How Does the Capital Expenditure for a PoS Validator Compare to a PoW Miner?

The capital expenditure (CapEx) for a PoS validator is primarily the cost of the staked cryptocurrency itself, plus the minimal cost of running a node server. For a PoW miner, CapEx is the cost of specialized, expensive ASIC hardware.

PoS CapEx is volatile (tied to coin price) but the asset can be retrieved; PoW CapEx is a sunk cost in rapidly depreciating hardware.