Inside Schneider Electric & Nvidia's AI Factory Partnership
Nvidia is collaborating with Schneider Electric to innovate cooling power and building management systems, enhancing sustainability in AI data centres.
The joint effort focuses on advancing research and development in power, cooling and high-density rack systems for next-generation AI factories worldwide.
- R&D commitment to co-develop new cooling, power, building management and control systems for digital and physical AI data centres
- Supporting Europe’s AI infrastructure ambitions and aligning with the ‘AI Continent Action Plan’ and ‘InvestAI’
- Schneider Electric’s launch of a new Nvidia-enabled rack solution
“Schneider Electric and NVIDIA are not just partners — our teams are driving advanced R&D, co-developing the infrastructure needed to power the next wave of AI factories globally,” says Olivier Blum, CEO of Schneider Electric.
“Together, we’ve seen tremendous success in deploying next-generation power and liquid cooling solutions, purpose-built for AI data centres.”
Supporting sustainable AI growth
Announced at NVIDIA GTC Paris, the collaboration aligns with the EU’s 'InvestAI' initiative, aiming for a €200bn (US$228.77bn) investment in AI.
The partnership aims to support the European Commission’s 'AI Continent Action Plan,' targeting 13 AI factories and up to five gigafactories in Europe.
Olivier explains: “This strategic partnership — bringing together the world leaders in sustainability and accelerated computing — allows us to further accelerate this momentum, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible for the AI workloads of tomorrow.”
“These innovations enable rapid deployment and efficient operation of next-generation AI factories at scale,” said Pablo Ruiz Escribano, Senior Vice President, Secure Power Europe at Schneider Electric.
“By leveraging our expertise, the partnership supports the EU’s goals and actively helps investors and customers align with the EU’s €200 billion AI investment strategy.”
Sustainable AI-ready infrastructure
In support of the announcement, Schneider Electric has unveiled a suite of new AI-ready data centre solutions, including new EcoStruxure™ Pod and Rack Infrastructure.
The Prefabricated Modular EcoStruxure Pod Data Centre is a scalable solution enabling swift AI data centre establishment.
These innovations integrate with Nvidia’s MGX modular architecture, enhancing both companies' sustainable infrastructure efforts.
Innovations include digital twins for electrical systems and liquid cooling designs, utilising Motivair’s portfolio following its acquisition by Schneider Electric.
Founder and CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, adds: “AI is the defining technology of our time—the most transformative force reshaping our world.
“Together with Schneider Electric, we are building AI factories: the essential infrastructure that brings AI to every company, industry and society.”
AI's role in sustainable data centres
Nvidia has powered ahead with its supercomputing efforts, including advancing JUPITER in Europe.
With such rapid data centre innovation, operators are having to also position themselves to support this scalable growth, whilst also focusing on sustainability pledges.
Schneider Electric is a well-recognised leader in sustainability across the industry.
“The growth of AI doesn’t have to derail our data centre sustainability goals,” Pablo explains.
“Solutions like energy efficient infrastructure, liquid cooling and AI-powered energy management are powerful tools that will help data centres balance performance with environmental responsibility.”
He continues: “As global demands for data centres grow, we see many predictions that suggest electrical grids may fail to keep pace and create challenges for AI’s role in industry growth. At Schneider, we believe this is overhyped. While it is true that some factors have combined to strain the grid and limit capacity in some regions, there are viable options for data centres to continue building as utility companies take steps to mitigate these challenges.
“In future, data centres may also become utilities, combining AI infrastructure and renewable energy systems as one complete ecosystem.”
In the meantime, Pablo suggests that it’s critical for the industry to continue exploring innovative solutions to manage energy constraints.
“This involves a strategic shift in energy procurement and utilising alternative power sources such as natural gas turbines, HVO-fueled generators, wind, solar, fuel cells and battery storage systems to ensure AI’s role in data centre development is fully realised,” he explains.
“[Schneider Electric and Nvidia] are driving advanced R&D and co-developing the infrastructure needed to power the next wave of AI factories globally. Our multi-domain expertise across data centres, industrial automation, buildings and the grid, together with our global supply chain, facilitates the speed and scale required to propel AI adoption.
“We’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible for the AI workloads of tomorrow.”
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