GB300/TPU/Meta/Intel/Qualcomm Minutes

Possibly the spiciest thing I’ve ever posted

Before we begin,

* This content is not investment advice.

* Some parts of this information have been cross-checked.

* This expert call transcript is excerpted from AceCamp (you can think of AceCamp as the Chinese version of AlphaSense).

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Q: Did the ODM utilization rate for GB300 recently reach the expected 80% level? Is there an update on delivery expectations?

A: Currently, the utilization rate for GB300 is basically above 80%, with some manufacturers even reaching 85% to nearly 90%. This high utilization is mainly due to the smooth transition from GB200 to GB300 production lines, as many product structures and production experiences could be directly reused. Regarding shipment volume, since NVIDIA’s supply has not yet been fully released, GB300 deliveries in October were less than 600 racks. By November, the supply exceeded 1,000 racks. It is expected to expand to over 1,200 racks in December. NVIDIA originally projected that at full load production, it could reach 5,000 racks per month. Ideally, it is expected to approach this level by late 2Q26. According to manufacturer statistics, the total shipment volume of GB200 and GB300 in 2026 is expected to be over 60,000 racks. Note: This figure is inferred based on production capacity and does not directly come from customer demand. Customer demand is currently still quite vague, with many variables involved.

Q: What are the considerations for some customers preferring to switch their original GB300 orders to B300?

A: Recently, many foreign cloud vendors found that the overall delivery timeline for new data centers deployed for GB300 has been delayed. Additionally, the base price of GB300 is high, and customers have not yet completed the tuning and optimization of large-scale clusters. B300 allows for rapid deployment for inference business needs and significantly lowers the requirements for data center construction. Many manufacturers place more importance on B300, but B300 has just started delivery, so its progress is still slower than GB300.

Q: Update on the number of GB series racks received by major customers by November?

A: Microsoft has currently received about 100 GB300 racks, with a total rack deployment of about 5,000, making it the largest customer by volume currently. Most racks have been allocated to OpenAI, and OpenAI is primarily using these resources. Microsoft’s own data centers and European partner data centers are also deploying GB200 and GB300, but progress in European data centers is slow. The original plan was to deploy 1,000 racks by the end of the year, but it now seems unlikely to be completed on time; however, orders have been placed, and ODM manufacturers have started production. Microsoft’s overall demand this year is about 6,500–7,000 racks. Amazon originally planned to deploy over 2,000 racks but has currently only completed 1,300; the remainder is not yet online, and they are accelerating the delivery progress. Google has a small data center with over 1,000 racks planned for deployment this year. Meta has had about 800–900 racks delivered. Oracle just received over 1,000 racks at its Texas data center. CoreWeave also has close to 1,000 racks. Other customers are generally at the scale of a few hundred racks.

Q: Is the investment of approximately $30 billion per GW for GB300 clusters the level for a brand-new site?

A: Yes, especially in North America. This includes purchasing or leasing land, building a brand-new data center, equipping it according to liquid cooling standards, rewiring electricity, and deploying transformers and power supply lines. If retrofitting an existing site, the cost is expected to be controlled around $25 billion.

Q: Has the recent increase in ODM utilization for the GB series affected the demand and pace of third-party TPU deployment by OpenAI, Meta, etc.?

A: Third-party user deployment of TPUs has not yet unfolded on a large scale, so there is no significant impact in the short term. It is expected that the delivery times for both will likely overlap in the second half of 2026. Initially, GB300 may have an advantage in terms of user experience and consistency risks, but later, as customers gradually complete testing on TPUs and more business models begin to be deployed on TPUs, the cost-performance advantage for inference will gradually emerge.

Q: Meta is discussing a multi-billion dollar TPU order, expected to be deployed in its own data centers in 2027? What are the corresponding TPU quantity and price?

A: It is expected to be used mainly for Meta’s future inference business needs and possibly for the training of some Llama models. The price for Meta’s TPU procurement is preliminarily estimated to be between $14,000 and $16,000. The official quote is higher, but there may be discounts for large-volume purchases. Meta currently has no plans to deploy Google TPUs in its own data centers because its data centers are not expected to be completed until 2026, and resources are limited; existing data centers mainly use NVIDIA products.

The section behind the paywall includes NeoCloud’s TPU leasing status, the Rubin timeline, the progress of HBM4, and the CSPs’ in-house ARM CPU developments.