epoch AI, AI chip owners, May 12, 2026
The money
What's being spent.
Spending on buildings and equipment (capex), as the companies report it. Each counts it differently, so the figures shouldn't be added together.
Microsoft
$35.8bn in Q4 fiscal 2026
$115.9bn over the fiscal year.
Counted as: additions to property and equipment (cash flow statement); excludes finance leases. Microsoft FY26 Q4 press release, Jul 29, 2026
Amazon
$54.2bn in Q2 2026
$173.0bn over the past 12 months. Amazon says: “This increase primarily reflects investments in artificial intelligence.”
Counted as: purchases of property and equipment (gross, cash flow statement). Amazon.com Announces Second Quarter Results, Jul 30, 2026
Meta
$31.08bn in Q2 2026
Expects 2026 spending “to be in the range of $130-145 billion”.
Counted as: capital expenditures including principal payments on finance leases. Meta Reports Second Quarter 2026 Results, Jul 29, 2026
Nvidia's data center sales
$89.0bn in Q2 fiscal 2027, +117% on a year earlier
“Second-quarter revenue was $89.0 billion, up 18% from the previous quarter and up 117% from a year ago.”
Its outlook: “NVIDIA is not assuming any Data Center compute revenue from China in its outlook.”
NVIDIA Announces Financial Results for Second Quarter Fiscal 2027, Aug 26, 2026
AMD's data center sales
$6.7bn in Q2 2026, +107% on a year earlier
“Data Center revenue more than doubled year-over-year.”
AMD Reports Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results, Aug 4, 2026
The big projects
- Stargate (OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, MGX) Announced as a new company intending to invest $500 billion over four years in AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the US, $100 billion immediately. “The Stargate Project is a new company which intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years” OpenAI, Announcing The Stargate Project · company-reported
- Stargate sites tracked by Epoch Epoch lists 8 Stargate sites: Abilene (421 MW now, 843 MW projected Q4 2026), Shackelford (1,400 MW projected Q4 2028), Michigan (988 MW, end-2028), Milam (857 MW, Q4 2028), UAE (1,000 MW, ~2028), plus Lordstown, New Mexico and Wisconsin. Epoch AI, AI data centers (CC BY 4.0)
- Project Jupiter, New Mexico (Stargate) Oracle sent a force majeure notice to the developer; it says the project remains on schedule for 2028. TechCrunch (citing Bloomberg)
- AMD–Anthropic Partnership to deploy up to 2 gigawatts of AMD Instinct MI450 Series GPUs (title of AMD release). AMD press release · company-reported
- Meta Hyperion, Louisiana Under construction; Epoch projects 1,632 MW IT power by Q1 2028 at $61.8bn capital cost. Epoch AI directory
Alphabet's and Oracle's latest figures aren't here yet because we couldn't reach their releases. Third-quarter results from all five are due in late October.
Electricity and water
The power bill, measured.
Data centers of every kind, not only AI, from the International Energy Agency and the US Department of Energy.
415 TWh
“Data centres accounted for around 1.5% of the world's electricity consumption in 2024, or 415 terawatt-hours (TWh).”
about 945 TWh
“Data centre electricity consumption is set to more than double to around 945 TWh by 2030.”
US 45%
“The United States accounted for the largest share of global data centre electricity consumption in 2024 (45%), followed by China (25%) and Europe (15%).”
nearly half of US electricity demand growth
“In the United States, data centres account for nearly half of electricity demand growth between now and 2030.”
176 TWh
“consumed about 4.4% of total U.S. electricity in 2023” It “climbed from 58 TWh in 2014 to 176 TWh in 2023”.
US Department of Energy, on the LBNL 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report, Dec 20, 2024
325 to 580 TWh
“approximately 6.7 to 12% of total U.S. electricity by 2028”
US Department of Energy, on the LBNL report, Dec 20, 2024
Water
We haven't found national figures we can cite yet. These are two local ones, as reported.
Cape Town, South Africa
Over 4.4 billion litres a year for two proposed Equinix data centers (174 MW) (claim by campaign groups Housing Assembly and Foxglove, as reported).
Rest of World, Sep 17, 2026
Ceará, Brazil
Developer estimate of 30,000 litres a day for a planned TikTok data center, which the Anacé community says is too low.
Rest of World, Sep 8, 2025
Export controls
Who may buy which chips.
US rules on selling advanced AI chips abroad, newest first. Most lines summarize each rule's official title; follow the link for the rule itself.
Nvidia's guidance for the quarter to October 2026 assumes no data center compute revenue from China.
“NVIDIA is not assuming any Data Center compute revenue from China in its outlook.”
BIS gives the United Arab Emirates more favorable treatment under export rules.
BIS moves exports of Nvidia H200-class and less advanced chips (e.g. AMD MI325X) to China and Macau from a presumption of denial to case-by-case review, with conditions.
“The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is revising its license review policy for exports of certain semiconductors”
Covers chips with TPP below 21,000 and total DRAM bandwidth below 6,500 GB/s that are commercially available in the US; exporter certifications required; Macau- or D:5-headquartered entities stay under presumption of denial. Effective 2026-01-15.
BIS adds and revises Entity List entries.
US imposes new rules to curb sales of chip design software to China.
TechCrunch · headline only
The US government tells Nvidia a license is needed to export its H20 chips to China; Nvidia takes a $4.5 billion charge.
“On April 9, 2025, NVIDIA was informed by the U.S. government that a license is required for exports of its H20 products into the China market.”
BIS adds due-diligence measures for advanced computing chips (amended again 2025-02-14).
BIS publishes the 'Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion', setting worldwide license rules for advanced AI chips.
BIS adds foreign-produced direct product rules and tightens advanced computing and chipmaking controls, with a same-day Entity List rule (doc 2024-28267).
BIS creates a Data Center Validated End User authorization for approved data centers abroad.
BIS publishes updates and corrections to the advanced computing rules.
BIS updates the advanced computing chip rules (the October 2023 update), alongside a separate rule on chipmaking equipment (doc 2023-23049).
BIS extends the October 2022 controls to Macau.
BIS publishes its first rule on advanced computing chips, chipmaking items and supercomputer end uses, with Entity List changes.
China's own responses, such as limits on buying Nvidia chips and on exporting rare earths, aren't here yet: we couldn't reach a source we trust for them.
Local fights
Not in my backyard.
Where towns, states and communities have pushed back on AI data centers, or let them through.
Amazon (US-wide)
Amazon responds to data center backlash and says it no longer uses non-disclosure agreements.
TechCrunch, Oct 3, 2026 · headline only
New Mexico, US (Project Jupiter, Stargate)
Residents and environmental groups oppose the campus; pipeline permits were repeatedly denied and an air permit is pending (state deadline 23 Nov); Oracle sent a force majeure notice.
“The notice would allow Oracle to delay payments should the facility miss its 2028 target to come online.”
TechCrunch (citing Bloomberg), Sep 24, 2026
United States (national)
Data Center Watch counts $68 billion of projects disrupted by local opponents in Q2 2026.
“Data center projects worth $68 billion were disrupted by local opponents in the second quarter of 2026”
TechCrunch, Sep 22, 2026
Texas, US
Gov. Greg Abbott orders the PUCT and ERCOT to audit all new data center projects (power and water demand, noise, tax incentives, ownership).
“Governor Greg Abbott announced Monday that all new data center projects will need to be audited”
TechCrunch, Aug 4, 2026
Cape Town, South Africa
Housing Assembly and Foxglove file a legal challenge against two proposed Equinix data centers (174 MW), asking the Human Rights Commission to investigate and seeking a national moratorium.
“A massive data center is trying to jump the queue and take our land, water, and energy.”
Rest of World, Sep 17, 2026
Memphis, Tennessee / northern Mississippi, US
SpaceX says it will remove the unpermitted gas turbines powering xAI's Colossus data centers, which the NAACP and Southern Environmental Law Center sued over, as it moves to a permanent gas plant.
“The turbines won’t be completely removed until July 2027, though.”
TechCrunch, Jul 31, 2026
New York State, US
Gov. Kathy Hochul signs an executive order pausing new state permits for data centers of 50 MW or more until an environmental review is finished (expected about a year).
“Progress shouldn’t arrive with a higher utility bill, deleted water supply, or noise pollution.” Kathy Hochul
TechCrunch, Jul 14, 2026
Maine, US
Gov. Janet Mills vetoes LD 307, which would have been the first statewide moratorium on new data centers (to 1 Nov 2027).
“Maine Governor Janet Mills has vetoed a bill that would have temporarily brought to a halt permits for new data centers.”
TechCrunch, Apr 25, 2026
Andhra Pradesh, India
Farmers and the Human Rights Forum contest land acquisition and incentives (about $2.4bn over 20 years) for Google's $15 billion data center campus.
“The proposed sites for the data-center campus have been earmarked through opaque land-pooling and acquisition mechanisms,” Human Rights Forum
Rest of World, Apr 13, 2026
Bruyères-le-Châtel, near Paris, France
Mistral AI raises $830 million in debt to set up a data center there, aiming to start operating by Q2 2026 (a go-ahead, not a fight).
“Mistral aims to start operating the data center by the second quarter of 2026.”
TechCrunch, Mar 30, 2026
Ceará, Brazil
The Anacé Indigenous community files a complaint with federal authorities to halt a planned $10 billion TikTok data center it says sits on ancestral land.
Rest of World, Sep 8, 2025
Fights in Europe and the UK aren't covered yet. Everything on this page was read at its source on Oct 19, 2026. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
Watch
Videos on chips, data centers and power.
Talks, interviews and explainers, each with our short summary. They play in YouTube's own player.
All videos on chips, data centers and powerCNBC · Oct 19, 2026
The Race To Power AI Is Reshaping America's Electric Grid
CNBC reports on how AI data centers are pushing up US electricity demand and putting pressure on the grid, using Google's planned data center in Pine Island, Minnesota, and its proposed deal with Xcel Energy as a case study. It also asks who pays for new grid capacity.
CONNECTED on TaiwanPlus · Apr 22, 2026Secrets of TSMC, the World’s Most Important Semiconductor Company | CONNECTED Chip Island
Semiconductor journalist Owen Hung-Wen Lin, who has covered TSMC since its early years, talks with host Divya Gopalan about why the chipmaker matters, its customer-first culture, its rivalry with Samsung, and Taiwan's geopolitical importance.
TED · Apr 3, 2026The Story You’re Not Hearing About AI Data Centers | Ayșe Coskun | TED
Computer scientist Ayșe Coskun describes how AI data centers are straining the power grid, and proposes running them as "virtual batteries" that help stabilize the grid and support clean energy. Recorded at TEDAI San Francisco in October 2025.