2 weeks Ago By Firstpost
Amazon is taking a futuristic step in its sustainability efforts by piloting an AI-designed material to reduce carbon emissions from its energy-intensive data centres. The innovative carbon-removal substance, created by the startup Orbital Materials, acts like a “sponge at the atomic level,” specifically trapping CO2 while leaving other gases untouched. The project is set to launch in 2025 at one Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centre, aligning with the company’s goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
This breakthrough comes as data centres, especially those powering advanced AI systems, increasingly strain energy resources and require significant water for cooling. With AWS being the largest cloud-computing provider globally, Amazon’s adoption of such sustainable technologies highlights its commitment to tackling the environmental impact of its operations while fostering innovation. The carbon-filtering material, developed by Orbital Materials, showcases the power of artificial intelligence in materials science.
Using AI to simulate and design the substance, the material’s intricate sponge-like structure enables highly efficient CO2 capture. While Godwin, Orbital’s CEO, likens its operation to atomic-level precision, the cost of implementation remains attractive. The material is estimated to add only 10 per cent to the hourly cost of renting a GPU chip, a fraction of the expense of traditional carbon offsets.
Orbital, with labs in Princeton and London, has been synthesising AI-simulated substances for about a year. Backed by Radical Ventures and Nvidia’s venture arm, the startup aims to use AI not only for carbon removal but also to develop solutions for water conservation and chip cooling in data centres. AWS’s collaboration with Orbital forms part of a three-year partnership to integrate the startup’s open-source AI technology into its ecosystem.
While financial details remain undisclosed, AWS has confirmed its commitment to fostering sustainable innovation through partnerships like these. For Amazon, this initiative also addresses the challenge of managing the escalating environmental demands of AI development while staying aligned with its sustainability targets. The pilot project could serve as a blueprint for broader adoption of AI-designed materials across Amazon’s infrastructure.
If successful, it might inspire other tech giants to explore similar collaborations. With data centres at the heart of AI’s rapid expansion, initiatives like this demonstrate how cutting-edge technology can mitigate its own environmental footprint, marking a key step in the tech industry’s journey toward greener operations..
