The Twenty Minute VC (20VC) · Saturday, September 5, 2026
Cliff Weitzman presented a financial argument for purchasing GPUs over renting them. He calculated that renting an H100 GPU for a year could cost between $35,000 to $50,000, whereas buying one for $30,000 and using it for its warranted three-year lifespan (or longer) is more economical.
“If I was to buy an H100 for let's say $30,000, that's how much a single card would cost. If I wanted to rent an H100 for one hour spot instance from GCP, it could cost me $5.”
“So if I multiply that times 24 hours and then times 365 days in a year, I'm actually going to end up paying $35,000 to $50,000 to rent that GPU for one year, but I could buy it for $30,000.”
“So it's 1.5X the cost of owning the hardware to rent the hardware for a year.”