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Nvidia chief Jensen Huang says a gigawatt of data centre costs about $50bn

Interviewed by Yahoo Finance's Deirdre Bosa at GTC Berlin, in a video published 21 October 2026, Huang also said Nvidia's chips for AI factories last 'eight to maybe more' years.

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Check our sources · 14 facts from 2 sources
Nvidia’s CEO on the AI debt scare, China, and jobs | Full interview: a video from Yahoo Finance on YouTubeVideo: Yahoo Finance on YouTube
watch on YouTube · Video still, linking to YouTube

Key points

  1. Huang said "a gigawatt of data center is like 50 billion dollars" (01:46).
  2. Huang said going from landing at a data centre to operating "could be 4 to 6 months", and might shorten to "maybe 3 to 4 months" (02:20).
  3. Huang said a four-year chip life cycle "really is probably eight to maybe more" (06:42); asked whether Blackwell lasts 7-8 years, he answered "Probably." (08:32)

What happened

Jensen Huang, Nvidia's founder and chief executive, was interviewed by Deirdre Bosa of Yahoo Finance in Berlin, straight after his keynote at Nvidia's GTC Berlin event. The video, "Nvidia's CEO on the AI debt scare, China, and jobs | Full interview", was published on Yahoo Finance's YouTube channel on 21 October 2026.

Bosa described Nvidia's DSX pod as an AI factory in a shipping container and asked whether it would make data centres easier to finance. Huang said "a gigawatt of data center is like 50 billion dollars" (01:46), and that from the point computers land at a data centre to operating "could be 4 to 6 months" (02:01).

He said "you might be able to shorten that 4 to 6 months to maybe 3 to 4 months" (02:20) by doing some of the manufacturing in the supply chain.

On how long the chips stay useful, Huang said "what people thought used to be a four-year life cycle really is probably eight to maybe more" (06:42). Bosa asked whether he meant seven to eight years for Blackwell, and he answered "Probably." (08:32).

For Vera Rubin, the next generation, he said "It'll be, you know, 7-8 years" (08:41). He said "you might be able to underwrite a loan against the asset itself" (07:06), and that the risk in underwriting Nvidia's computing "is the lowest of any asset out there" (07:58).

On open models, Huang said "I think 600 billion dollars worth of venture financing went into AI native startups" (13:51) in the first half of this year, and "80% of those AI native startups are using open models" (13:58). The figures are Huang's own; he named no source for them in the interview.

What it means for you

Our view

These are the views of Nvidia's chief executive, whose company sells the hardware, so treat the $50 billion per gigawatt and the chip lifetime as a supplier's estimate.

The lifetime matters for anyone costing AI capacity, because a longer useful life spreads the same cost over more years, and Huang argued that lenders could underwrite a loan against the asset itself (07:06).

The 7-8 year figure for Blackwell was the interviewer's, which he accepted with "Probably." If you budget for AI compute or sign multi-year capacity deals, ask your supplier which useful-life and depreciation assumptions its price rests on.

It adds no new facts.

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Check our sources

Every sentence above is checked against these 2 sources.

1 Jensen Huang | NVIDIA NewsroomNVIDIA · 1 fact Open the source archived copy

  1. Jensen Huang's title on NVIDIA's own newsroom biography is Founder & CEO.

    cite
2 Nvidia’s CEO on the AI debt scare, China, and jobs | Full interviewYahoo Finance (YouTube) · 21 Oct 2026 · 13 facts Open the source archived copy

  1. The video 'Nvidia’s CEO on the AI debt scare, China, and jobs | Full interview' is on the Yahoo Finance YouTube channel and was uploaded on 2026-10-21.

    Nvidia’s CEO on the AI debt scare, China, and jobs | Full interview; channel Yahoo Finance; uploadDate 2026-10-21T04:34:03-07:00
    cite

  2. In the video, Deirdre Bosa introduces herself and says she is live in Berlin, joined by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang fresh off the stage at GTC Berlin (00:00).

    Hi everyone. I'm Deirdre Bosa live in Berlin and I am pleased to be joined by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang fresh off the stage here at GTC Berlin.
    cite

  3. Bosa asked about the DSX pod, which she called an AI factory in a shipping container, and whether giving lenders more certainty about a data centre's cost and start of earnings would make it easier to finance (01:14).

    DSX pod. An AI factory in a shipping container. ... So if you can give lenders essentially more certainty about what a data center costs and when it starts earning money when it comes online do you think that makes it easier to finance?
    cite

  4. Huang said 'a gigawatt of data center is like 50 billion dollars' (01:46).

    So a gigawatt of data center is like 50 billion dollars.
    cite

  5. Huang said that from the point the computers land at a data center, 'From that point to operationalizing could be 4 to 6 months' (02:01).

    those computer computers land at a data center. From that point to operationalizing could be 4 to 6 months.
    cite

  6. Huang said 'you might be able to shorten that 4 to 6 months to maybe 3 to 4 months' by doing some of the manufacturing in the supply chain (02:20).

    what if we were to do some of the manufacturing of that in the supply chain. The advantage is that you might be able to shorten that 4 to 6 months to maybe 3 to 4 months
    cite

  7. Huang said 'what people thought used to be a four-year life cycle really is probably eight to maybe more' (06:42).

    what people thought used to be a four-year life cycle really is probably eight to maybe more.
    cite

  8. Bosa asked whether Huang had said 7-8 years for the durability of Blackwell, and Huang answered 'Probably.' (08:27-08:32).

    Did you say 7-8 years a moment ago? Is that what you think the durability is for Blackwell? >> Probably.
    cite

  9. Asked about Vera Rubin, the next generation, Huang said 'It'll be, you know, 7-8 years' (08:41).

    Vera Rubin is probably going to be the same. It'll be, you know, 7-8 years
    cite

  10. Huang said 'you might be able to underwrite a loan against the asset itself' (07:06).

    you might be able to underwrite a loan against the asset itself.
    cite

  11. Huang said 'the risk involved in underwriting Nvidia's asset and our Nvidia computing is the lowest of any asset out there' (07:58).

    the risk involved in underwriting Nvidia's asset and our Nvidia computing is the lowest of any asset out there.
    cite

  12. Huang said 'I think 600 billion dollars worth of venture financing went into AI native startups' in the first six months of this year (13:51).

    the first 6 months of this year, several hundred billion dollars, I think 600 billion dollars worth of venture financing went into AI native startups.
    cite

  13. Huang said '80% of those AI native startups are using open models' (13:58); he named no source for the figure in the interview.

    80% of those AI native startups are using open models.
    cite

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