Global engineering company ABB expects strong growth in data centre construction across the UAE and Saudi Arabia as it develops next-generation infrastructure through a partnership with US chipmaker Nvidia.
“We’re partnering a lot on the data centre build-out, with some of the large announced projects as well as with key players,” ABB president and group chief executive Morten Wierod told The National in an interview in Dubai.
He declined to mention specifics of its work on these projects.
The Zurich-based company said in October that it would be advancing development of gigawatt-scale data centres that use 800-volt direct current architecture to power 1 megawatt server racks.
This means ABB-Nvidia data centres will use direct current rather than alternating current to power individual server racks, which supports artificial intelligence processing.
The new generation rack will draw up to 1MW power each, which is 10 times more than current capacity, making them more energy efficient. ABB and Nvidia plan to deploy this technology worldwide by 2028 as the chips are currently under development, Mr Wierod said.
“This is not just about chips,” he said. “When the architecture of the chip changes, everything before it has to change − the racks, power distribution units, incoming power to the data centre."
Data centres account for around 7 per cent of ABB’s global revenue. It is the company’s fastest-growing segment, expanding at a compound annual growth rate of more than 25 per cent between 2020 and 2024, Mr Wierod said.
Growth is expected to remain in double digits for years, driven by AI workloads that require high computing power, he added.
Last month, the US approved the sale of Nvidia chips to the UAE’s G42 and Saudi Arabia’s Humain.
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