Schneider Electric presents itself at its Innovation Summit as an indispensable partner for the AI ​​data center of the future. A collaboration with Nvidia should support this statement.

At the first major Innovation Summit since the Covid pandemic, Schneider Electric underlines its relevance for the data center of tomorrow. In the context of the data center, Schneider Electric specializes in supporting electrification and cooling of the IT infrastructure. Two previous announcements underscore this role. Last month, the company introduced AI-driven PUE reporting in its EcoStruxure management software, and Schneider also unveiled a reference architecture for deploying AI servers in the data center. For this purpose, the company has partnered with Nvidia.

AI gospel

The collaboration with Nvidia is also the focus of the summit. Like almost every other major technology company, Schneider Electric would like to be named by the same name as the most hyped AI company in the world. The gospel of Jensen Huang is shared by Apostle Dion Harris, Director of Accelerated Data GTM at Nvidia, and believer Pankaj Sharma, EVP Secure Power Division & Datacenter Business at Schneider.

We’re asked by Sharma to reflect on a quote from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: “Generative AI is the defining technology of our time.” Together with the world’s most dynamic companies, we can realize the promise of AI for every sector.” “That is my favorite quote,” says Sharma. “Think about what he says for a moment. We will look back on this in two to three years.”

“Jensen’s quote sums it all up perfectly,” Harris says. “Nvidia wants to use reference designs to eliminate bottlenecks in the rollout of the necessary hardware. We want to prevent customers from purchasing Nvidia servers only to find that they cannot supply a rack with enough power to support the servers.”

Performance and cooling

If we look beyond Jensen’s words of wisdom, we see some concrete problems that Schneider and Nvidia want to solve. For AI workloads, the density of a data center rack increases to 60 kilowatts and more, in extreme cases up to 150 kilowatts. To achieve this, an efficient power supply and sufficient cooling are necessary. For Schneider it is clear that such racks are not realistically compatible with air cooling, so Sharma points to direct water cooling as a solution.

We see a data center architecture that… Coolant distribution units (CDUs) from Schneider, together with Turbocor chillers. The coolers and CDUs are part of a design to efficiently directly liquid cool the servers, while the rest of the data center can continue to use air cooling if necessary.

Big picture with Nvidia

At the Innovation Summit, Schneider Electric will not show anything new beyond last month’s announcements, but the close collaboration with Nvidia is noticeable. Everyone wants an Nvidia representative on stage these days, but for an infrastructure party like Schneider Electric, we’re a little surprised. It shows that the introduction of high-density AI servers only fits into the bigger picture, and Schneider Electric wants to make it clear at the summit that it is an essential part of it.