Chipmaker Nvidia and a group of US energy companies say they can unlock up to 100 gigawatts of additional power capacity by building AI data centres that respond dynamically to grid conditions.
Nvidia announced the initiative at CERAWeek, the annual energy industry conference in Houston, alongside partners including Emerald AI, AES, Constellation, Invenergy, NextEra Energy, Nscale Energy & Power and Vistra.
The project centres on a new reference design called the Vera Rubin DSX AI Factory, which pairs Nvidia's computing hardware with software that allows data centres to flex their power consumption up or down depending on grid stress.
Central to the approach is a software tool called DSX Flex, developed by Nvidia, which enables data centres to draw on co-located power generation and battery storage as a bridge before a full grid connection is established, potentially accelerating the time it takes to bring new facilities online.
Emerald AI, a grid software company, will contribute its Conductor platform to coordinate the data centre's electricity use alongside onsite generators, batteries and other behind-the-meter assets, while ensuring that AI workloads continue uninterrupted.
The partners say this design could allow data centres to provide services back to the grid during periods of high demand, rather than acting solely as large passive consumers of electricity.
"AI factories are too valuable to be treated as either passive loads or permanent islands," said Varun Sivaram, founder and chief executive of Emerald AI.
Related reading
- From Vera Rubins, Blackwell, Nemotron, NemoClaw, to Isaac and Cosmos - here's a whistlestop guide to NVIDIA's…
- Samsung and AMD sign memory partnership deal to power next generation of AI chips
- Nordic Semiconductor expands 'ultra low power' AI chip lineup
Jensen Huang, founder and chief executive of Nvidia, framed the effort as a fundamental shift in how AI infrastructure is conceived: "Energy, compute, networking and cooling as one architecture."
The companies ran early demonstrations across five commercial data centres and expect DSX Flex to reach commercial deployment later this year at the Nvidia AI Factory Research Center in Virginia.
The recap
- NVIDIA and Emerald AI partner with six energy companies
- Collaboration aims to unlock up to 100 gigawatts capacity
- DSX Flex trials at five data centers; Virginia deployment planned
