If the first revolution in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers was the move from air cooling to liquid cooling, the second is now unfolding: equipping cooling distribution units (CDUs) with on-board intelligence.

Generative AI (GenAI) is driving a surge in computing demand, pushing data center competition beyond server performance toward infrastructure efficiency and deployment density, with power architecture emerging as a central focus of the next upgrade cycle.

As artificial intelligence (AI) applications expand, the rising scale and density of server computing have placed a premium on system stability. AI servers, characterized by high costs, extreme power consumption and significant heat generation, face the risk of substantial losses from system outages. This has heightened the importance of baseboard management controllers (BMCs), which provide real-time monitoring of voltage, temperature and system status, driving steady growth in Aspeed Technology's operating performance.

With artificial intelligence (AI) technology advancing at a breakneck pace—particularly as applications move from the training phase to inference—demand for high-capacity, high-performance storage in data centers and embedded devices is surging. Once considered a low-margin segment prone to market volatility, NAND flash has taken on a new strategic role in Nvidia's blueprint for next-generation AI infrastructure, becoming an indispensable component for AI inference workloads.

As artificial intelligence (AI) development accelerates, power consumption across computing platforms is climbing sharply. Competition among data and computing centers is no longer limited to server specifications or the efficiency of individual power supply units. Instead, it is moving toward rack-level integration of power distribution, cooling, energy storage, and monitoring, with implications extending into broader infrastructure design.

Celestica, a global supplier of data center infrastructure and advanced technology manufacturing, reported sharply higher revenue and earnings in the fourth quarter of 2025, a performance that reflects the accelerating demand for artificial intelligence–driven computing systems and the company's growing role in the global AI supply chain.

Microsoft's earnings conference call for the fiscal second quarter of 2026 underscored a company accelerating into an AI-first era—while also confronting investor scrutiny over the scale of its infrastructure spending.