Glossary term
Data Center (AI Data Center)
A facility housing servers and accelerators; AI-optimized data centers differ from traditional ones in power and cooling density.
A Data Center is a facility housing servers, storage, and networking, with AI-optimized variants differing sharply from traditional ones. AI data centers run rack power densities of 50-120kW versus 5-10kW for traditional racks, forcing liquid cooling and reshaping power-supply economics. Power availability and cooling capacity have become gating constraints on AI build-out, ahead of chip supply in some regions. See Power Constraint 101 and Cooling 101.