The article suggests that because the power and cooling are customized, it would take a ton of effort to run the new AI servers in a home environment, but I'm skeptical of that. Home-level power and cooling are not difficult these days. I think when the next generation of AI hardware comes out (in 3-5 years), there will be a large supply of used AI hardware that we'll probably be able to repurpose. Maybe we'll sell them as parts. It won't be plug-and-play at first, but companies will spring up to figure it out.
If not, what would these AI companies do with the huge supply of hardware they're going to want to get rid of? I think a secondary market is sure to appear.
At minimum, you'd need to wire in new 240V circuits, and you could only run one or two of these servers before you'd need a service upgrade.
Then you'd have to deal with noise from a literal wall of fans, or build a separate high capacity water cooling system (and still deal with dumping that heat somewhere).
A utility is most likely only going to offer a 240V 400A single-phase service at best for a residence in the US, 320A can be used continuously. If you need more they’ll usually offer multiple 400A services.
I’ve heard stories about people convincing their utility to install three-phase service drops in their homes, but usually it’s not an option.
Anyways, 320A continuous load at 240V single-phase is 76.8kW, if you assume 25kW per server (20 kW for server, 5kW for cooling), you can run (3) servers and 15 tons of cooling and still have just enough left for one 120V 15A circuit to charge your phone and power a light.
If not, what would these AI companies do with the huge supply of hardware they're going to want to get rid of? I think a secondary market is sure to appear.