HPE CEO Touts Direct Liquid Cooling Technology for AI Data Centers, Nvidia Blackwell GPUs

Cloud service providers (CSPs) and data center customers are seeking energy-efficient ways to run generative AI workloads -- especially in anticipation of Nvidia Blackwell GPUs in late 2024 or early 2025. Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Antonio Neri (pictured above) believes HPE can answer that call for help.

First, some context: Electricity consumption from data centers, artificial intelligence (AI) and the cryptocurrency sector could double by 2026, according to an International Energy Agency report. That's why everyone from Microsoft to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is investing in renewable energy startups and/or data center technology that improves energy efficiency.

HPE Touts Direct Liquid Cooling for AI Data Centers: Details

One potential solution involves direct liquid cooling, HPE asserts. Indeed, four of the world's 10 fastest supercomputers involve HPE's direct liquid cooled technology. And HPE has built seven of the world's top 10 energy efficient systems, according to the latest Green 500 list, Neri told Wall Street analysts during the company's Q2 2024 earnings call on June 4.

For additional context, Neri described how HPE supports three different ways to cool systems. The options, he said, include:

1. The traditional way, which is called the liquid-to-air cooling -- though "everybody has done that for a long time," he conceded.
2. The second is what Neri calls "70% direct liquid cooling or hybrid liquid cooling. Those companies still use fans to cool aspects of the systems. Some of our competitors talk about direct liquid cooling, but that's exactly what they're doing, and they are doing only a hybrid direct liquid cooling." In this area, HPE has 10 systems in market.
3. The third is what Neri calls "100% direct liquid cooling. And this is a unique differentiation HPE has because we have been doing 100% direct liquid cooling for a long time. And today, there are six systems in deployment, and three of them are for generative AI."

When CSPs and data center customers begin to shift to Nvidia Blackwell GPUs and the B200, "that will require 100% direct liquid cooling," Neri asserted.

HPE and Sustainable IT Services: Partner Strategy, Startup Investments

HPE executives mentioned power and energy efficiency several times during the earnings call, but Neri did not go into specific details about HPE and potential energy efficiency benefits over rivals. Nor did HPE mention sustainable IT services or channel partner strategies during the call.

Still, HPE has a sustainability strategy, led by CSO Monica Batchelder, that extends to customers and partners. Recent moves include investing in Greenly, which develops carbon accounting software for small and midsize businesses. Greenly's software as an opportunity to assist enterprise customers with sustainable IT infrastructure initiatives.

So what's next? The answers will likely emerge at the HPE Discover 2024 conference, which is scheduled for June 17-19 in Las Vegas, Nevada. More than 17,000 customers and partners are expected to attend a keynote in The Sphere, Neri said.