[maxglute]

Depreciation schedule:

Tulips: weeks

GPUs: 6 years

Fiber: 20-50 years

Rail, roads, bridges: 50-100+ years

Hyperscalers closer to tulips than other hard infra.

[casey2]

What rail, road or bridge in the US lasts 50 years? The maintenance of rail over 6 years costs more than replacing all the GPUs in a data center, even at their current markup.

[maxglute]

Look up deterioration curve and maintenance curve (J shaped) for hard infra. TLDR is asset stays in good condition for 75% of lifetime i.e. decades with light maintenance (flat part of J). By roads I mean highways where most of the expense / work is in building out the base / sub base (i.e. ballasts for rail), that last decades. US is uniquely bad maintained/prevention but even then major assets do not deteriorate on GPU timeline.

[bdangubic]

have you seen our rails, roads and bridges?!? 50 year old ones in many places are being referred to as “new ones” :)

the only reason any “maintenance” on them is expensive is corruption which at municipal level rivals current administration in some places