“We have the most complete critical digital infrastructure portfolio in the industry” – Karsten Winther, Vertiv

CNME Editor Mark Forker is at the Vertiv Driving Innovation: Powering the AI Era conference in Bologna, where Karsten Winther, President of Europe, Middle East & Africa, at Vertiv, delivered a keynote presentation on Datacentre Trends, in which he bullishly claimed that the company had the most ‘complete’ critical digital infrastructure portfolio in the industry.

It has been a good few days for Vertiv, its stock rocketed on Wall Street, following its investor event, which was held in the US at the beginning of the week.

Today, in Bologna, press and analysts gathered at its Vertiv Customer Experience Centre for a series of keynote presentations, panel discussions and tours of the facility, to learn more in relation to how Vertiv is driving new innovations and powering the AI era.

Karsten Winther kickstarted the session, by highlighting how Vertiv had the most complete digital infrastructure portfolio in the industry.

“We are the leading innovator in thermal technology and power management. We have the reach, scale and uniquely strong and broad portfolio required to support the growth of the digital world. Vertiv is a leading innovator with the most complete critical digital infrastructure portfolio in the industry. We have the Power Train and the Thermal Chain, in relation to the Power Train, that is essentially everything from grid-to-chip, alternative energy interaction, controls and management, whilst the Thermal Chain consists of all the links, such as chip, server, row collection, facility heat rejection, controls and management,” said Winther.

Vertiv has been also recognised globally as one of the leaders that is enabling and empowering the demand for AI.

As Winther pointed out, AI is not something new in town, it has a long history in relation to the evolution of computer and data science, but he conceded that since the advent of ChatGPT by OpenAI, the demand for Gen AI services across multiple industries has skyrocketed exponentially.

There are some ‘luddites’ who believe the impact Gen AI is going to have has been grossly overhyped, but Winther was adamant that AI is going to transform our lives.

AI is here, and it is here to stay. It will transform our IT, it will transform our businesses, and it will transform our lives. AI represents an extraordinary opportunity for everyone, both privately and professionally. Bloomberg has projected that Generative AI will be a $1.3 trillion business by 2032, so that only serves to further illustrate the incredible potential this market possesses for us all,” said Winther.

Winther also highlighted how AI use-cases are already delivering encouraging results to businesses in every industry.

“The power of Gen AI is already evident, in the technology sector it is enabling higher coding productivity, in BioPharma, the research timeline has been significantly reduced, and the financial services industry has been one of the leading industries in terms of AI adoption. Financial Institutions are deploying Gen AI for higher fraud detection accuracy, and these are just a few examples of many, many solid use-cases that currently exist,” said Winther.

Winther also touched on how Governments on a global scale, are developing strategies to attain AI sovereignty, with the topic now high on the agenda for national security, and how within the datacentre business, AI was rapidly accelerating capacity expansion, and the need for the industry to develop energy in a ‘smarter way’.

“Currently 80GW is available, the prediction is that in the next 5 years that will double, and that’s incredible, and it is incumbent on us as an industry to increase investments in order to make us more energy efficient. We need to find a way to develop energy in a smarter way, and there is a growing need for partnerships and collaboration. Industry stakeholders are collaborating to enable AI factory growth and high-density designs, you can’t go it alone when it comes to AI, the way forward is collaboration,” said Winther.