The computing demands of artificial intelligence continue to ramp up. And Nvidia is taking a bet on the need for new data centres as a consequence.
What’s happening:
- Data centre operator Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) has raised $160M USD in new funding from multiple strategic investors
- The financing round was led by chip making giant Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and prominent real estate development company Related Companies
Why it matters:
- Applied Digital is on the leading edge of building out data centre infrastructure that is purpose built for artificial intelligence workloads and is also currently in the process of constructing one of the largest data centres in the entire world
Going deeper:
- There has been a relentless surge in demand for data centres globally due to artificial intelligence cloud computing, which has led to technology giants such as Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) making record breaking commitments to the construction of new data centres and mega funding rounds for specialized GPU cloud providers such as CoreWeave
- Applied Digital has made significant breakthroughs in the design of their data centres, which don’t rely on fans for regulating the temperature of servers but instead use liquid cooling equipment that dissipates heat more efficiently than air from hardware operations
- Nvidia and Applied Digital already have an existing partnership prior to this new investment, as Applied Digital leases out Nvidia’s GPUs to venture backed artificial intelligence companies as part of their data centre operations
The intrigue:
- Both Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) have also been ramping up their investment into renewable energy sources to power their data centres, funding new deals for geothermal energy and solar energy
Market reaction:
- Shares of Applied Digital were up +65% following the announcement
