Swiss researchers push to make AI data centres more sustainable

The AI boom is forcing the industry to rethink how data centres are cooled. Researchers in Switzerland are developing technologies that promise to reduce energy and water use. But can better cooling really solve AI's growing environmental footprint? Inside the data centre of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), powerful fans push cold air through rows of servers. A constant hum fills the room, but Remco van Erp, co-founder and CEO of Swiss start-up Corintis, says this facility is relatively quiet. "In a large data centre, you need ear protection," he says. That’s not the case here. Van Erp attributes the lower noise to the fact that the facility relies less on high-speed ventilation than conventional data centres. Finding alternatives to traditional cooling methods is precisely what brought Corintis to EPFL. As artificial intelligence (AI) drives a global data centre boom, the Swiss start-up and the university are working together to reduce the electricity ...