Enabling tie-ups to accelerate energy-efficient computing tech

US firm's initiative comes as data centres worldwide struggle to meet demands of AI

- Ovais Subhani

Applied Materials, the largest US maker of chip-manufacturing equipment, launched an initiative to bring together firms from across the semiconductor industry in Singapore to accelerate technologies for energy-efficient computing.

The Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialisation (Epic) Advanced Packaging Platform will encourage alliances between equipment makers, material providers, device companies and research institutes.

The partnerships will focus on accelerating the commercialisation of advanced chip-packaging technologies that promise more energy-efficient system performance.

Data centres worldwide are struggling to meet the immense computational demands of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) workloads, straining power grids.

In a recent report, consultant Gartner predicted a 160 per cent increase in data centre energy consumption over the next two years, driven by AI and GenAI.

Applied Materials said the dramatic rise in the number of connected devices and the emergence of AI are creating tremendous growth opportunities for the chip industry. But the industry is also confronting several challenges, foremost of which is the exponential increase in energy consumption fuelled by the intense computing power required to support the growth of AI.