#ai-datacenter-power

#ai-datacenter-power

"In agentic environments, agents mutate state across data, systems, and configurations in ways that compound fast and are hard to trace," says Pranay Ahlawat, Chief Technology and AI Officer at Commvault.

Power, rather than compute, is fast becoming the limiting factor in scaling AI data centers. That shift has prompted Peak XV Partners to back C2i Semiconductors, an Indian startup building plug-and-play, system-level power solutions designed to cut energy losses and improve the economics of large-scale AI infrastructure. C2i (which stands for control conversion and intelligence) has raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Peak XV Partners, with participation from Yali Deeptech and TDK Ventures, bringing the two-year-old startup's total funding to $19 million.

Data centers drive climate change by burning fossil fuels, using large amounts of electricity, and requiring up to five million gallons of water a day to fuel cooling systems. Research has shown these facilities can harm the health of local residents through air and noise pollution, while providing minimal long-term job stimulus.

Constructing datacenters accounts for 39 percent of their total carbon dioxide emissions, almost as much as operating them, according to an environmental analysis covering the entire lifecycle of a facility. The finding comes from a white paper published by European datacenter operator Data4, which conducted a lifecycle assessment (LCA) of one of its own facilities with the assistance of design and engineering consultants APL Data Center.