Major Tech Firms Lead Trillion-Dollar Surge in Generative AI Spending
USA News Group Commentary
Issued on behalf of Avant Technologies Inc.
VANCOUVER, BC, July 30, 2024 /CNW/ -- Large tech companies have ramped up their spending on developing generative artificial intelligence (genAI), banking on big financial returns in the future. According to a report from Goldman Sachs, these tech giants are set to spend over $1 trillion on AI capex in coming years, generating more and more costs along the way. Another major private-equity firm, Blackstone Inc. (NYSE: BX), is betting on the AI surge to continue, predicting double that of Goldman Sachs, by including another $1 trillion in capital expenditures outside of the United States. Behind the scenes are several developers facilitating this push, providing new AI infrastructure solutions to tech giants and clients, including from Avant Technologies Inc. (OTCQB: AVAI), Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE: VRT), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Lumen Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: LUMN).
Among the biggest issues facing the AI revolution is excess power consumption from GenAI, and the demand that's put on the put on the aging US power grid. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global data centre electricity consumption could double by 2026.
One of the solutions being presented is being presented by Avant Technologies Inc. (OTCQB: AVAI) which recently updated its plans for state-of-the-art facilities equipped with immersible AI supercomputer servers—which not only offer superior processing power, but also allow for faster and more efficient data analysis.
Now Avant is gaining more momentum with its plans, having recently entered an Equity Financing Agreement with leading private investment and management group GHS Investments, which has agreed to purchase up to $20 million in registered Avant common stock. As per the agreement, the timing and amounts of the purchases will be determined at the sole discretion of Avant.
"This relationship with GHS serves as an insurance policy, of sorts, as we continue our efforts to deliver infrastructure solutions to AI and big data companies, organizations, and institutions," said Kenneth L. Waggoner, CEO of Avant. "It also covers us as we begin to explore broadening our footprint in the technology sector beyond AI. The equity line from GHS offers Avant the necessary capital should it become necessary."
GHS has made investments into multiple successful portfolio companies in the small cap space that are seeking capital to measurably grow and scale their existing businesses to take advantage of emerging market sectors.
Avant's latest offering targets unmet needs in the AI and big data industry while addressing sustainability and infrastructure concerns. The company pioneers distributed submerged infrastructure solutions, using high-performance immersible computer servers to tackle complex digital challenges and ensure green energy facilities for the communities they serve.
With the rapid development of data centers, communities are frustrated by their size and power demands. Avant provides cost-effective, energy-efficient, high-density supercomputing solutions tailored to AI and big data needs while maintaining eco-friendliness.
Avant's high-density cloud infrastructure meets the growing performance and storage needs of clients in SaaS, AI, machine learning, and big data across industries. They plan to construct numerous smaller data centers nationwide. Data centers are major energy consumers, with a hyperscaler's center using as much power as 80,000 households. Avant's approach ensures efficient and scalable solutions.
Efficient cooling, a critical factor in data center profitability, accounts for about 40% of energy consumption. Avant leverages advanced cooling and energy efficiency technologies to reduce costs for clients and maintain energy efficiency.
As part of this initiative, Avant recently signed a Binding Letter of Intent (BLOI) with Flow Wave, LLC (FW), a leading Florida-based firm specializing in immersible computer server technology. This agreement allows Avant to acquire up to 50 state-of-the-art immersible computer servers from FW in a transaction valued at $50 million.
Seemingly quite bullish on the AI revolution, asset manager Blackstone Inc. (NYSE: BX) has $70 billion worth of prospective data center pipeline in the works, on top of its current data center portfolio of $55 billion, that includes facilities already under construction.
"Current expectations are that there will be approximately $1 trillion of capital expenditures in the United States over the next five years to build and facilitate new data centers, with another $1 trillion of capital expenditures outside the United States," said Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone. "The need to provide power for these data centers is a major contributor to an expected 40 percent increase in electricity demand in the United States over the next decade compared to minimal growth in the last decade."
One way that Blackstone is addressing the power grid concerns was the acquisition of Trystar, a premier provider of electrical equipment for backup power solutions.
In particular, Trystar designs and manufactures critical electrical power solutions for data centers and other utility end markets. Blackstone sees Trystar's product offerings helping to ensure power reliability, which is of increasing importance amidst the energy transition.
"We're thrilled to be partnering with the Trystar management team to drive the next phase of growth for the company," said Bilal Khan, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone Energy Transition Partners. "Building on our track record of energy transition investments, we look forward to leveraging Blackstone's global scale and deep domain expertise to further enhance Trystar's market position."
Another developer making progress is Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE: VRT), which recently launched a high-density modular data center offering for AI, dubbed the MegaMod CoolChip, which aims to help bring capacity for AI online as much as 50% faster than standard on-site construction.
"MegaMod CoolChip is a fully equipped critical digital infrastructure solution that customers can deploy quickly, and with confidence," said Viktor Petik, vice president of Vertiv infrastructure solutions. "Factory assembly and testing in a controlled environment help to accelerate the time to build, as well as providing control over cost and schedules. The addition of this solution to our portfolio provides more flexibility to successfully accelerate AI."
Vertiv engineers have leveraged their expertise in prefabricated solutions and AI deployment needs to develop the Vertiv™ MegaMod™ CoolChip solutions, designed to meet ongoing evolving AI requirements.
Recently, tech giant Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) launched a partnership with telecommunications specialists Lumen Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: LUMN). The partnership will incorporate the Microsoft Cloud to further drive Lumen's digital transformation, while Microsoft has also tapped Lumen to expand its network capacity and capability to meet the growing demand on its datacenters due to AI.
"Microsoft has an ambitious vision for AI and this level of innovation requires a network that can make it reality," said Kate Johnson, president and CEO, Lumen Technologies. "Lumen's expansive network meets this challenge, with unique routes, unmatched coverage, and a digital platform built to give companies the flexibility, access and security they need to create an AI-enabled world."
Prior to this collaboration, Microsoft and Lumen Technologies had already built a longstanding relationship. Both companies have worked together for several years, with Lumen leveraging Copilot to automate routine tasks and reduce employee workloads and enhance Microsoft Teams.
By adopting Microsoft's cloud and AI technology, Lumen can lower its technology costs, eliminate legacy systems and silos, enhance its offerings, and develop new solutions for its global customers.
Lumen will migrate and modernize its workloads to Microsoft Azure, utilize Microsoft Entra solutions to secure access and prevent identity attacks, and collaborate with Microsoft to develop new telecom industry-specific solutions. This initiative alone is expected to boost Lumen's cash flow by over $20 million in the next 12 months while enhancing the company's customer experience.
"Lumen has the network infrastructure and the digital capabilities needed to help support Azure's mission in creating a reliable and scalable platform that supports the breadth of customer workloads—from general purpose and mission-critical, to cloud-native, high-performance computing, and AI, plus what's on the horizon," said Erin Chapple, corporate vice president of Azure Core Product and Design, Microsoft. "Our work with Lumen is emblematic of our investments in our own cloud infrastructure, which delivers for today and for the long term to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more."
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