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The backwash is on for better chips and information center electrical capacity to address AI workload , but all that bodily process come with a snatch . expectant processing power means hotness — a fate of it — and that has massive significance , both for how well servers work and the environment .
With traditional cooling methods like gentle wind and water failing to keep up with demand , inauguration with Modern approaches are see their star rise . Among them is Barcelona - basedSubmer , which just evoke $ 55.5 million at a evaluation of half a billion dollar bill to surmount its business : a arrangement where entire racks are submerged in , and lock out of , vessel meet with proprietary , biodegradable , non - conducting coolant that carbon monoxide - father Pol Valls compare to an “ amnionic fluid . ”Some modelsalso give substance abuser the alternative of capturing heat from their own cooling process to use for other purposes like heating building .
Submer ’s business is already at a steady boil . Valls , who co - founded the company with CTO Daniel Pope , state that its customers include at least one of the mankind ’s biggest and best - known “ hyperscalers , ” which operates a routine of data centers ; telecommunication companies like Telefonica ; corporates like ExxonMobil ; administration bodies like theEuropean Commission ; and major research centers . ( Valls , who is the troupe ’s CFO , declined to give several names on the phonograph record . )
Because of that list and the current pipeline in discourse , this round — an all - fairness Series C led by M&G , with previous backer Planet First Partners and Norrsken VC also participate alongside new investor Mundi Ventures — is get in at a valuation of about $ 500 million post - money . It ’s also leave behind the alternative open to kindle more in the daily round .
The challenge that Submer is tackling is partially technical and partly one of cost and imagination consumption .
Put simply , the data center industry is already a major energy hog , and AI is leading it to the trough .
Estimates from theInternational Energy Agencyput data center pulmonary tuberculosis at 460TWh in 2022 ( the latest figure of speech available ) , which works out at between 1 % and 2 % of global energy consumption . The IEA predicts this could more than double to 1,000TWh by 2026 , “ roughly equivalent to the electricity pulmonary tuberculosis of Japan , ” it writes .
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Meanwhile , a research newspaper fromGoldman Sachsfrom May take down that on mediocre , a ChatGPT search “ needs nearly 10 times as much electricity to work as a Google search . ” The paper portend that datum sum power demand will develop 160 % by 2030 . Otherresearchershave pointed to the “ raise carbon footmark ” of AI and the trillion of cubic meters of water that are needed to cool these data point centers .
That is where Submer ’s engineering comes to bear . As we havepreviously recounted , Valls and Pope come at the idea of building a better overture to data center chilling because of Pope ’s former experience in running data sum and Valls ’ programming expertise . Valls could see that the pace of engineering would demand more processing power over time , and Pope knew the limitations of datum centers .
They turned to a internet of retired industrial engineers and textile scientists to help prepare the merchandise , which include acoolant — a proprietary , non - flammable , biodegradable , man-made potpourri that has the viscousness of pee , Valls say — and a smart container where waiter single-foot could be set up and manoeuvre .
These sidereal day , Submer offers arangeof immersion fluids and container , and in some poser , the piddle cooling system that keeps the coolant cool can be ladder through a warmth exchanger to in twist be re - used , for example , to heat a building .
The road has n’t always been smooth for the startup . In 2016 , feeling optimistic about what it had built , the distich applied but got turn down from Y Combinator .
At that sentence , Submer ’s ware might have indeed search like an commonplace solution for a very unglamourous byplay . It pack the plosion of computation in recent eld — first propelledby the rapid migration of covering to the cloud and now more recently the AI boom — to really rivet manufacture judgment and ram business ahead for the caller .
Now the company is make an ecosystem , Valls said , where server component company are interested enough in what Submer has that they are build parts that will be compatible with Submer ’s solution .
“ We have agreements with the major waiter OEMs , ” Valls said . “ It attend a mess of time and effort but we are scaling these and it ’s becoming easier and soft . ” Its rake is pretty elementary , he said . “ We show the information . It extends the lifespan of the servers and there are no particles , no dust , and no noise . ” These mate include the likes of Dell , Supermicro , Intel , and more .
PerPitchbook , the startup , which has now raised around $ 100 million ( includingthis roundwe cut through in 2020 ) , is currently a standout among its peers in terms of money raised and valuation . Others taking the liquid - root glide path include Icetope in the U.K and two startups out of Texas . One , LiquidStack , announcedfundingfrom Tiger Global only a duad of weeks ago . The other , Green Revolution Cooling , is backed by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Defense .
The task forward for Submer will be to get more partners and client signed up . It ’s celebrated that the company recently appointed a new chief operating officer with considerable corporate experience . Patrick Smets , who ab initio joined Submer in August 2023 as the COO , came in as CEO in January 2024 .
