Schneider Electric inks $3 bln equipment supply deal with Compass Datacenters

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP

09/11/2023 13:00

By Stephen Nellis
       Nov 9 (Reuters) - France's Schneider Electric  SCHN.PA 
on Thursday said it will supply $3 billion worth of equipment to
Texas-based Compass Datacenters, amid a surge in demand for data
centers to power artificial intelligence (AI) services.
    Compass, which was purchased by Brookfield Infrastructure
Partners  BIP.N  earlier this year, has seen an uptick in demand
as technology companies demand space in data centers to house
the brains behind applications similar to ChatGPT.
    Schneider already supplies Compass Datacenters with much of
the electrical equipment that helps connect those data centers
to the grid.
    Earlier this year, the two companies started working
together on a joint facility in Texas, where they will design
and build electrical gear for what are called modular data
centers, which can be built quickly and modified later as needs
change.
    Schneider's $3 billion supply agreement with Compass will
span five years.
    What is driving the companies to integrate supply chain
operations is the change in data centers being brought by AI,
which can use up to 10 times more electricity compared to
traditional computing, Aamir Paul, president for Schneider
Electric North America, told Reuters.
    "If you're going to build a data center that is much more
energy intensive, you have to think differently down to the
actual design of the data center and the facility itself," Paul
said.
    Compass Datacenters aims to reduce the time and cost to
construct a data center that is the exact same quality whether
it is built in Italy or Texas, CEO Chris Crosby told Reuters.
    "It's quite different than the how the design and
construction industry thinks," Crosby said. We've really tried
to bring that manufacturing discipline and rigor into this
world."

 (Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Varun
H K)
 ((Stephen.Nellis@thomsonreuters.com;))