B3(@b3labs):.@a16z raised $1.1B this week for the hardware AI runs on, from chips and memory to networking and storage. Hardware makers can grow supply about 20% to 30% a year, and AI demand needs several times that. A rack that once drew 5 to 10 kilowatts now draws as much as 250, and a16z expects that to reach a megawatt within three years. The sites running this work increasingly pull power from private sources on top of the grid, and the largest are measured in hundreds of megawatts, with some campuses reaching a gigawatt. Ben Horowitz, Martin Casado, Raghu Raghuram, David Ulevitch and David George make the case for why every layer of the stack needs rearchitecting.

2026.08.28 17:07

.@a16z raised $1.1B this week for the hardware AI runs on, from chips and memory to networking and storage. Hardware makers can grow supply about 20% to 30% a year, and AI demand needs several times that. A rack that once drew 5 to 10 kilowatts now draws as much as 250, and a16z expects that to reach a megawatt within three years. The sites running this work increasingly pull power from private sources on top of the grid, and the largest are measured in hundreds of megawatts, with some campuses reaching a gigawatt. Ben Horowitz, Martin Casado, Raghu Raghuram, David Ulevitch and David George make the case for why every layer of the stack needs rearchitecting.