Connect with us

Published

on

Industrial chiller at Yotta Data Services Pvt. data center, in Navi Mumbai, India, on Thursday, Mar. 14, 2024.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A huge upswing in the number of data centers worldwide shows no signs of slowing down, prompting Big Tech to consider how best to power the artificial intelligence revolution.

Some of the options on the table include a pivot to nuclear, liquid cooling for data centers and quantum computing.

Critics, however, have said that as the pace of efficiency gains in electricity use slows, tech giants should recognize the cost of the generative AI boom across the whole supply chain — and let go of the “move fast and break things” narrative.

“The actual environmental cost is quite hidden at the moment. It is just subsidized by the fact that tech companies need to get a product and a buy-in,” Somya Joshi, head of division: global agendas, climate and systems at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), told CNBC via video call.

A wave of data center investment is expected to accelerate even further in the coming years, according to the International Energy Agency, primarily driven by growing digitalization and the uptake of generative AI.

It is this prospect that has stoked concerns about an electricity demand surge — as well as AI’s often-overlooked but critically important environmental impact.

There's a water crisis looming. Big Tech and AI could make it worse

Data centers, which consume an ever-increasing amount of energy, represent a key piece of infrastructure behind modern-day cloud computing and AI applications.

Giampiero Frisio, president of electrification at Swiss multinational ABB, said the engineering group’s data center business has enjoyed remarkable growth in recent years — with the segment on track to grow by more than 24% in 2024.

Frisio said ABB has been well placed in the AI demand boom to supply mid-sized and big-name industry players with all the components needed to run a data center.

“I think the best way to act now is to increase the energy efficiency. That’s the best way because the technology is there, for example the medium voltage HiPerGuard UPS. You can do it, and you can do it tomorrow morning,” Frisio told CNBC via video call.

The HiPerGuard UPS refers to ABB’s industry-first medium voltage uninterruptable power supply, which it says can provide continuous power to large facilities.

A server room at a data center in India.

Dhiraj Singh | Bloomberg | Getty Images

“The second one is to move on the liquid cooling, there is no doubt. Again, this is in the optic of better energy efficiency. Why? Because a single rack, you know the black boxes that look like a wardrobe with all the servers inside, the power density of those is going to be four to six times than before,” Frisio said.

“After that, we are talking about five to 10 years from now, it is the nuclear modular system,” he added.

Big Tech is going nuclear

U.S. tech behemoths Microsoft, Google and Amazon have all secured nuclear energy deals worth billions of dollars in recent months as they seek to bring additional energy capacity online to train and run the massive generative AI models behind today’s applications.

The upsurge of generative AI demand has coincided with a push to find more efficient cooling solutions in data centers, particularly liquid cooling — a process in which water is used to lower the temperatures of servers and other electronic equipment.

I think in the summer of every great technology we discover there is a winter — but don’t pay attention to it until winter arrives.

Raj Hazra

CEO of Quantinuum

French power-equipment maker Schneider Electric recently completed an $850 million deal to take a controlling stake in Motivair Corp, a U.S.-based company that specializes in liquid cooling for high-performance computing.

Schneider Electric CEO Peter Herweck told CNBC last month that the all-cash deal, which is designed to bolster its offering to data centers, was “rich, but not overly expensive” and “fits great” with the firm’s strategy.

Alongside nuclear energy and liquid cooling technology, some tech players have suggested developments within AI could help to decarbonize data centers.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt: It's time for us to fully invest in AI infrastructure

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, for example, said last month that since “we’re not going to hit the climate goals anyway”, investing in AI could be pivotal to solving some of our biggest environmental challenges.

SEI’s Joshi flatly rejected this point of view.

“These arguments are not new, they are very much in line with the sort of ‘silver bullet’, ‘tech will save us’ rhetoric,” Joshi said.

“There is something inherently at odds with saying we operate within certain finite planetary boundaries and yet by exceeding them and continuing with the same extractive narratives, we are somehow going to solve the problem that we’re in now,” she added.

Quantum computing

“I think in the summer of every great technology we discover there is a winter — but don’t pay attention to it until winter arrives,” Raj Hazra, CEO of Quantinuum, the world’s largest integrated quantum computing company, told CNBC via video call.

“That is my way of describing what is happening with generative AI, the infrastructure needed to support it [and] the massive data centers that have to be built.”

Hazra said optimism over the generative AI boom is already straining the cost of running the technology.

Aerial view of a data center owned by the US multinational and technology company Google in Santiago on October 9, 2024. The drought that is affecting part of South America, coupled with public pressure, is forcing technology giants such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft to reformulate their data center projects in the region in favor of low-water consumption ones.

Rodrigo Arangua | Afp | Getty Images

“One of the things that has become quite apparent is it’s no longer OK to say I have a solution to a problem; you have to say I have a sustainable solution to a problem,” Hazra said.

The CEO said one of quantum’s biggest contributions to society can be to make AI both sustainable and responsible.

“I predict that in the next three to five years, you will see people say, what is my compute infrastructure for running my business? It will be a combination of high-performance computing, AI and quantum,” he added.

Continue Reading

Environment

Isuzu’s first electric pickup is here and it’s a beast: Meet the new D-MAX EV

Published

on

By

Isuzu's first electric pickup is here and it's a beast: Meet the new D-MAX EV

A fully electric Isuzu pickup truck? That’s right. The D-MAX EV is Isuzu’s first electric pickup, and it will be rolling in the next few months. After kicking off mass production, Isuzu said the new EV pickup will “match the performance of existing diesel models,” boasting high towing capacity and payload.

Isuzu’s first electric pickup is launching in 2025

Isuzu announced on Tuesday that the D-MAX EV has officially entered mass production. The company has started building left-hand drive models, which will be shipped to Europe in the third quarter of 2025.

By the end of the year, production of right-hand drive models will begin for the UK, with sales expected to start in 2026.

The electric pickup is nearly identical to Isuzu’s popular gas-powered D-MAX, but swaps the diesel powertrain for a pair of electric motors. The D-MAX EV features new e-Axles, one on the front and the other at the rear, for a full-time 4WD system.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

The dual-motor powertrain enables it to match the performance of existing diesel models, with a combined 188 hp (140 kW) and a maximum torque of 240 lb-ft (325 Nm).

It can also tow over 7,700 lbs (3,500 kg) with a maximum payload of over 2,200 lbs (1,010 kg). That’s about the same as the D-MAX diesel, which has a 3,500 kg towing capacity and a payload capacity of up to 1,200 kg.

Powered by a 66.9 kWh battery, Isuzu’s first electric pickup boasts a driving range of up to 263 km (162 miles) on the WLTP. In the city, it can have a driving range of up to 224 miles (361 km).

Isuzu D-Max EV specs
Drive System Full-time 4×4
Battery Type Lithium-ion
Battery Capacity 66.9 kWh
Max Output 130 kW (174 hp)
Max Torque 325 Nm
Max Speed Over 130 km/h (+80 mph)
Max Payload 1,000 kg (+2,200 lbs)
Max Towing Capacity 3.5t (+7,700 lbs)
Isuzu D-Max EV electric pickup specs

Built for on and off-road performance, the rugged electric pickup features over 8″ (210 mm) of ground clearance with a wading depth of nearly 24″ (600 mm).

Although prices have not been announced, the D-MAX EV is expected to start slightly higher than the diesel model, which has a base price of around € 36,500 ($41,600).

Isuzu’s popular D-MAX is sold in over 100 countries, including Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Central and South America. The electric version will arrive in Europe in the next few months, followed by the UK and other regions in 2026.

The electric D-MAX will compete with the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger, and other electric pickups, such as Geely’s Radar R6, BYD’s Shark, and Ford’s F-150 Lightning.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Environment

Tesla insider buys stock for the first time in years and it’s hilarious

Published

on

By

Tesla insider buys stock for the first time in years and it's hilarious

For the first time in five years, a Tesla insider required to report Tesla stock transactions bought stocks rather than selling them.

But the transaction is so small that it makes the whole situation hilarious.

Insiders in public companies are top executives and board members who are required to report to the SEC any transaction related to the company’s stock.

For Tesla, it has become a running joke that insiders only sell, never buy the stock.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

This has been true without exception for years.

We don’t know as much about executives as Tesla has a very short top executive bench who are required to file transactions. However, when it comes to its board members, they have been selling at an impressive rate.

We recently reported on Kimball Musk, Elon’s brother, and Tesla’s Chief Financial Officer Taneja Vaibhav recently selling ahead of a recent drop in the company’s stock price.

Tesla’s chairwoman, Robyn Denholm, also sold $33 million worth of Tesla shares in February and over $100 million in the 3 months prior.

However, we now have confirmation that a Tesla board member is buying, rather than selling.

Joe Gebbia, the Airbnb co-founder who joined Tesla’s board in 2022, confirmed that he bought 4,000 shares in Tesla last week worth about $1 million:

Electrek’s Take

Gebbia is estimated to be worth over $7 billion. Therefore, his purchase of $1 million worth of Tesla stock would be equivalent to my buying a fractional share in Tesla.

Furthermore, the disclosure confirmed that despite being on the board for the last 3 years, Gebbia owned only 111 shares in Tesla before the transaction.

That’s quite the show of confidence in Tesla.

Thie whole situation with the board is disappointing. Tesla’s core business is melting. The company reported its worst quarter in years last week, and the stock surged 20%.

None of it makes any sense.

The board is sitting on its hands while the most powerful force accelerating the advent of electric transport is being destroyed in favor of nonsensical predictions about the potential of solving self-driving and humanoid robots.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Environment

Venmo revenue grows 20%, with debit card payment volume soaring

Published

on

By

Venmo revenue grows 20%, with debit card payment volume soaring

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Venmo, long a centerpiece of PayPal‘s growth story but often criticized for its lack of monetization, is becoming a bigger contributor to the business.

PayPal said Tuesday in its first-quarter earnings release that revenue at Venmo increased 20% year-over-year in the first quarter, though the company didn’t provide a dollar figure. PayPal acquired Venmo in 2013 through the acquisition of parent company Braintree.

While it’s long been a popular consumer service for sending money to friends, Venmo’s ability to drive meaningful revenue has been a major question mark for investors, especially as competition from rivals like Zelle and Square Cash has intensified.

Venmo’s total payment volume rose 10% from a year earlier, but revenue grew twice as fast, reflecting the business opportunity. Venmo only gets revenue from specific products like Pay with Venmo at online checkout, Venmo debit cards, and instant transfers, but not from peer-to-peer payments.

Read more about tech and crypto from CNBC Pro

Ahead of the earnings report, Jefferies analysts noted that Venmo revenue growth appeared to be “accelerating sharply” and flagged its rising contribution to branded checkout as a key area to watch. Compass Point analysts similarly said that while competition from Zelle and Square Cash remains fierce, Venmo’s traction with debit cards and online checkout could “open up new monetization avenues” if adoption trends continue.

The company added nearly 2 million first-time PayPal and Venmo debit card users during the quarter, and total debit card payment volume across PayPal and Venmo climbed more than 60%. Meanwhile, Pay with Venmo transaction volume surged 50% year over year, and Venmo debit card monthly active users grew about 40%.

PayPal reported better-than-expected earnings for the quarter but missed on revenue. The company reaffirmed its full-year guidance, citing macroeconomic uncertainty.

WATCH: PayPal CEO Alex Chriss: Huge opportunity to deliver to consumers and help small business

PayPal CEO Alex Chriss: Huge opportunity to deliver to consumers and help small business

Continue Reading

Trending