AI buildout could create 617M tonnes of e-waste

AI infrastructure could generate 395 million to 617 million metric tonnes of e-waste from 2025 through 2050, according to a Basel Action Network report covered by The Register’s account of the AI waste wave. The estimate counts power, cooling, networking, and copper-heavy distribution gear—not only GPUs—and puts a 100 MW AI facility at roughly 7,000 tonnes of equipment. Builders planning accelerator capacity should budget reuse and disposal beside electricity and water; Crusoe’s funding-to-delivery gap is a useful reminder that lifecycle assumptions belong in infrastructure finance.