As emissions from artificial intelligence-related infrastructure continue to rise, Amazon is planning to deploy a new material in its data centers that will eliminate carbon.
The material was designed and improved by artificial intelligence itself – a development Amazon describes as “breaking new ground in carbon removal efficacy” in press release.
The carbon filter “acts like a sponge at the atomic level,” said Jonathan Godwin, CEO of Orbital Materials, the climate technology startup that developed the material.
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“Each cavity in the sponge has an opening of a specific size that interacts well with carbon dioxide but not with other substances,” Godwin said.
As part of a three-year partnership with Orbital, Amazon's web services arm, AWS, will deploy the novel material in a data center starting in 2025.
Orbital uses open source artificial intelligence models to simulate advanced materials.
“Traditionally, developing new advanced materials has been a slow process of trial and error in the laboratory. Orbital replaces this design with generative artificial intelligence design, radically increasing the speed and efficiency of materials discovery and commercialization of new technologies. ,” Amazon said in its press release.
The carbon “sponge” uses a proprietary active material, and Orbital has used artificial intelligence to improve its performance 10 times since work began in the first quarter of 2024, the company said.
Amazon says this is “an order of magnitude faster than traditional development,” noting that developing new carbon-removing materials has proven to be a slow trial-and-error process so far.
The race to reach net zero emissions
Data center needs increase energy Maintain AI development and provide more water to keep cool. This poses a challenge for companies such as Amazon, which has pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
At the same time, using new materials will also bring some cost benefits to Amazon. The cost of renting a GPU chip to train a powerful AI is estimated to be equivalent to 10% of the hourly rate. That’s a fraction of the price of purchasing carbon offsets, Godwin said.
Amazon and Orbital did not specify the financial terms of the arrangement.
But Amazon said the deal would include providing access to Orbital's artificial intelligence models to AWS customers working on advanced materials and technologies such as semiconductors, batteries and electronics.
AWS will also work with Orbital to “design, synthesize and test new technologies and advanced materials for integrated carbon removal, wafer cooling and water utilization in data centers.”
- Reuters, with additional editing and input by Vishakha Saxena
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