Schneider Electric Partners with Nvidia for AI Data Center Cooling

By Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) – French electrical equipment maker Schneider Electric (EPA:SCHN) is collaborating with Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) to design cooling systems for new artificial intelligence data centers, as announced on Wednesday.

Schneider's designs will be implemented in data centers utilizing Nvidia’s flagship server, which houses 72 of its most powerful AI chips, set to launch early next year. No financial details of the agreement have been disclosed.

These servers will require up to 132 kilowatts of power per server rack, with the most powerful variants necessitating liquid cooling for optimal operation. Nvidia's shift towards liquid cooling across its chip lineup has prompted significant construction and reconfiguration efforts in data centers to accommodate these new requirements.

Aparna Prabhakar, senior vice president of the secure power division at Schneider, stated that the company collaborated with Nvidia to create various scalable cooling system options, adjusted according to the number of Nvidia servers installed and their power consumption.

These cooling plans will be marketed to cloud computing firms and data center customers.

> "It is heavy lifting on both sides," Prabhakar noted regarding the engineering collaboration. "We take care of everything outside of the servers, and Nvidia works on what's inside the server."

In a noteworthy development, Schneider, which recently appointed a new CEO, is actively expanding its AI data center business, having signed a $3 billion agreement with Compass Datacenters to supply electrical equipment over the next five years.