Move over fiber, power is the biggest data center challenge

Phenomenal cosmic power—that’s what it’ll take to support the data center demand of the future thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) and its required compute power. There’s only one problem, according to Brian Janous, cofounder of data center siting startup Cloverleaf Infrastructure: not many folks in the industry have a good understanding of the challenges and limitations energy utility companies face when it comes to powering data centers. His company, though, is aiming to change that. Janous said that the data center industry has historically been focused on an understanding of fiber, since that’s what was driving site development a decade ago. But over the last years and a half, there’s been an awakening of sorts. “Electricity is the constraint. It’s not fiber, and it’s not land. It’s how you solve the electric grid because the demand for computation and the demand for GPUs is clearly outpacing the speed at which utilities can make investments in their system.”