Inside Google’s massive AI capex (live)
About this episode
Shayle Kann interviews Amin Vahdat about Google's significant investment in AI infrastructure and the evolving landscape of data centers.
As the race to build out artificial intelligence accelerates, the infrastructure required to support it is undergoing a remarkable transformation. In February, Google announced a plan to spend $175 billion to $185 billion in CapEx for 2026— a figure roughly equivalent to the GDP of Hungary. In this special live episode, recorded at Transition-AI 2026 in San Francisco, Shayle sits down with Amin Vahdat, Google’s chief technologist for AI infrastructure. Amin pulls back the curtain on how the hyperscaler is rethinking everything from data center reliability and behind-the-meter power generation to real-time inference. Shayle and Amin discuss: How Google’s shift from focusing on training to inference can enable more distributed, smaller-scale data center deployments Why Google is moving away from traditional "five nines" reliability for certain workloads in exchange for doubling compute capacity How on-site generation can serve as a "bridge" to manage interconnection latency Google’s milestone agreement with utilities for one gigawatt of demand response How software can co-optimize chip design, building cooling and power generation to create superefficient and flexible "AI…
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