ZURICH: Swiss technology leader ABB announced today it is accelerating the development of gigawatt-scale data centers in a collaboration with U.S. chipmaker NVIDIA, focusing on the advanced power solutions required for soaring artificial intelligence (AI) workloads.
The partnership will center on creating high-efficiency, scalable power delivery systems, specifically supporting NVIDIA’s planned introduction of an 800 VDC (Volt Direct Current) power architecture for server racks consuming over one megawatt.
“ABB is leading the development of the key new power distribution technologies that will create the next generation of data centers,” said Giampiero Frisio, President of ABB Electrification. “This collaboration… is one of the many ways we are engaging with the data center community to serve the needs of this dynamic market.”
The push comes as global data center demand is forecast to surge from 80 gigawatts (GW) in 2024 to approximately 220 GW by 2030, with capital expenditure projected to exceed $1 trillion, according to data from Dell’Oro Group. AI workloads are expected to drive about 70 percent of this growth.
“As AI demands continue to grow around the world, data centers require new approaches to power distribution that improve efficiency and simplify designs,” said Dion Harris, senior director of HPC, Cloud and AI Infrastructure at NVIDIA. “Through our collaboration, NVIDIA and ABB are supporting the industry in advancing toward 800 volt architectures.”
To deliver this unprecedented level of power efficiently, ABB is pioneering new architectures that combine a medium voltage (MV) uninterruptible power supply (UPS) with direct current (DC) power distribution, utilizing solid-state power electronics.
ABB’s recent innovations, such as the world’s first solid-state MV UPS (HiPerGuard) and the first IEC-certified solid-state circuit breaker (SACE Infinitus), are designed to increase power density and energy efficiency, making high-density AI infrastructure viable. The company stated that approximately 40 percent of its scientific research in electrification is in areas critical to next-generation data centers.