cover of episode Saving the Planet with Better AI Data Centers (with Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller)

Saving the Planet with Better AI Data Centers (with Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller)

2023/8/14
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Crusoe Energy 致力于将计算的未来与气候的未来相结合，通过利用石油和天然气生产过程中产生的废弃能源（例如燃气排放）来为其高性能计算数据中心提供动力，从而降低能源成本并减少碳排放。该公司专注于高能耗的 AI 计算应用，而非像 AWS、GCP 和 Azure 等大型云提供商那样提供全面的服务。Crusoe Energy 的数据中心采用先进的冷却技术，例如冷板和浸没式冷却，以管理高密度机架产生的热量。该公司还利用 RDMA 和 InfiniBand 技术构建高性能数据中心网络，以提高 AI 训练效率。Crusoe Energy 的数据中心选址偏远地区，利用高带宽、低延迟网络技术满足 AI 训练和推理的需求。通过垂直整合制造数据中心基础设施，Crusoe Energy 降低了成本并提高了效率。该公司还扩展其业务，将数据中心部署到风能等其他可再生能源设施，以优化能源利用并减少碳排放。Crusoe Energy 的混合融资模式，既有风险投资，也有资产支持融资，使其能够在不稀释股权的情况下扩展业务。

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Crusoe Energy uses computing infrastructure to mitigate flaring by capturing waste gas and converting it into usable energy for AI data centers, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Shownotes Transcript

We sit down with Crusoe Energy CEO Chase Lochmiller to talk about the two “hard to imagine” tasks they’ve undertaken: 1) building a new AI cloud infrastructure provider from scratch, and 2) colocating and powering it with stranded energy from some of the harshest and most remote locations on earth.

Crusoe’s cloud of course has to compete with (and in many cases exceed) the price/performance curves of cloud incumbents like AWS, Azure and Google in processing AI workloads. And the way it does so is by building data centers literally on top of oil flares (and other wasted energy sources) that otherwise comprise multiple percentage points of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. In other words — methane that previously just got lit on fire is now powering your favorite AI startup’s training workloads!

We cover what it actually takes to build and operate a public cloud, the latest Nvidia networking and server innovations and what they mean for GPU data centers, and how to set up a company to pursue something “hard” like this across the team, operations and capital raising fronts. Tune in!

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