Intel announces $700 million investment in data center sustainability

Intel announced two new investments in its continuing efforts to create more sustainable data center technology solutions. First, Intel unveiled plans to invest more than $700 million for a 200,000-square-foot, state-of-the art research and development mega lab focused on innovative data center technologies and addressing areas such as heating, cooling and water usage. Additionally, Intel introduced the technology industry’s first open intellectual property (open IP) immersion liquid cooling solution and reference design. With the initial design proof of concept initiated in Taiwan, Intel aims to simplify and accelerate the implementation of immersion liquid cooling solutions throughout the ecosystem globally.

These two investments represent Intel’s continued efforts to bring together the technology ecosystem to address critical global environmental issues.

The new mega lab will be focused on areas such as immersion cooling, water usage effectiveness and heat recapture and reuse. Construction on the lab will begin this year at the Jones Farm campus in Hillsboro, Oregon, with opening expected in late 2023. Additionally, the lab will qualify, test and enable Intel’s portfolio of data center products including Intel® Xeon®, Intel® Optane™, network interfaces and switch gear, Intel® Agilex™ FPGAs, Xe architecture, Habana accelerators and future products under development. The lab will also host an advanced technology showcase for customers and partners to observe and test Intel products in a variety of data center environments in the lab, in an effort to accelerate adoption of these new technologies throughout the ecosystem.

The industry’s first open IP data center immersion liquid cooling solution and reference design is an open, easy-to-deploy and easily scalable total cooling solution. It will allow partners to accelerate the introduction of Intel solutions in response to the trend of increasing data center power density to enhance operational efficiency. The initial solution and design proof of concept will be completed in partnership with Intel Taiwan and across the Taiwanese ecosystem in a phased approach, with plans to scale out globally.

Data centers represent approximately 1% of the global electricity demand and account for about 0.3% of global carbon emissions.

CT Bureau