By TOI Tech Desk
Publication Date: 2025-12-14 07:30:00
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna has now issued a warning as the artificial intelligence companies are racing to build massive data centres. Krishna said that the scale of spending required to pursue artificial general intelligence (AGI) could reach levels that threaten even the most ambitious technology companies including OpenAO and its CEO Sam Altman. Speaking at the Decoder podcast with Nilay Patel, Krishna said that filling a 1-gigawatt data center costs about $80 billion, a figure he dubbed “today’s number.” He noted that companies committing 20–30 gigawatts of infrastructure could face $1.5 trillion in spending at current costs. Along with this, Krishna also talked about the short lifespan of AI chips which have to replaced in five years. This replacement will lead to compounding financial burden.
The debate over returns
Krishan also estimated that an AGI investment of $8 trillion would need $800 billion of profit to just cover interest payments. So, this calculation further…
