A new company led by former members of the Trump administration is hoping to make artificial intelligence big by going small.
The AI sector is currently at a stalemate over data centers. AI companies need the processing power to be faster and faster in the highly competitive market. Residents of towns in which data centers are planned fight them tooth and nail over potential environmental and quality-of-life issues, as well as the drain on the local power grid.
Three former Energy Department staffers believe a different approach could work, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The concept behind a company they founded called Mavria is to make modular data centers, which are individually smaller units than the massive centers currently on the drawing boards.
The company has reached a $1 billion valuation as it approaches the first tests of its products next year.
Adam Blake, Nick Poradek and Seth Cohen met while working on nuclear energy issues at the Energy Department.
“Our power infrastructure, manufacturing capacity and supply chains are nowhere near ready to meet the demand from AI,” Blake said, calling that a “strategic vulnerability”
