For those who don't know, NVIDIA held its annual GTC conference last week, think of it as the Super Bowl for anyone who works in AI and data centers. Jensen Huang, NVIDIA's CEO, walked out on stage and delivered an almost three hour keynote speech.

Jensen projected $1 trillion in purchase orders for AI chips and infrastructure through 2027. I'm not a Wall Street analyst by any means, but that's roughly the GDP of the Netherlands being poured into physical hardware. The centerpiece of it all was the Vera Rubin NVL72, a single data center rack housing 72 GPUs that delivers 10x the computing power of the previous generation. Microsoft has already powered one on.

All of this compute runs extremely hot, and traditional air cooling can't keep up anymore. That's forcing a massive shift to liquid cooling where coolant runs directly across chips instead of cold air blowing through a room. Nearly half of all data centers are expected to make this transition by end of year.

Then NVIDIA is literally sending data centers to space. The Vera Rubin Space-1 module is designed to run AI compute on satellites in orbit. Planet Labs, which processes satellite imagery, is already signed on. Whether this eventually reduces pressure on Earth's power grids or just adds a whole new frontier of energy consumption... honestly, we'll have to wait and see.

Some interesting articles of the week:

Caio! 👋

Nate

Energy Effects of War in Iran (AI & Energy): TWiGS hosts Tzviya and Kate are joined by Ryan Sholin of Electricity Maps to discuss how global events impact electricity availability, cost, and carbon intensity. They highlight that improving efficiency and better utilizing existing power grids could reduce the need for new energy infrastructure. The conversation connects energy awareness with software design decisions, emphasizing that developers and organizations can play a role in sustainability by aligning workloads with cleaner energy and understanding the broader energy context behind digital systems.

Reclaim Alberta from AI Data Centers (AI & Data Centers/Hardware): Jody MacPherson, of Energy Mix and The Missive on Substack, discusses the eruption of AI data centers in Alberta, and beyond, to justify fossil fuel expansion across North America.

What is Powering AI? (AI & Data Centers/Hardware): Data centers consume 1% of global electricity today. Household devices use 2%. And there's 12 gigawatts under construction with 60+ gigawatts planned. For context: a city of 1 million people uses 1 gigawatt. How are data centers actually powered, and what comes next? Covers the grid problem, Jevons paradox, gas turbines, nuclear, solar, geothermal, fusion, data centers in space, and the 5 to 25 year gap between now and when the moonshots come online.

Photons = Tokens: The Physics of AI and the Economics of Knowledge (AI & Energy): Applies quantitative methodology to AI economics by treating tokens as physical units with measurable thermodynamic costs. Estimates that projected 2028 US AI energy use could support roughly 225,000 tokens per person daily.

A Case Study of Environmental Footprints for Generative AI Inference: Cloud versus Edge (AI & Data Centers/Hardware/Models): This paper examines the environmental impact of deploying generative AI models on cloud versus edge platforms, finding that edge deployment can achieve over 90% energy savings while reducing carbon emissions and water consumption by more than 80%.

AI Infrastructures and Sustainability: Expanding Perspectives on Automation, Communication and Media (AI & Environment): Open access book assembling cutting-edge research exploring AI infrastructures and sustainability across media and communication, covering AI-driven media, energy consumption, climate change, and policies/ethics.

Draft Sector Guidance: Technology and Communications (Climate & Social Impact): Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures provides sector-specific guidance for the technology and communications industry.

National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence: Legislative Recommendations (AI & Infrastructure): The White House releases legislative recommendations across seven areas including child safety, communities and infrastructure, and intellectual property as part of a national AI policy framework.

Global Giants in the AI Supply Chain (AI & Economic Transformation): Bank for International Settlements (BITS) examines the role of major players in the global AI supply chain.

Impact of AI Data Centers on Electricity Prices (AI & Data Centers/Hardware/Models): While major news outlets have reported that the "AI explosion" is driving up electricity prices and causing utility bills to subsidize big tech, the reality is more nuanced. Researching this is difficult because the energy market is highly interconnected. For example, a data center built in rural Virginia can affect prices as far away as New Jersey. The presentation identifies three main factors influencing your current bill from capacity price spikes to aging infrastructure.

Supply Chain Now: A Bold, New, Decarbonized Future - a Conversation with Steve Wilhite (AI & Multiple Applications): Scott Luton sat down with Steve Wilhite, EVP of SE Advisory Services at Schneider Electric, live from Innovation Summit NA 2025, to explore how leaders are scaling decarbonization, leveraging AI-native platforms, and driving real climate impact.

NovAzure's Webcast: Using AI to Drive Innovation and Value for a Sustainable Energy Future (AI & Energy): AI is becoming structurally embedded within the energy transition. From optimising renewable assets and modernising grids to accelerating clean-technology innovation, AI offers powerful tools to support and scale the transition to Net Zero.

Haven Energy (AI & Energy): Energy independence is our future. With Haven, homeowners can save on energy and put an end to power outages with our full-service solar and battery systems. With solar and battery together, we believe we can accelerate the clean energy transition and create a better future for ourselves and the planet.

Pexapark (AI & Energy): The price intelligence platform for clean energy. Covers solar, wind, and battery storage across 20+ countries, helping market participants navigate power markets through real market data from over 100 counterparties. Founded in 2017, facilitating over 40,000 megawatts of transactions.

Deibrain AI (AI & Circular Economy): At DEIBRAIN AI CONSULTING, we empower enterprises to lead in the AI era through innovation, intelligence, and impact. Building intelligence at scale — embedding AI across business, technology, and operations. Our capabilities span AI Consulting, AI Engineering, Cloud Data Engineering, Generative & Agentic AI, Advanced Analytics, and Data Science

Geospatial Skills (AI & Biodiversity/Ecology): Installable geospatial skills for coding agents. Includes GDAL workflows for raster/vector data, GeoParquet validation, and Tessera CLI for embeddings.

Open Sustainability Analyst (OSA) (AI & Sustainability): AI-powered toolkit for analyzing sustainability reports. Extracts structured, evidence-based answers from corporate disclosures. Supports ESRS analysis, climate risk assessment, benchmarking, and greenwashing detection.

Whale Agent (AI & Ocean Conservation): An open-source agentic solution to reduce whale-vessel collisions at scale.

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Thanks for reading the 33rd issue of The Climate Code! It means a lot to me and we have more coming in the future, so definitely stick around! 💚

Nate

P.S.

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