CLOUD & 5G
There ’ s an expectation that costs are going to go down , but if you look at reports from CBRE , it seems something completely different – rental rates are going up at the moment .”
Arguably the biggest obstacle is the availability of power required for these power-hungry AI systems . To overcome these challenges , the data centre industry must adapt quickly . “ When I first started in this industry five years ago , the average size of a data centre was around about five megawatts , and now it ’ s significantly larger than that – today we ’ re seeing data centres in Europe of 40MW-plus .
“ The power density requirements are going to be significantly higher , and availability will be a major constraint on where we can deploy ,” Marc explains . “ Geographical data centre markets will have to evolve around power availability .”
ABOUT NVIDIA
Nvidia continues to dominate the AI chip market , with its chips being used for a wide range of business applications to advance Gen AI capabilities . In fact , the company ’ s data centre business has generated the majority of its total revenue in recent months , having surpassed all expectations and hitting revenues of US $ 22.10bn , with data centre revenue increasing by 409 % to US $ 18.4bn .
While AI undoubtedly drives higher energy needs initially , both experts emphasised how AI-optimised infrastructure can actually improve efficiency if implemented properly . Within data centres themselves , Dion describes how AI techniques like predictive maintenance and digital twinning enable “ AI driving AI ” – leveraging AI systems to optimise their own facilities for maximum efficiency and sustainability .
With Marc identifying that around 60 % of the energy produced today is lost or wasted , AI can drive more automation and less human-derived energy waste .
“ The message that we all hear is that more AI equals more energy but the question is , does it ? And initially , yes , the answer was that we need to deploy more power to deploy AI infrastructure . However , we are so excited about AI because of the efficiency that it ’ s going to drive in our operational behaviours .
“ If we can start to drive more automation , more AI-led infrastructure that drives more efficiency , less dependence on human behaviour and the vulnerability that goes with it , it will drive more energy efficiency , and that ultimately will start to drive more productivity in that infrastructure landscape .
“ Within the data centre itself , you see AI starting to drive AI infrastructure as well . So the productivity we see in data centres can be driven by the AI infrastructure , predictive maintenance , digital twinning driving the data centre closer to a net zero carbon infrastructure going forward .” datacentremagazine . com 113