The AI boom's hardware appetite has a dirty tail end. According to a report covered by The Register, the growing pile of discarded equipment from AI data centers could wrap around the Earth six times. The key reason: most e-waste forecasts look only at GPUs, missing the rest of the infrastructure.
Power distribution, cooling systems, networking gear, and the cabling that ties them together are all destined for scrap, the report says. These components are bulky, often heavy, and their disposal adds enormous volume to an already steep waste stream.
The warning is less about any specific vendor and more about accounting. If AI infrastructure's full lifecycle is not considered, environmental projections will keep underestimating the problem. The report suggests that the era's real waste story may be written in power and cooling equipment as much as in silicon.