Explainers
What the words mean, why the distinctions matter, and how a promise becomes revenue. No prior knowledge assumed.
60-second explainer
How an AI data centre makes money
- Electricity reaches the site.
- Cooling and power systems support the computing equipment.
- Servers run customer workloads.
- The customer tests and accepts the contracted deployment.
- Revenue begins when the contract's billing conditions are met and disclosed.
Step 1 of 5. Press start to step through.
Acceptance and billing are different stages. T2C does not assume one proves the other.
Educational illustration; stages and architecture vary by project.
A megawatt is not a megawatt
The most common error in AI infrastructure coverage is treating these as interchangeable. They are separate fields in the data, they are never added together, and the build fails if an aggregate mixes them.
Power contracted at the utility connection, before conversion, cooling and distribution losses. The largest number a company can quote, and the least indicative of compute delivered.
Power available to IT equipment inside the hall. The industry's comparable measure of usable data-centre capacity, and typically well below the gross utility figure for the same site.
Power drawn by accelerators specifically, excluding other IT and infrastructure load.
Actual, minimum, target, pipeline, potential
A 5 GW ambition and a 1.5 GW operating figure are not the same kind of claim. Only the first two below ever enter a current-capacity total.
A current, operating figure as at the stated date.
At least this much, from the components the company has itemised. The company has not published an exhaustive total, so the real figure may be higher.
A management goal for a future date. An intention, not a capability that exists today, and never counted in a current-capacity total.
Identified development opportunity — sites under study, options held, applications lodged. Not secured and not built.
A theoretical ceiling, typically phrased "up to". Conditional on approvals, financing and demand that do not yet exist.
How well evidenced is it?
Every figure on this site carries one of these, and the level decides whether it can enter a total at all.
Stated in a primary document — an SEC filing, an official investor-relations release, a shareholder letter, or a regulator/utility record — and that document is linked.
Attributed to the company but read second-hand, or carried over from an earlier compile whose original document is not linked. News can put a figure here; it can never make one confirmed.
Derived rather than disclosed. Shown separately from confirmed figures, with the derivation stated, and never included in a confirmed total.
The company has not published this figure. It is stored as null and is never treated as zero.
Where to go next
Methodology
Every definition, the Reality Score formula, how estimates are derived and the full corrections log.
Megaprojects
Every tracked project at the level its milestones are actually evidenced.
Intelligence ledger
Every sourced change to the delivery record, classified so you can read only the kind you came for.