Energy Efficiency Optimization In Hyperscale Data Centers

Hyperscale data centers—very large, industrialized facilities that deliver cloud-scale compute, storage, and networking—have become a central node in the global energy system because they concentrate electrical load, water demand, and waste heat while enabling rapidly growing digital services and AI workloads. Over the past decade, efficiency gains in hyperscale infrastructure and IT operations have helped decouple growth in compute demand from the growth in electricity use, but the acceleration of GPU/accelerator-based AI is now reintroducing strong upward pressure on both energy and cooling capacity requirements (Masanet et al., 2020; International Energy Agency [IEA], 2025; U.S. Department of Energy [DOE], 2024).[1]