Building data centers relies on immense manufacturing. The GPUs, systems, cooling, batteries, etc don't come from no where. They have strict replacement schedules too.

While yes they can spin up and down, there is the deeper question of what it is all for.

This is why so many AI proponents always talk about future gains rather than what is happening today. It a lot of what it claimed to be coming doesn't happen then it will all look very silly.

Time will tell and depending on were you sit, either we will be there shortly or it will never happen.

> They can spin up and down

Nope. Every moment that hardware is not ran is wasted money that could have been used to buy something else that's actually productive.

Secondary effects like depreciation make this phenomenom even stronger. You've only got a few years to exploit any given piece of hardware before it's obsoleted by newer, more efficient hardware.

That's why any hardware investment with a high upfront cost operates as close to 24/7 as possible — nuclear power plants, factories. Continuous operation amortizes the costs as well as possible.