{"id":68653,"date":"2025-10-09T04:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/68653\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T04:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:07:09","slug":"the-data-center-boom-is-here-experts-explain-how-to-build-ai-infrastructure-right-virginia-tech-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/68653\/","title":{"rendered":"The data center boom is here: Experts explain how to build AI infrastructure right | Virginia Tech News"},"content":{"rendered":"

To fast-track the buildout of data centers that power artificial intelligence (AI), tech giants like Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, and OpenAI are pouring money into construction projects. Globally, companies are predicted to spend $375 billion in 2025 on AI infrastructure \u2014\u00a0\u00a0a 67 percent surge from last year, according to an estimate by bank UBS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While this new era of rapid data center construction aims to power innovation, from scientific breakthroughs to AI-enhanced public services, it comes with distinct challenges and more isn\u2019t always better, warn Virginia Tech artificial intelligence experts Walid Saad<\/a> and Dimitri Nikolopoulos.<\/a> Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

Data centers carry high environmental costs<\/p>\n

\u201cTraining ever-larger models on massive data sets requires enormous computing power, which in turn drives up energy demand and environmental costs,\u201d Saad said. \u201cIt is not the most sustainable path for better AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve learned is that true AI progress requires more than brute-force computing. The next leap forward will come from algorithms that build an internal understanding of how the world works, often called \u2018world models.\u2019 These models let AI learn efficiently, generalize to new situations, and make decisions using far less data and energy. Leading research groups, such as Meta\u2019s FAIR lab and our own Virginia Tech teams, are pioneering this direction because it holds the key to both sustainable AI and smarter AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data centers need to be sustainable, distributed, and accessible<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout strong public-interest guardrails, more data centers may just deepen existing divides and environmental costs,\u201d Nikolopoulos said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about how many data centers we build \u2014 but what kinds, where, and for whom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo truly lead, the country needs AI infrastructure that is powered by clean energy and designed for efficiency, that is widely distributed in locations beyond just Silicon Valley and Northern Virginia, and that is accessible to researchers, startups, and public-interest institutions \u2014 not just Big Tech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data center construction requires smart guidelines<\/p>\n

\u201cMore data centers means increased environmental impact for the grid, water resources, and emissions,\u201d Saad said. \u201cIt is important to at least have some guidelines so that our critical infrastructure can sustain this growth. AI innovation and environmental responsibility can advance hand in hand, not by scaling up endlessly, but by scaling smartly, designing algorithms that learn more like humans and waste far less energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data centers should benefit everyone<\/p>\n

\u201cIf AI is to shape education, medicine, and governance, we must ensure the infrastructure is not gatekept behind closed platforms or unaffordable services controlled by a few firms,\u201d Nikolopoulos said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cU.S. leadership in AI should be measured not just in processing speed, but in how broadly the benefits are shared and how wisely the resources are used. We need to shift our mindset from \u2018scale at all costs\u2019 to \u2018impact per watt, per dollar, per community.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

About Nikolopoulous<\/p>\n

Dimitrios Nikolopoulos<\/a> is the John W. Hancock Professor of Engineering in the Department of Computer Science<\/a> at Virginia Tech. His research interests include high-performance computing and systems, memory management, and virtualization.<\/p>\n

About Saad<\/p>\n

Walid Saad<\/a> is the Rolls Royce Commonwealth Professor in the Institute for Advanced Computing<\/a> and the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering<\/a> at Virginia Tech. He\u2019s an expert in machine learning, wireless networks, quantum systems, smart grids, and more.<\/p>\n

Interview<\/p>\n

To schedule an interview, contact Margaret Ashburn at mkashburn@vt.edu<\/a> or 540-529-0814, or Chelsea Seeber at chelseab29@vt.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To fast-track the buildout of data centers that power artificial intelligence (AI), tech giants like Amazon, Google, Meta,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[241,46409,61,60,80],"class_list":["post-68653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-computing","tag-computing","tag-dc-areainstitute-for-advanced-computingcomputer-scienceartificial-intelligenceimpactcollege-of-engineeringelectrical-and-computer-engineering","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}