NVIDIA Collaborates with ABB and Hitachi Energy to Power Next-Gen AI Data Centers

Computer chip and processing unit manufacturer NVIDIA will collaborate with global energy technology giants such as ABB and Hitachi Energy on work creating new power solutions for the expected rise of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers around the world.

The need to energize these future gigawatt-scale data computing facilities is creating a rush to develop new power generation both inside and outside the electric utility model. Some industry forecasters are predicting the need for more than 120 GW of new power to match digital infrastructure by the early 2030s.

Under this new collaboration, ABB will engage its expertise in direct current (DC) and solid-state electronics to support NVIDIA’s 800 VDC architecture. Future data center power architectures will combine a medium voltage (MV) uninterruptible power supply (UPS) with direct current (DC) power distribution to the server room using solid-state power electronics devices, the companies say.

“ABB is leading the development of the key new power distribution technologies that will create the next generation of data centers. We have been an early investor in the cutting-edge UPS, DC and solid-state electronics that will enable data centers to stay ahead of AI’s growing power demands,” said Giampiero Frisio, President of ABB Electrification, in a statement. “This collaboration supporting the development of 800 VDC architectures for future data centers is one of the many ways we are engaging with the data center community to serve the needs of this dynamic market.”

NVIDIA’s delivery of AI-enabled processing units and chip technology has elevated the company into one of the world’s hotly traded stocks. The rise of AI workloads, which has driven a host of newly announced projects across multiple power generation resources, is also increasing data center power demand.

NVIDIA is anticipating the shift from kilowatt-scale racks to megawatt-scale in future AI-enabled factories. The company’s 800 VDC data center power infrastructure is being designed to handle 1-MW racks and even larger capacity by 2027.

This expansion will require larger capacity power distribution technology.

"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, HPC, Cloud and AI Infrastructure at NVIDIA. “Through our collaboration, NVIDIA and ABB are supporting the industry in advancing toward 800 volt architectures that will enable the high-density AI infrastructure needed to fuel the next generation of AI."

The processing chip giant also is teaming up with Hitachi Energy on next-gen power architecture for AI data centers. The Hitachi collaboration also is centered around support for powering 800 VDC rack design and streamlining how electricity flowers from the grid into servers.

"As the energy arm of the Hitachi Group, Hitachi Energy brings over a century of expertise in grid technologies and power electronics to this collaboration," Jun Taniguchi, CEO of the Strategic SIB Business Unit at Hitachi, said in a statement. "Through our wider focus on the data center industry, the Hitachi Group's combined expertise enables clean and sustainable development of the AI factories of the future."

Leadership within the U.S. government certainly is promoting the need to grow both AI computing technology and the power needed to energize it. Three months ago, the Trump Administration issued an executive order which revoked earlier government guardrail policies on AI technology development and pushed for accelerating methods of leading the U.S. to global dominance in AI.

“Whoever has the largest AI ecosystem will set global AI standards and reap broad economic and military benefits,” reads the July 23 executive order. “Just like we won the space race, it is imperative that the United States and its allies win this race.”

Many AI and digital infrastructure observers have crowned NVIDIA as the world’s leading developer of processing unit and chip technologies. Competitors such as China’s Huawei are also investing heavily to speed that nation’s pace in AI development.

Japan's Hitachi Energy also is investing at least $1 billion to build out more AI infrastructure in the U.S.