Sustainable Metal Cloud has developed technology to cut energy consumption in artificial intelligence data centers by up to 50%.
What Happened: The Singapore-based company utilizes HyperCubes, which house servers with NVIDIA Corp. NVDA processors submerged in polyalphaolefin oil. This method is more efficient than traditional air cooling, reported CNBC.
SMC’s co-founder and co-CEO, Tim Rosenfield, stated that their platform supports high-density GPU hosting, which is necessary for Nvidia’s new AI processors. The technology is also 28% cheaper to install compared to other liquid-based solutions.
“Most data centers are not ready for liquid of any type, whether it is immersion or direct chip cooling. The market is figuring out the best way to employ this and I think there'll be multiple ways,” Rosenfield said.
Rosenfield mentioned that the containerized solution allows for rapid deployment in various locations, including unused spaces in existing data centers. SMC is expanding into markets like Thailand and India.
SMC has partnerships with Nvidia and Deloitte, providing GPU clusters for AI applications. The firm is raising $400 million in equity and $550 million in debt to fund its expansion beyond Singapore.
Governments and businesses are increasingly adopting AI, driving the demand for energy-efficient data centers. Singapore has committed over 500 million Singapore dollars to support green data centers.
Why It Matters: The development by SMC comes at a crucial time when the energy consumption of AI systems is under intense scrutiny. Recently, big tech companies, including Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, have been exploring nuclear power to meet the growing energy demands of AI data centers. Concerns have been raised about the environmental impact and stability of such a shift.
In mid-August, former President Donald Trump and Elon Musk also discussed the significant energy requirements of AI, with Trump expressing his surprise at the technology’s high energy needs. He noted that AI demands twice the energy that the country currently produces.
On the other hand, Bill Gates has defended the increased energy consumption of AI, suggesting that the technology will ultimately offset its high electricity usage. Gates emphasized that the investments in AI systems by major tech firms are expected to drive a 2-6% increase in global electricity usage.
The race to develop AI has also highlighted the depletion of energy and water resources, posing new threats to the environment. For instance, Alphabet Inc. GOOG GOOGL unveiled Google AI Overviews, a feature that consumes significantly more power than traditional Google searches.
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This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Kaustubh Bagalkote
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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