{"id":6021,"date":"2025-05-18T13:24:43","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T05:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/inside-the-secret-ev-tech-powering-googles-monster-ai-data-centers-with-400vdc-and-liquid-cooling\/"},"modified":"2025-05-18T13:24:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T05:24:43","slug":"inside-the-secret-ev-tech-powering-googles-monster-ai-data-centers-with-400vdc-and-liquid-cooling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/inside-the-secret-ev-tech-powering-googles-monster-ai-data-centers-with-400vdc-and-liquid-cooling\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the secret EV tech powering Google\u2019s monster AI data centers with 400VDC and liquid cooling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/EbMTEZ2t8kCVHLuSGJUXbg.png\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<hr\/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Liquid cooling isn&#8217;t optional anymore, it&#8217;s the only way to survive AI&#8217;s thermal onslaught<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The jump to 400VDC borrows heavily from electric vehicle supply chains and design logic<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Google\u2019s TPU supercomputers now run at gigawatt scale with 99.999% uptime<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr\/>\n<p>As demand for artificial intelligence workloads intensifies, the physical infrastructure of <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/pro\/best-data-center-proxies\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/pro\/best-data-center-proxies\">data centers<\/a> is undergoing rapid and radical transformation.<\/p>\n<p>The likes of Google, <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/tag\/microsoft\" data-auto-tag-linker=\"true\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/tag\/microsoft\">Microsoft<\/a>, and Meta are now drawing on technologies initially developed for electric vehicles (EVs), particularly 400VDC systems, to address the dual challenges of high-density power delivery and thermal management.<\/p>\n<aside data-block-type=\"embed\" data-render-type=\"fte\" data-skip=\"dealsy\" data-widget-type=\"seasonal\" class=\"hawk-base\"\/>\n<p>The emerging vision is of data center racks capable of delivering up to 1 megawatt of power, paired with liquid cooling systems engineered to manage the resulting heat.<\/p>\n<aside data-component-name=\"Recirculation:ArticleRiver\" data-nosnippet=\"\">\n<span class=\"bg-secondary-500 text-white text-lg font-bold uppercase py-1 px-2 leading-[1.625rem] sm:leading-[6px] sm:text-sm\"><br \/>\nYou may like<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<h2 id=\"borrowing-ev-technology-for-data-center-evolution-3\">Borrowing EV technology for data center evolution<\/h2>\n<p>The shift to 400VDC power distribution marks a decisive break from legacy systems. Google previously championed the industry&#8217;s move from 12VDC to 48VDC, but the current transition to +\/-400VDC is being enabled by EV supply chains and propelled by necessity.<\/p>\n<p>The Mt. Diablo initiative, supported by Meta, Microsoft, and the Open Compute Project (OCP), aims to standardize interfaces at this voltage level.<\/p>\n<p>Google says this architecture is a pragmatic move that frees up valuable rack space for compute resources by decoupling power delivery from IT racks via AC-to-DC sidecar units. It also improves efficiency by approximately 3%.<\/p>\n<p>Cooling, however, has become an equally pressing issue. With next-generation chips consuming upwards of 1,000 watts each, traditional air cooling is rapidly becoming obsolete.<\/p>\n<div id=\"slice-container-newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-APjf9jwgSNN4P42TK5Q97S\" class=\"slice-container newsletter-inbodyContent-slice newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-APjf9jwgSNN4P42TK5Q97S slice-container-newsletterForm\">\n<div data-hydrate=\"true\" class=\"newsletter-form__wrapper newsletter-form__wrapper--inbodyContent\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-form__container\">\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__top-bar\"\/>\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__main-section\">\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Liquid cooling has emerged as the only scalable solution for managing heat in high-density compute environments.<\/p>\n<p>Google has embraced this approach with full-scale deployments; its liquid-cooled TPU pods now operate at gigawatt scale and have delivered 99.999% uptime over the past seven years.<\/p>\n<p>These systems have replaced large heatsinks with compact cold plates, effectively halving the physical footprint of server hardware and quadrupling compute density compared to previous generations.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, despite these technical achievements, skepticism is warranted. The push toward 1MW racks is based on the assumption of continuously rising demand, a trend that may not materialize as expected.<\/p>\n<p>While Google&#8217;s roadmap highlights AI&#8217;s growing power needs &#8211; projecting more than 500 kW per rack by 2030 &#8211; it remains uncertain whether these projections will hold across the broader market.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also worth noting that the integration of EV-related technologies into data centers brings not only efficiency gains but also new complexities, particularly concerning safety and serviceability at high voltages.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, the collaboration between hyperscalers and the open hardware community signals a shared recognition that existing paradigms are no longer sufficient.<\/p>\n<p>Via <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/inside-googles-plan-to-deliver-1mw-racks-and-cool-them-too\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/inside-googles-plan-to-deliver-1mw-racks-and-cool-them-too\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\"><em>Storagereview<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"article-body__section\" id=\"section-you-might-also-like\"><span>You might also like<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liquid cooling isn&#8217;t optional anymore, it&#8217;s the only way to survive AI&#8217;s thermal onslaught The jump to 400VDC borrows heavily from electric vehicle supply chains and design logic Google\u2019s TPU supercomputers now run at gigawatt scale with 99.999% uptime As demand for artificial intelligence workloads intensifies, the physical infrastructure of data centers is undergoing rapid [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}