Nvidia partner says it can cut data center energy use by 50% as AI boom strains power grid

The artificial intelligence boom is ramping up demand for more powerful processors as well as the energy needed to keep data centers cool.

That's an opportunity for data center company Sustainable Metal Cloud, which operates "sustainable AI factories" made up of its HyperCubes in Singapore and Australia.

The HyperCubes contain servers fitted with Nvidia processors which are submerged in a synthetic oil called polyalphaolefin that draws heat away more efficiently than air. The company said its platform reduces energy consumption by up to 50%, as compared to traditional air cooling technology typically used in data centers.

"It enables high density hosting for GPUs. It enables the sort of hosting that we need to see for platforms like [Nvidia's] Grace Blackwell," said Tim Rosenfield, co-founder and co-CEO of Sustainable Metal Cloud, referring to the new generation of AI graphics processors Nvidia announced in March.

The Singapore-based firm also said its immersion cooling technology is 28% cheaper to install than other liquid-based solutions. The HyperCubes are designed to go into any data center and can be deployed in unused spaces within existing data centers.

"Our solution being containerized means we can go anywhere very quickly. And we can open up new availability zones in response to demand from customers …," said Rosenfield.

He said SMC is expanding into other markets like Thailand and India.

The firm already counts Nvidia and Deloitte among its major enterprise partners. SMC is a preferred cloud partner of Nvidia for compute and AI and offers GPU clusters designed by the chip giant. In July, SMC announced a partnership with Deloitte in which it will provide access to Nvidia's GPU computing infrastructure for the