All posts tagged: data centers

‘AI Is Fundamentally Incompatible With Environmental Sustainability’

‘AI Is Fundamentally Incompatible With Environmental Sustainability’

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Image: Galyna_Andrushko/Envato Elements Generative AI is energy-intensive, and the ways in which its environmental impact can be calculated are complex. Consider the downstream effect of generative AI on the environment when examining your company’s own sustainability goals. What side effects might not be immediately visible but could have a major impact? When does most of the energy consumption occur: during training or everyday use? Do “more efficient” AI models actually address any sustainability concerns? The impact of generative AI on electricity generation, water, and air quality AI’s impact on air pollution In December 2024, the University of California, Riverside, and California Institute of Technology calculated that training Meta’s Llama-3.1 produced the same amount of air pollution as more than 10,000 round trips by car between Los Angeles and New York City. The increased air pollution from backup generators at data centers running AI caused regional public health costs of approximately $190 million to $260 million a year, the UC Riverside and Caltech researchers found. AI’s impact on electricity use A 2024 report from the International …

Google is Betting Big on Nuclear Energy – Here’s Why

Google is Betting Big on Nuclear Energy – Here’s Why

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Google’s Lucia Tian at Data Center World 2025 in Washington, D.C. Image: Drew Robb/TechnologyAdvice Google has unveiled plans to lead the way in the adoption of nuclear energy for the data center. At Data Center World 2025 in Washington D.C., the company explained some of the details of its partnership with Kairos Power to develop up to 500 MW of nuclear energy through small modular reactors (SMRs). Backed by a $300 million grant from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, this initiative aims for initial deployment by 2030, with further expansion of the site through 2035. “The race to power AI-driven data centers is accelerating, and securing sustainable, reliable energy at scale is more critical than ever,” said Lucia Tian, head of clean energy & decarbonization at Google. “This project is one facet of Google’s goal to be carbon free on a 24 x 7 x 365 basis by matching our electricity demand with clean sources.” For the last many years, the company has been a major purchaser of wind and solar …

Shark Tank’s Mr. Wonderful is Building the World’s Largest AI Data Center in Canada

Shark Tank’s Mr. Wonderful is Building the World’s Largest AI Data Center in Canada

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Photo from Data Center World 2025 in Washington, D.C. Image: Drew Robb/TechnologyAdvice Kevin O’Leary — better known as “Mr. Wonderful” from ABC’s “Shark Tank” — made a surprise appearance at Data Center World 2025 in Washington, D.C. What’s a venture capitalist doing at a major IT event? He’s building the world’s largest AI factories, and he’s ready to talk about it. The project, called Wonder Valley, is a massive off-grid AI data center under construction in Alberta’s Municipal District of Greenview in Canada. Purpose-built for AI workloads, the facility will span 6,000 acres and boast a staggering 7.5 gigawatts of power capacity. The initial phase of 1.5 GW is expected to complete in the 2027-2028 timeframe at a cost of $2 billion; the remainder will be added gradually over the next few years. “Data centers are today’s gold rush,” said O’Leary during his keynote. “AI is in high demand, and the strongest market is in companies of 5 to 500 employees.” Bypassing lengthy regulatory and grid interconnect delays O’Leary explained how difficult it can be …

How AI is Revolutionizing Data Center Power and Cooling

How AI is Revolutionizing Data Center Power and Cooling

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Vlad Galabov, Omdia’s research director for digital infrastructure, spoke during Data Center World 2025’s analyst day. Image: Courtesy of Data Center World AI will drive more than 50% of global data center capacity and more than 70% of revenue opportunity, according to Omdia’s Research Director for Digital Infrastructure Vlad Galabov, who said massive productivity gains across industries driven by AI will fuel this growth. Speaking during Data Center World 2025’s analyst day, Galabov made a number of other predictions about the industry: NVIDIA and hyperscalers’ 1 MW-per-rack ambitions probably won’t materialize for another couple of years until engineering innovation catches up to power and cooling demands. By 2030, over 35 GW of data center power is expected to be self-generated, making off-grid and behind-the-meter solutions no longer optional for those looking to build new data centers, as many utilities struggle to deliver the necessary power. Data center annual capital expenditure (CAPEX) investments are expected to reach $1 trillion globally by 2030, up from less than $500 billion at the end of 2024. The strongest area …

NVIDIA’s Vision For AI Factories – ‘Major Trend in the Data Center World’

NVIDIA’s Vision For AI Factories – ‘Major Trend in the Data Center World’

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Image: NVIDIA NVIDIA kicked off the Data Center World 2025 event this week in Washington, D.C., with a bold vision for the future of AI infrastructure. In his keynote, Wade Vinson, NVIDIA’s chief data center engineer, introduced the concept of AI-scale data centers; these massive, energy-efficient facilities would meet the soaring demand of accelerated computing. NVIDIA envisions sprawling “AI factories” powered by Blackwell GPUs and DGX SuperPODs, supported by advanced cooling and power systems by Vertiv and Schneider Electric. “There is no doubt that AI factories are a major trend in the data center world,” said Vinson. Completing phase one of an AI factory in Texas Vinson pointed to the Lancium Clean Campus that Crusoe Energy Systems is building near Abilene, Texas. As he explained: The first phase of this AI factory is largely complete: 200 MW in two buildings. The second phase will expand it to 1.2 GW. It should be completed by the middle of 2026. The design includes direct-to-chip liquid cooling, rear-door heat exchangers, and air cooling. It will comprise six additional …

Intel Agrees to TSMC Takeover of Chip Foundries, Sources Say

Intel Agrees to TSMC Takeover of Chip Foundries, Sources Say

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Intel foundry. Image: Intel Intel has tentatively agreed to let Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) take over some of its chipmaking facilities, according to The Information. TSMC will hold a 20% stake in the joint venture, contributing not cash, but value through sharing its chipmaking practices and training Intel staff, according to anonymous sources cited by the publication. Rumours of a possible takeover of Intel started swirling in February, with TSMC and Broadcom considering splitting the U.S. company’s manufacturing and design arms between them. The following month, TSMC reportedly offered a share in its proposed acquisition of the chip foundries to NVIDIA and AMD, as well as Broadcom. Both NVIDIA and Broadcom initiated manufacturing testing at Intel’s facilities at the time, sources said. However, Intel did not want to sell its chip design house separately from the foundry division, which manufactures custom chips for its customers. SEE: TSMC’s $100B Investment in US Data Centers Sets Foreign Investment Record Intel used to be a giant in the CPU industry, but the AI boom has led to …

Is Microsoft in Hot Water With The FTC Over AI Operations Antitrust Issues?

Is Microsoft in Hot Water With The FTC Over AI Operations Antitrust Issues?

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FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson on CNBC. Source: YouTube The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will move ahead with a wide-ranging antitrust probe into Microsoft’s AI operations. Announced in the final days of the Biden administration, the Trump administration’s new FTC chair Andrew Ferguson will lead the probe. The FTC sent Microsoft a civil investigative demand late last years asking it to provide data about its AI models, including how training data is obtained and how much it costs to train an AI. The civil investigative demand stretches all the way back to 2016 and covers nearly a decade’s worth of data. What’s hot at TechRepublic Why the FTC is investigating Microsoft The agency will also investigate Microsoft for canceling some of its own internal AI development after agreeing to invest in competitor OpenAI. Microsoft did not disclose its investment in OpenAI to regulators ahead of time, as it should have. The FTC will investigate whether the deal was structured as a partnership in order to circumvent a merger investigation, which could have led to the deal …

TSMC Proposes Shared Takeover with Chip Giants

TSMC Proposes Shared Takeover with Chip Giants

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Intel foundry. Image: Intel Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has offered a share in its proposed acquisition of Intel’s chip foundries to NVIDIA, Broadcom, and AMD, sources told Reuters. The Taiwanese chipmaker intends to oversee the operations of Intel’s fab division, but aims to retain less than 50% ownership and is seeking multiple partners for the deal. Intel’s reluctance and internal divisions According to the anonymous sources, Intel does not want to sell its chip design house separately from the foundry division, which manufactures custom chips for its customers. Intel executives are also divided on whether striking any deal is a good idea. Last month, it was reported that TSMC and Broadcom were considering splitting the U.S. company’s manufacturing and design arms between them. Intel’s factories already operate somewhat independently; since 2022, they have taken orders from outside customers and in-house at equal priority. More about data centers Challenges in potential TSMC-Intel partnership TSMC has its own demands when it comes to the joint venture, as it wants any potential investors to also be Intel advanced-manufacturing …

Arm Shocks the Semiconductor Industry by Announcing It May Sell Its Own Chips

Arm Shocks the Semiconductor Industry by Announcing It May Sell Its Own Chips

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Semiconductor design firm Arm surprised the hardware industry on Feb. 13 with the announcement that it will make a server CPU as well as license its semiconductor designs to other organizations; Meta locked in as the first partner. The move turns Arm from a resource for companies like Qualcomm and NVIDIA into a potential competitor. According to the Financial Times, Arm Chief Executive Rene Haas could show the new chip by the summer. More about Innovation Arm plans to make a chip for servers in large data centers Specifically, Arm will develop and sell its own CPU intended to reside in servers for large data centers. The processor will have a base architecture customizable to different customers. More details about the chip’s capabilities were not available at the time of writing. Arm won’t do the manufacturing; like many major semiconductor producers, the chip will be manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). Also, Arm has recruited personnel from its customers, according to Reuters. SEE: Data centers can reduce energy usage by changing just 30 lines …

Samsung Was the Top Semiconductor Vendor Globally in 2024

Samsung Was the Top Semiconductor Vendor Globally in 2024

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Samsung regained the top of the leaderboard of semiconductor companies by revenue, Gartner said on Feb. 3 in its yearly worldwide semiconductor vendor statistics report. Global semiconductor revenue hit $626 billion, up 18.1% from 2023. “The rising demand for AI and generative AI (GenAI) workloads led data centers to become the second-largest market for semiconductors in 2024, behind smartphones,” said George Brocklehurst, vice president analyst at Gartner, in a press release. Samsung takes the top of the semiconductor leaderboard Samsung Electronics sat at the top of Gartner’s semiconductor leaderboard with $66.5 billion in revenue, rounded. The top five semiconductor vendors were: Samsung ($66.5 billion in revenue). Intel ($49.2 billion in revenue). NVIDIA ($46 billion in revenue). SK hynix ($42.8 billion in revenue). Qualcomm ($32.4 billion in revenue). A rebound in memory device prices helped Samsung take the top spot from Intel. NVIDIA moved up two spots to number five due to its success in the AI market. Despite Intel’s AI PC business and the Core Ultra chipset, the company’s semiconductor revenue growth stayed flat at …