Goldman Sachs Global Institute's May 2026 estimate of construction cost per MW for next-generation AI data centers
~$15-20M/MWestimate
| Value kind | estimate — Interpret this value according to its displayed kind, scope, source, and as-of date. |
|---|---|
| Scope | Goldman budgets compute, data centers and power separately but does not publish a full list of what its construction figure includes or the MW denominator it uses. Reconcile those boundaries before combining budgets. |
| Caveat | Cushman & Wakefield's 2026 Data Center Development Cost Guide (2026-09-03) separately reports an average $17.6M/MW for the most modern US and Canada greenfield facilities, excluding chips and GPUs. Epoch AI's May 2026 model puts the all-in cost, servers included, near $37.9 per watt of IT nameplate capacity up front, on its own facility, IT, network, land and utility scopes. |
| As of | 2026-05 |
| Source | Goldman Sachs Global Institute, 'Tracking Trillions: the assumptions shaping the scale of the AI build-out' (2026-05-01) · Passage stating next-generation AI data centers increasingly fall in the $15 million to 20 million per MW range |
| Review | checking…review by 2027-03-01 · fast cadence |
| Recorded changes | last 2026-10-15 · 2 revisions tracked |
| Claim id | ai-optimized-facility-build-cost-facility-only |
Where the guide uses it
← Full numbers register — every date-stamped figure in the guide, with revision history.