1GW AI data center in Texas estimated to cost $30B, with chips consuming bulk of spending

A new analysis estimates that building and equipping a 1-gigawatt AI data center in Abilene, Texas would cost approximately $30 billion total. Semiconductor costs dominate the budget at around $17 billion, followed by power infrastructure at $3 billion and physical construction at $2.4 billion.

The breakdown reflects the capital-intensive nature of large-scale AI infrastructure. Major cloud providers including Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have collectively announced roughly $750 billion in planned spending on data center construction and AI infrastructure, signaling a sustained wave of investment in compute capacity.