The economic account behind the AI boom: Industry insiders unpack the true cost of AI computing power

On June 6, according to CCTV Finance, with the application of artificial intelligence, raising "lobsters" and "horses" has set off a national craze. The word Token is becoming more and more familiar to the public. In March 2026, the National Data Administration designated the Chinese name of Token as a lexical element. Also in March, the average daily invocation of word elements in China exceeded 140 trillion times. The generation of each word element is inseparable from the support of computing power, and computing power is inseparable from the support of electricity. Some saying mentioned: "60%-70% of AI computing power costs are electricity bills." In this regard, Peng Li, co-founder, CTO and chief hardware architect of Muxi Co., Ltd., said in the "Dialogue" that this statement refers to the proportion of operation and maintenance expenses in the operation process, rather than the full life cycle cost of the smart computing center. For a ten-thousand-card-level smart computing center with an investment of approximately 1.5 billion yuan, electricity charges plus operation and maintenance account for no more than 20% of the total input cost. However, during the operation phase, the most important cost is indeed electricity bills, and at this time, power efficiency becomes the key. When talking about the requirements for selecting power partners, Peng Li said that there are two main considerations: one is cost; the other is "universal, easy-to-use, stable and reliable."