Amid AI growth, what goes on inside data centres?

The expansion of data centres to power the AI boom has more people wondering: what exactly is in a data centre?

- ALEX PIGMAN

RIGHT transformers at a Digital Realty data centre in Ashburn, Virginia, in November. BELOW Chris Sharp, chief technology officer at Digital Realty: 'One of the biggest challenges for a lot of our customers is they buy the chips and then they don't know where to go,' Mr Sharp said.

(PHOTOS BY AFP)

AFP got a chance to take a look at what is inside.

Data centres are the physical infrastructure that make our digital lives possible, yet most people have never seen one up close or understand how they operate.

Roughly 12,000 data centres are in operation in the world, with about half in the US, according to Cloudscene, a data centre directory.

At its most basic, a data centre is a concrete warehouse filled with thou sands of computer servers working in tandem. Traditional facilities span one or two floors divided into vast rooms, though newer ones rise higher.

A facility may serve a single com pany or be shared by several clients.

The servers sit in standardised 19-inch (48 cm) racks essentially metal closets lined up in rows.

A large data centre can house tens of thousands of servers running simul taneously, generating enormous heat and consuming significant amounts of energy for both power and cooling.