Midjourney founder: human brain and frontier models cost about the same energy per thought
DavidSHolz · x · 2026-10-12
David Holz, founder of Midjourney, ran a back-of-envelope estimate: assuming a frontier model is a 10T-parameter MoE on GB300 NVL72 racks, it consumes roughly 5 Joules per token, or 50 W at human thinking speed — the same order as the brain's 20 W. Economically, grid power costs $0.08/kWh while eating rice works out to $0.50/kWh. His takeaway: on an energy-per-thought basis, humans and frontier models are surprisingly similar right now.
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