🚀 AI Factories Just Got Easier: Groundbreaking Collaboration from AMD and Schneider Electric!

[Elif Özaksu]

💡 A New Era for High-Density AI Infrastructure​

Schneider Electric and AMD have developed a validated reference design to simplify the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) factories. This engineering blueprint is designed for AI factories, enterprise data centers, and hyperscale computing environments that require integrated power, cooling, and IT infrastructure.

🤝 The Power of Collaboration: AMD and Schneider Electric​

This collaboration combines AMD's expertise in AI computing platforms with Schneider Electric's capabilities in power distribution, cooling systems, and digital infrastructure. As the power density of AI clusters increases, reliable infrastructure deployment requires coordinated engineering across computing, power, thermal management, and facility operations. The reference design offers a standardized approach to reduce engineering complexity and integration risks during deployment.

🛠️ Technical Solution and Responsibilities​

AMD provides its Helios rack-scale platform, which includes AMD Instinct MI455X GPUs, 6th Gen AMD EPYC processors, AMD Pensando Vulcano network interface cards, and the ROCm software ecosystem. Schneider Electric contributes to the physical infrastructure architecture, encompassing power distribution, liquid cooling technologies, digital infrastructure management, and facility design validation.

The reference design covers four technical areas: facility power, facility cooling, IT space planning, and lifecycle software management. Infrastructure modeling uses ETAP electrical system analysis and EcoStruxure IT Design computational fluid dynamics simulations to validate electrical and thermal performance before deployment. Digital Twin functionality supports infrastructure modeling and operational analysis, while AVEVA Unified Operations Centre provides centralized monitoring and operational visibility.

🚀 Deployment Strategy and Performance​

This reference design supports both new AI factory constructions and upgrades to existing data centers. It can accommodate modular AI clusters with IT loads up to 10.4 MW and rack power densities up to 246 kW.

The cooling architecture combines Motivair coolant distribution units with hybrid air and liquid cooling techniques capable of removing up to 84% of the generated heat. The design also targets a low Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) value of approximately 1.12 under full load operating conditions. Initial validation adheres to ANSI standards for US installations, with future support for IEC standards planned for international deployments.

🏭 Industrial Applications​

The reference design is ideal for hyperscale cloud providers, AI research facilities, enterprise AI infrastructure, and high-performance computing environments. By providing predefined electrical, thermal, and operational architectures, it helps engineers shorten planning cycles, improve infrastructure interoperability, and simplify the integration between computing hardware and facility systems.

Forrest Norrod from AMD stated, "AI infrastructure is rapidly evolving into full-scale AI factories, and this requires computing, networking, power, and cooling to be designed together from the start.