SPAN and Nvidia board residential homes with 16-GPU Blackwell compute nodes

The SPAN pilot represents a shift in AI infrastructure away from massive, isolated campuses toward a fragmented but rapidly deployable residential mesh. For the streaming industry, this distributed model offers a potential path to low-latency edge compute for AI-driven rendering or personalization without the infrastructure bottlenecks of traditional hyperscale builds. If the model proves reliable, it could introduce a new class of fractional compute providers that undercut the years-long lead times of established data centers. The critical signal will be whether enterprise buyers accept distributed residential reliability as a substitute for centralized uptime guarantees during the 100-home Arizona trial.

The push for residential compute comes as the AI sector faces severe power shortages and skyrocketing infrastructure costs. According to Goldman Sachs research from May 2026, U.S. data center power demand is projected to reach 66 gigawatts by 2027, more than doubling its 2025 levels. Data centers are now expected to account for 8.5% of total U.S. peak summer power demand by 2027, driving 40% of all projected electricity demand growth through the end of the decade. Per Goldman, recent grid constraints have caused 40% to 50% of scheduled data center capacity to suffer delays or cancellations, forcing developers to look for alternate power sources at the grid edge.

Simultaneously, the technical requirements for AI training and inference have shifted toward high-density, liquid-cooled solutions. Nvidia officially launched its Blackwell architecture in March 2025, emphasizing the energy efficiency and thermal management necessary for dense deployments. The RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell GPUs used in SPAN’s XFRA nodes are designed specifically for these multi-GPU server environments, utilizing 96GB of GDDR7 memory to handle intensive inference workloads. By packing 16 of these units into a residential node, SPAN is essentially commoditizing the spare 60% of electrical capacity typically found in American homes, per SPAN's reporting in May 2026.

Distributed household compute has also gained traction in Europe as energy costs remain volatile. Per TechRadar and ITPro reporting in February 2025, British Gas launched a trial with the startup Heata to install server nodes directly onto domestic hot water cylinders. Unlike SPAN’s focus on raw compute density, Heata’s virtual data center model uses the waste heat from processing to warm household water, saving participants roughly £340 annually. These parallel efforts in the U.S. and UK suggest that as centralized facilities face regulatory and power hurdles, the home is becoming a critical battleground for the next phase of AI and streaming infrastructure.