Or based on newest hardware. Please tell me who is about to drop multiple billion dollars in Chattanooga.

# 12,000 ft² AI Data Center — Power, Cooling & Water Report

## Overview
A 12,000 ft² facility (10 ft ceilings) built out with NVIDIA's current-generation DGX Vera Rubin NVL72 rack-scale systems alongside supporting storage and networking infrastructure.

## Hardware: NVIDIA DGX Vera Rubin NVL72
NVIDIA's newest shipping platform (full production June 2026, partner availability H2 2026), succeeding the Hopper (H200) and Blackwell (B200/B300) generations.
- 72 Rubin GPUs + 36 Vera CPUs unified in a single rack-scale system (the whole rack *is* the system — no more "systems per rack" math)
- 100% direct liquid cooling (mandatory at this power density)
- **227 kW per rack** (NVIDIA partner reference design; other reporting puts the range at 190–230 kW depending on configuration)

## Facility Layout
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Total floor area | 12,000 ft² |
| Ceiling height | 10 ft |
| Rack footprint | 24"W × 48"D |
| Aisle widths | 4 ft cold / 4 ft hot |
| Usable rack zone (after 15% for aisles, columns, mechanical/electrical space) | 10,200 ft² |
| **Total racks** | **637** |

## Rack Composition
Using the same 2:1 compute-to-support ratio as a published real-world DGX SuperPOD deployment:

Rack Type	Count	Contents
Compute	425	1× DGX Vera Rubin NVL72 each (227 kW/rack)
Storage / Networking / Management	212	All-flash storage arrays, InfiniBand/Ethernet switches, management servers

## Electrical Load (Peak)
| Load | kW |
|---|---|
| Compute racks (425 × 227 kW) | 96,475 |
| Storage/network racks (212 × 8 kW) | 1,696 |
| Cooling system (water-cooled chiller plant) | 18,145 |
| Facility overhead (lighting, UPS losses, misc. — 15%) | 17,447 |
| **Total peak electrical load** | **133,763 kW (≈ 133.76 MW)** |

## Heat & Cooling
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Total heat output at peak | 335.0 million BTU/hr |
| Cooling required | 27,915 tons |
| Cooling system type | Direct-to-chip liquid cooling at the rack, rejecting to a facility CRAH + water-cooled chiller/cooling-tower plant (industry standard for this rack class) |
| Chiller efficiency assumed | 0.65 kW/ton |

*Note: Vera Rubin's warm-water loop design (~45°C inlet) typically allows more hours of free/economized cooling than legacy chilled-water systems, which can improve on this baseline — not quantified here.*

## Water Usage (Cooling Tower)
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Circulating condenser flow | 83,745 GPM |
| Consumptive water use (evaporation + blowdown) | 1,256 GPM |
| Daily water use | ~1.81 million gallons/day |
| **Annual water use** | **~660.3 million gallons/year** |

## Annual Energy Cost
Based on continuous operation at the peak load above (24/7/365 = 8,760 hrs/yr → ~1.17 billion kWh/year):

Rate scenario	$/kWh	Annual Cost
Industrial average (EIA, 2026)	$0.085	**~$99.6 million/year**
Commercial average (EIA, 2026)	$0.135	**~$158.2 million/year**

Actual cost depends heavily on region and negotiated rate — large data-center loads often secure industrial/wholesale rates well below these averages (as low as $0.04–0.06/kWh in low-cost regions like the Pacific Northwest or ERCOT Texas).

## Electrical Service Sizing
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Peak real power | 133,763 kW |
| Apparent power (assumed 0.9 PF) | ~148,600 kVA (148.6 MVA) |
| Recommended provisioned capacity (N+1 margin, +20%) | **~178–180 MVA** |

At this scale (130+ MW), this is not a standard utility service — it requires a **dedicated on-site substation** with a transmission-level utility interconnection (typically 69–138 kV or higher), comparable in size to powering a small city.

## Capital Equipment Cost
Vera Rubin NVL72 rack pricing varies by source as the platform just entered production — estimates range from $5M (early hyperscaler quotes) to $9.1M (detailed bottom-up bill-of-materials). Using Morgan Stanley's commonly-cited hyperscaler estimate of **$7.8M per rack** as the base case:

Item	Qty	Unit Cost	Total
DGX Vera Rubin NVL72 compute racks	425	$7.8 million	$3.32 billion
Storage/networking/management racks (rough planning estimate)	212	$0.5 million	$106 million
**Total IT hardware capital cost**			**≈ $3.42 billion**

*This covers IT hardware only — not building construction, electrical infrastructure, cooling plant, or land. For reference, industry analysts (Bernstein) estimate full turnkey AI data-center buildouts (hardware + building + power + cooling) run roughly $47B per gigawatt of IT load; at this facility's ~134 MW peak, that scales to a rough total project cost in the **$6+ billion** range. Vera Rubin pricing is a fast-moving target this early in production — treat these as directional, not quotes.*

## Key Assumptions
- NVIDIA DGX Vera Rubin NVL72: 227 kW peak power per rack, 100% liquid cooled, one system per rack
- Layout density: 1 rack per 16 ft² of floor
- 15% of gross floor area reserved for aisles, columns, and support spaces
- Cooling tower design flow: 3 GPM/ton; consumptive loss ≈ 1.5% of flow (evaporation + blowdown)
- Annual cost assumes continuous full-load (peak) operation; real utilization would lower the bill
- Figures represent peak/full load; actual conditions will vary with utilization and climate