Power & Sites · United States

NTT deploys Nvidia GPU test cluster at Munich 2 data center

Credited to Data Center Dynamics · datacenterdynamics.com · 13h ago

Photograph · Data Center Dynamics

Allows customers to test AI applications on Nvidia Blackwell hardware

NTT Global Data Centres has deployed an Nvidia GPU cluster at its Munich 2 data center.

According to the company, the cluster provides clients with a “real-world environment” where they can test how their AI applications will perform at scale before investing in broad deployments themselves.

Unlike a traditional AI demonstration or innovation lab, the cluster – which NTT has dubbed AI Factory Munich – allows customers to evaluate AI workloads against the infrastructure, security, data, governance and operational requirements they will face in production.

In a post on LinkedIn, Anne-Sophie Lotgering, CEO Europe, NTT, said that Nvidia and Dell provided the infrastructure whilst Red Hat and Mistral AI worked with the company on the platform and the model. The cluster is comprised of Nvidia Blackwell GPUs interconnected via Nvidia Spectrum-X Ethernet technology, with servers and storage provided by Dell’s AI Factory, with Nvidia offering.

“Every leader I speak to wants AI they own, control and trust. At NTT Data's AI factory Munich, they can run their own applications and data in a production data center, on their terms, before they commit to deployment. It‘s the difference between a slide and a decision,” said Graham Clarke, managing director, global private and sovereign AI, NTT Data.

Located in the German town of Unterschleißheim outside Munich, Bavaria, NTT’s 6,300 sqm (67,813 sq ft) Munich 2 campus consists of two buildings offering 14MW of critical IT load.

CapitalUnited States

CoreWeave’s slump spotlights growing burden of debt behind AI boom

Credited to Investing.com · investing.com14h ago

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The loss-making AI cloud company, burdened with about $50 billion in debt, has become the poster child for mounting concerns that the data center boom is being fueled by credit, straining newer players and pressuring cash flows even at giants such as Alphabet and Meta Platforms.

View the articleInvesting.com

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Power & Sites · United States

Virginia senator proposes three-year state-wide data center moratorium

Credited to Data Center Dynamics · datacenterdynamics.com · 18h ago

Photograph · Data Center Dynamics

Pause would enable more legislation to be drawn up

A three-year data center moratorium could be introduced in Virginia, the industry’s largest market.

Russet Perry, Democratic senator for Loudoun County, has proposed the moratorium in Senate Bill 843. If enacted, it would stop state agencies from approving data center planning applications for three years from July 1, 2027.

In comments reported by the Loudoun Times-Mirror, Perry said the moratorium was designed to give Virginia’s lawmakers time to draw up a set of rules for data center developments.

“This billion-dollar industry has grown unchecked and without guardrails for years while families face rising electric bills, massive transmission lines threaten our homes, schools, churches, and farms, and while we don’t have anywhere near the infrastructure needed to protect our grid and meet the staggering electricity demands of these massive facilities,” Perry said.

“We cannot keep rubber-stamping new data centers when we can’t even manage the ones already built. It’s past time we put real protections in place for our communities, our natural resources, and ratepayers.”

In August, Perry and Republican senator Richard Stuart called for a review into the strain Virginia's data centers were putting on the state's groundwater supply.

Northern Virginia, which includes Loudoun County, has been at the heart of the data center industry for years. But like many parts of the US, the region is experiencing a backlash against new AI data center projects.

In Loudoun County itself, a 12-month data center moratorium is being introduced, while neighboring Prince William County is bringing in tighter planning controls for new projects.

Statewide moratoriums have been introduced in New York, Texas, and Oregon, and other states are proposing similar measures.

Virginia’s governor, Abigail Spanberger, has stopped short of backing a moratorium, but did introduce a Data Center Accountability Framework last month. This bans non-disclosure agreements for new projects and calls for the development of regulations around the noise created by data centers.