MANISH KUMAR
TECH & AI
The data centre industry is scaling at an unprecedented rate to meet the colossal demands of AI. Yet, as data centre facilities push rapidly into gigawatt territory, the traditional methods of designing, building and operating infrastructure face a critical bottleneck. The sheer density and thermal output of next-generation hardware mean the margin for physical trial and error has essentially vanished.
To circumvent these physical limitations, the industry is increasingly turning to the virtual world. By creating highly accurate, simulation-ready replicas of power, cooling and control systems, operators can stress-test the AI data centres of tomorrow before laying a single brick.
This shift from physical guesswork to digital certainty was heavily underscored at the NVIDIA GTC 2026 event, where energy technology leader Schneider Electric, industrial software specialist AVEVA and NVIDIA detailed a highly integrated approach to the lifecycle digital twin.
“ As AI workloads scale in both size and complexity, the margin for error in data centre design becomes incredibly small,” notes Manish Kumar, Executive Vice President of Secure Power & Data Centers at Schneider Electric.“ Delivering AI at scale requires tightly integrated electrical, cooling and digital architectures that can support both unprecedented performance demands while maintaining peak energy efficiency.”
MANISH KUMAR
TITLE: EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF SECURE POWER & DATA CENTERS
COMPANY: SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC INDUSTRY: ENERGY TECHNOLOGY
Manish leads Schneider Electric’ s global Secure Power & Data Centers business, enabling AI-driven compute and AI Factories at scale.
66 May 2026