Published by Todd Bush on December 5, 2024
Dec 2 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc, plans to pilot a new carbon-removal material for data centers, which are at risk of worsening emissions from artificial intelligence systems they power, a startup behind the deal said on Monday.
In a twist, AI itself, from the startup Orbital Materials, is what designed the carbon-filtering substance, its Chief Executive Jonathan Godwin said.
"It's like a sponge at the atomic level," Godwin told Reuters. "Each cavity in that sponge has a specific size opening that interacts well with CO2, that doesn’t interact with other things."
>> In Other News: Aramco, SLB, and Linde to Build One of the World’s Top Carbon Capture Hubs
Potential cost-savings are partly the draw. The new material adds up to an estimated 10% of the hourly charge to rent a GPU chip for training powerful AI -- a fraction of carbon offsets' price, Godwin said.
At the same time, data centers are requiring more energy to sustain AI's development and more water to keep them cool. That poses a challenge to companies like Amazon, which has committed to have net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
Its unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS), is the world's largest cloud-computing provider by revenue. It is piloting the novel material in one data center to start in 2025 as part of its three-year partnership with Orbital, Godwin said. The agreement also provides for Orbital to use AWS technology and to make its open-source AI available to AWS customers.
Howard Gefen, general manager of AWS Energy & Utilities, in a statement said the partnership would encourage sustainable innovation. Godwin declined to state the financial terms.
Orbital, which has operations in Princeton, New Jersey, and London, set up a lab about a year ago to synthesize substances that had been simulated by its AI, Godwin said. The startup aims to work with AWS to test still-more AI-generated materials to address water use and chip cooling in data centers.
Godwin co-founded the 20-person company, backed by Radical Ventures and Nvidia's venture arm among others, after helping lead materials science work for Alphabet's DeepMind until 2022.
Amazon.com Inc is a multinational technology company focused on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, and artificial intelligence. Committed to sustainability, Amazon has pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 as part of The Climate Pledge.
Follow the money flow of climate, technology, and energy investments to uncover new opportunities and jobs.
Inside This Issue 💸 Trump Administration Cancels $3.7 Billion in Clean Energy Projects, Ending Ambitious Industrial Decarbonization Efforts 🌊 A New Protocol for Carbon Removal via Direct Ocean Cap...
Inside This Issue ⚡ Energy Department Removes Barriers for American Energy Producers, Unleashing Investment in Domestic Hydrogen 🛳️ MASH Makes Powers First Vessel Trial With Biofuel From a Carbon-...
Inside This Issue 🛢️ Conestoga Energy Completes Drilling of Class VI Carbon Capture & Sequestration Well, Advances Toward EPA Application 🏗️ How Microsoft and Sublime Systems Are Reinventing C...
(Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance) SABA's third RFP seeks to leverage corporate demand to help move a next-generation SAF facility to final investment decision. Today (May 6, 2025), the Sustai...
Hartland Landfill Producing Renewable Natural Gas for FortisBC
VICTORIA, B.C.—The Capital Regional District (CRD), working together with FortisBC Energy Inc. (FortisBC) and Waga Energy Canada, has started producing Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) at a new facility...
A New Protocol for Carbon Removal via Direct Ocean Capture & Storage
Isometric has released a draft protocol for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) via Direct Ocean Capture & Storage (DOCS) for public consultation. The protocol outlines requirements and procedures for...
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office today removed barriers for the American hydrogen industry by updating its 45VH2-GREET modeling tool. The latest vers...
Follow the money flow of climate, technology, and energy investments to uncover new opportunities and jobs.