Philippine broadband provider Converge ICT Solutions announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with US-based IT solutions provider Supermicro to help it build three 'green' AI data centres in the Philippines.
Under the MoU terms, Converge ICT will start construction of three data centres in Pampanga, Laguna, and Caloocan according to Supermicro’s design and input. That includes deployment of servers leveraging Nvidia GPUs capable of supporting generative AI applications such as a national large language model (LLM), smart manufacturing and video generators.
“Supermicro’s servers provide exceptional AI computing capabilities and intensive deep learning tasks that will allow us to support and deploy many AI applications,” said Converge CEO and co-founder Dennis Anthony Uy in a statement.
Uy added that the new data centres will also incorporate Supermicro’s liquid cooling solutions in its servers that will significantly reduce power consumption, resulting in lower overall data centre cost and less impact on the environment.
“These high-performing servers can handle immense AI and machine learning workloads but with the more efficient liquid cooling solution provided by Supermicro, the heat by-product will be controlled, reducing power consumption,” Uy said in a statement. “We want to maintain our data centre’s energy efficiency, so this is geared towards that.”
Supermicro claims that data centre servers using liquid-cooling technology can lower the overall power consumption of a power facility by up to 40%.
In recent weeks, various media reports have focused on the impact of the growing global data centre boom on power consumption, especially with demand for data centres being driven by compute-intensive apps like AI and cryptocurrencies. The International Energy Agency (IEA) issued a report in January 2024 saying data centers consumed 460TWh of electricity in 2022 – accounting for 2% of the world’s electricity supply – and could eat up as much as 1,000TWh or more by 2026.
On Wednesday, Google revealed that its own data centres accounted for an estimated 7-10% of global data centre electricity consumption in 2023. Even worse, Google said its greenhouse gas emissions have spiked 48% over the past five years partly as a result of data centre power consumption, which has actually put the tech giant in danger of missing its net zero goals.
The Philippines is one of several countries across Southeast Asia aiming to become regional data centre hubs. At the start of the year, Converge ICT said it had earmarked PHP5 billion (US$85.2 million) over the next three years to develop data centres in the country.