The picks and shovels of the AI gold rush
A couple of weeks ago, I flew to Turin to attend the Italian Tech Week conference where I interviewed VCs and founders on stage across several fireside chats and panels. The topics we were discussing sounded quite different on paper but, in the end, it often came down to the future of AI and Europe’s chances to be competitive in this space.
Aside from the usual considerations regarding homegrown companies that build foundational models — which we do have over here, albeit not at the same scale as in the US — there’s always a question of infrastructure. Data centres specifically tailored for AI applications seem to have become an industry in and of itself, and companies working on them are growing rapidly, not unlike the pick and shovel vendors in a gold rush.
One of my panelists in Turin was Chase Lochmiller, co-founder and CEO of US-based Crusoe, which has raised over $700mn to date. The company is capitalising on the trend of bringing data centres to places where energy is sustainable and cheap (or even free), starting with gas extraction sites where they use gas that’d otherwise be burned, or flared. Combined with a proprietary data centre architecture, this creates a very attractive offering for compute-hungry AI players.
We also have an interesting AI data centre player on this side of the Atlantic. Called Nebius, the Amsterdam-based company emerged from the European assets that remained under the control of the Russian-born businessman Arkady Volozh. A few months ago, he sold the Russian part of its internet behemoth Yandex and is now planning to invest $1bn in the AI data centre business across Europe.
Our senior editor Linnea Ahlgren went to Finland to see Nebius’ data centre that’s expected to house tens of thousands of highly sought-after Nvidia GPUs — while also providing heating to the nearby town with 21,000 inhabitants.
Take a look at the full story to learn more about the plans and challenges faced by Nebius and the industry as a whole. ??
Andrii Degeler Head of Media, TNW
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