The years over which an owner depreciates hardware, writing it off on its books, five to six years on the operators’ own filings. The lenders’ clock, the term over which the hardware is paid for, is a different clock. Chapter 4.
From The AI Compute Race. Read the book
Where the book uses it
- Chapter 4 — One Rack
How a datacenter is actually built, from a converted factory in Memphis to a greenfield campus in Texas, and what the clock from first ground to first power really measures.
Related terms
From the glossary of The AI Compute Race.
How to cite this page
Dryburgh, Lee S. “Useful life.” In The AI Compute Race. DRYBURGH. https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/useful-life (accessed 2026-11-01).
BibTeX
@misc{dryburgh-useful-life-2026,
author = {Dryburgh, Lee S.},
title = {{Useful life}},
howpublished = {In \emph{The AI Compute Race}, DRYBURGH},
year = {2026},
url = {https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/useful-life},
note = {Accessed 2026-11-01}
}