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tw04yesterday at 10:24 PM1 replyview on HN

Physically building a datacenter yes. Repurposing a crypto datacenter for a new purpose, no. But days is hyperbolic no matter how you look at it unless they’re reusing ALL the existing infrastructure (network/security/hvac/physical server racks/some amount of compute). And aren’t actually including the time to procure the inferencing chips.

You can call up Cisco tomorrow and offer them a billion dollars to get you an entire datacenter worth of switches tomorrow and the answer is going to be no because they just don’t keep that much inventory sitting around. That’s why covid was such a shitshow.

I should give a caveat of: they could in theory redirect existing orders to you but would likely be violating contractual obligations and risk a lawsuit from the fortune 500 Peter they robbed to pay you Mr. Paul.


Replies

whatevertrevoryesterday at 10:32 PM

"Smart" accounting by not counting design, planning, procurement timelines would explain it, that makes sense.

If that's the case, it's saddening to see details like this hyped up to borderline fraudulent levels.