AWS & Orbital AI Tackles Data Centre Scope 3 Emissions
Orbital Materials and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are in a multi-year partnership aiming to push the boundaries of innovation in advanced materials and technology.
This collaboration is especially focused on enhancing data centre efficiency and advancing decarbonisation efforts.
With an underlying emphasis on using AI, this venture is dedicated to crafting and testing solutions to conquer challenges related to carbon removal, chip cooling and better usage of water.
Their combined efforts target an evolution towards a more sustainable, efficient cloud infrastructure.
The synergy of Orbital's innovative AI-driven materials discovery platform and AWS' robust cloud resources further solidify their mutual dedication towards diminishing environmental impacts while boosting operational performance.
Launched in late 2022, Orbital Materials has been pivotal in transforming the exploration and validation of advanced materials via its bespoke AI platform.
The conventional method of developing new materials often involved prolonged, empirical testing in labs — a process that could stretch over several years.
Orbital’s strategy disrupts this protracted approach by integrating generative AI for material design, consequently accelerating the research and development phase extraordinarily.
Within just 12 months of setting up its lab in Princeton, Orbital’s premier breakthrough — a proprietary material for carbon capture — has witnessed a tenfold enhancement in efficacy, a testimony to the power of their AI platform.
This development demonstrates the transformative potential of AI in revolutionising carbon capture technologies, vital for managing greenhouse gas emissions generated from data centres and beyond.
Expanding this promising venture, Orbital — in partnership with AWS — aims to implement a fully integrated data centre carbon removal system by the end of 2025.
“Our partnership with AWS will accelerate the deployment of our advanced technologies for data centre decarbonisation and efficiency," comments Jonathan Godwin, CEO of Orbital Materials.
"Working with the market-leading AWS team will ensure that our suite of products in cooling, water utilisation and carbon removal enables the next generation of data centres powering the AI revolution.”
Pioneering scalable green innovation
As a global name in cloud computing, AWS contributes its extensive scale and technological prowess to this collaboration.
Its footprint extends across 108 availability zones and offers more than 240 services globally, allowing AWS to empower a diverse range of businesses, startups and governmental efforts to craft infrastructure that is both agile and efficient.
In this partnership, AWS not only provides the foundational infrastructure but also incorporates Orbital’s climate-centric material expertise.
A significant achievement of this cooperation is the launching of Orbital’s open-source AI model, Orb, on AWS platforms.
Orb is engineered to simulate and expedite the development of sophisticated materials such as semiconductors and batteries.
Made accessible via Amazon SageMaker JumpStart and AWS Marketplace, Orb facilitates AWS customers in spearheading their innovative ventures within a secure, cohesive cloud setting.
The alliance also addresses Scope 3 emissions, which represent the indirect emissions from a company’s value chain, by integrating technologies aimed at carbon elimination, enhanced efficiency in chip cooling and better water management.
By focusing on these areas, AWS proactively strives towards its aim of net-zero carbon emissions across its vast data centre operations.
AWS is further assisting Orbital’s endeavours by providing Amazon SageMaker HyperPod for the distribution of AI training and evaluating AWS’s Trainium for augmenting the cost-effectiveness of their workloads.
"AWS looks forward to collaborating with Orbital and their mission to drive data centre decarbonisation," adds Howard Gefen, General Manager of AWS Energy & Utilities.
"Through Amazon SageMaker HyperPod and AWS Trainium, we can accelerate the development of breakthrough sustainability technologies. By integrating Orb with Amazon SageMaker JumpStart and AWS Marketplace, we will enable sustainable innovation more widely.
"Together, we have the opportunity to set new benchmarks for carbon removal and efficiency across the industry."
Creating a sustainable cloud future
The alliance underscores a collective commitment to sustainability and efficiency within the tech arena.
As data centres continue to grow worldwide, their environmental toll becomes increasingly prominent.
Facilities demand immense amounts of energy for not just cooling and computing but also water usage.
Innovations in these sectors are crucial for reaching the net-zero carbon targets.
Through strategic use of AI and advanced materials, Orbital and AWS plan to transform traditional data centres into centres of sustainable innovation.
By concentrating on carbon removal and resource optimisation, the partnership charts a course for tackling environmental challenges that arise with digital expansion.
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