The Impact of AI on Data Centers

Already tired of hearing about how AI will affect our lives? The conversations are just getting started. The chatter is particularly loud these days in the data center market because of the insatiable appetite AI will have for new capacity.
 Data centers have been one of the hottest construction segments for quite some time, particularly in markets like Northern Virginia west of the nation’s capital, where more than 300 data centers are in place in what’s called “Data Center Alley.” There appears to be a very good chance that Data Center Alley, Dallas, Chicago, Silicon Valley, Phoenix, eastern Oregon and other popular locations for data centers be seeing much more construction of these massive facilities, where total construction costs often hit $1 billion.
A CBRE research report posted at www.cbre.com said because of the processing power needed for AI’s complex computations, they will require more electrical power at these facilities, as well as enhanced cooling for servers.
“In terms of hardware, AI requires high-performance processors which need more power than traditional data center processors,” said the report. “In addition to drawing more power, modifications for cooling technology will be required to reduce downtime. Liquid cooling is preferred for high-performance chips due to legacy air-cooled chillers’ limitations.”
The CBRE report said market areas strapped by water scarcity such as  Phoenix and Southern California may have trouble providing enough water to cool data centers loaded with AI processing chips and computer systems and that market areas that cab provide “ample power supply, lower energy costs and land prices to handle these complex and high-performance workloads” may have an advantage in attracting data centers in the future.