# Gates puts a one-gigawatt data center at $40 billion

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/gates-puts-a-one-gigawatt-data-center-at-40-billion/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Bill Gates](https://realalpha.app/people/bill-gates/) · Bill Gates is co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft and chairman of the Gates Foundation. · Co-founded Microsoft in 1975; now chairs the Gates Foundation, which will close in 2045.
- Host: [Nilay Patel](https://realalpha.app/people/nilay-patel/) · Editor-in-chief, The Verge · Helped start The Verge in 2011 and has hosted Decoder since 2020.
- Show: Decoder
- Episode: [Bill Gates says to prepare for 20 years of tumultuous AI disruption](https://realalpha.app/v/A0kTUP7fWtk/), Oct 22, 2026
- Moment: 29:30 to 35:07 of the episode (6 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/gates-puts-a-one-gigawatt-data-center-at-40-billion/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/A0kTUP7fWtk/?t=1770

## Quote

> “one gigawatt is say a **40 billion dollar investment**”
> — [Bill Gates](https://realalpha.app/people/bill-gates/) at [31:51](https://realalpha.app/v/A0kTUP7fWtk/?t=1911) · Decoder

## Takeaways

1. He estimates a one-gigawatt data center costs $40 billion
2. He expects data centers to be built despite local opposition
3. He separates local siting concerns from AI safety policy

## About this segment

Bill Gates says data centers will be built, estimates a one-gigawatt facility at $40 billion, and argues that siting concerns are separate from reducing AI's harms. He expects operators to address energy, water and noise.

From “Bill Gates says to prepare for 20 years of tumultuous AI disruption”, Oct 22, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/A0kTUP7fWtk/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[29:42](https://realalpha.app/v/A0kTUP7fWtk/?t=1782) It's just a few weeks away from the midterm elections. Right now, the Trump administration approach to AI is let it rip. Like, it's fine. Trump himself has said risk is a hoax. The Democrats are running against AI. They're running on data centers and surveillance. They're running on stopping the tech oligarchs. They come on my show, they say these things. Do you think a change in control of Congress would change the tenor of the conversation? Well, I don't think it's fair to characterize the Democrats as running against AI. They have some positions in terms of requirements for data centers or privacy or how children use these systems that I think deserve policy consideration, it would be very unfortunate to have one party be, hey, full speed ahead and the other party be, let's stop altogether. You know, the ability to shape AI in health and education

[30:41](https://realalpha.app/v/A0kTUP7fWtk/?t=1841) and almost every area of human endeavor, there's some incredible upsides there. And, you know, Gates Foundation, we're taking all our resources and using AI in areas, including health education and agriculture. And that's the good stuff is very, very exciting. So we want political parties to have a more nuanced view than it's all bad or it's all good. It kind of shows that the early stage we're at, you know, for climate change, we ended up kind of a, you know, one party says it's a hoax and the other party says it's a serious thing. The risk of AI is so much more imminent and so much more dramatic that to have that same one party doesn't care would be a failure of democracy. We've done a lot of coverage of data center protests at The Verge. We have gone to Utah, to Arizona, to Virginia. It is bipartisan. It is remarkable how much people do not want these

[31:44](https://realalpha.app/v/A0kTUP7fWtk/?t=1904) things in their states drawing their resources and you ask them why and some of it is just they're noisy and big and they will raise energy costs and part of it is job loss they think these things are going to take their jobs yeah but it's that separation is very important yeah these ai data centers because these you know say a uh one gigawatt is say a 40 billion dollar investment the idea of building new schools buying police cars you know paying the taxes data centers will find a way to be built somewhere in the United States, and they will find a way so that they don't raise electric bills, they don't use too much water, they're not too noisy. Yes, there were some mistakes and non-disclosures and tax credits that were too generous, but these data centers are going to get built. In fact, a lot of them really are still, you know, going full speed ahead

[32:42](https://realalpha.app/v/A0kTUP7fWtk/?t=1962) and being built. And so the anti-data center movement, as strong as it is, is not a movement that will end up minimizing the bad stuff from AI and helping us accelerate the good. That is a very separate thing. Let me push on that for one second here. What I hear from people is this is the thing you can do, right? You can do NIMBYism in America, and that might exert some political pressure to stop something. It is very hard to do the thing that you are suggesting, which is We should stand up new government regulatory bodies.

[33:13](https://realalpha.app/v/A0kTUP7fWtk/?t=1993) We should imbue them with power to make big companies and wealthy people to stop doing things or act in our interest. We haven't done that in quite a long time in this country. I don't know what you mean. Every new industry, we eventually develop a notion of safety for our citizens. We actually do a very good job. If you look at airline safety and car safety, we do a very good job on those things.

[33:37](https://realalpha.app/v/A0kTUP7fWtk/?t=2017) It's not like our capacity has been proven to be lacking. Have you seen that video of when seatbelts came out in the 80s and all the people said they didn't want to wear seatbelts? Like, there's some American character. That's a great success. It is a great success. But as Americans, that was pushed back upon as an imposition by the government. Here, we're talking. about some of the richest companies in the world with an enormous amount of power over information ecosystem.

[34:05](https://realalpha.app/v/A0kTUP7fWtk/?t=2045) They all have their own podcasts. I don't know if you've noticed this. And they're going to say the government can't intrude on this. They're going to hold us back. This is going to destroy the economy. That's actually not the position of most of the leading companies. Yeah. I mean, they went to the government, asked for regulation, and Trump, because of the economy, said, I can't stop this. The AI economy right now is the economy.

[34:26](https://realalpha.app/v/A0kTUP7fWtk/?t=2066) There's some dynamic there that at least our audience, the Verge audience, the audience that's going to watch us on YouTube, is going to understand, I think, this question maybe in a different way than you, which is the industry wants regulation. We would like regulation. The oligarchs are in some sort of corrupt arrangement with the administration to prevent that regulation from occurring. I think the more the administration learns about these dangers, the more they'll move to a more nuanced position about protecting Americans from the downside here.