Namaste and welcome everyone. I'm Ashish Parik. We are here at the India AI Impact Summit at Bharat Mandapam. This is where conversations about artificial intelligence move beyond the hype and the future possibilities and delve into the realities of infrastructure, industries, and scalable deployment. And often when we talk about artificial intelligence, the conversation is focused on software, on all the new fancy models that are coming out, the videos and the photos being generated. But not many people talk about hardware, the physical infrastructure that actually makes all of these fancy features possible. But that doesn't stop companies like Vertiv Energy Private Limited from actually working towards cutting-edge technology and making this exponential growth possible.
Now to talk to me about the mission at Vertiv and also the vision for AI in India. Joining me right now, Giordano Albertazzi, the Chief Executive Officer at Vertiv, and Mr. Subhashish Majumdar, the Managing Director for Vertiv Jio, that's how we prefer being called. How's the experience been in India? The India AI Impact Summit. The Prime Minister said this is the largest ever AI summit as well. How's your experience been?
A lot of excitement, a lot of very well-justified excitement because I think we have a unique opportunity in the country to strengthen the role of India in the world as an AI leader. India can be an AI leader. I think it has got the power, and we're talking about kind of really kind of energy, power. It has the demographics and certainly the energy, and now I'm talking about the energy in the population and in the government's strategic direction to go in that to make it happen. So very excited.
Absolutely. Before I go to Subhash here, you know, one of the things that we need to talk about is the liquid cooling capacity expansion that you're planning in India here. It's a very fascinating tagline you have that the world depends on data, we power and cool it. Help us understand, you know, this expansion plans that you have. What was the tipping point where you decided that yes, it's time to go?
We've been operating in India for more than 30 years. So it's certainly not something new. We've been expanding capacity, and it's capacity for our powertrain, for thermal chain. So everything that we, the power part and the cooling part, but also a lot of integration systems. We've been expanding that over time, and we are now accelerating that expansion. So we see a market that is growing, we see a need in the market, and we want to supply the market directly from India, and hence we put our money where our mouth is.
Absolutely. And of course you can make all the planning but it's the man here, Subhash Majumdar, who would be the one executing it. Subhashish, one of the first questions of course is you're the person who's listening to the market signals on the ground. What exactly convinced you that this is the time to go? Let's now expand because like we discussed before the interview, it's a very sweet spot or rather a bittersweet spot that you're in right now. So, what gave you that signal that yes, this is the time to go?
So, we are constantly talking to our customers. We are also talking, we are very globally integrated also. So we know exactly what is happening in the other regions, in other parts of the world. So we knew this was coming, and there were all indications that this was coming sooner than we all think. So what we were doing is we were silently working on building an ecosystem to make sure that when the time comes we are ready, and that's what we exactly did. So when the orders started flowing in we were there and we were completely ready doing that.
Absolutely. And you know there are a lot of new terms that we keep hearing. I'm an engineer myself. But there are a lot of terms and new technologies that go over my head. We're talking about SFN, skids, and liquid solutions. I want you to explain to me what exactly does it mean and also how does it make data centers better and how does it make your technology better?
Let's start from afar. Let's say the data center technology has been evolving, right? Take a rack that is kind of one of the constitutional elements of course of a data center. Rack density, i.e. how much power you have in a rack, is growing very rapidly from the traditional 10 kilowatt per rack all the way to 100, 250, 600, and in not too distant future think about 1 megawatt per rack. So the density of power is amazingly growing amazingly fast. That requires a totally different type of technology to cool those racks, to cool those GPUs. I think everyone now is familiar with what a GPU is. You need to cool that directly with liquid in the chip. And to have that liquid work and circulate, you need a CDU, a coolant distribution unit that makes that circulation possible. And what we call as a fan secondary fluid network is the kind of a blood system, the circulation of that liquid. So as you go about building that you can prefabricate, modularize the entire system to make the deployment more rapid and more, let's say, easier for everyone involved.
All right. So when you say that it makes the deployment better, Subhash, I want you to help us understand from a practical deployment standpoint. Does it make the deployment faster? Like say I'm your customer. Will it save me a lot more time, a lot more money, a lot more resources? As a customer, what's the advantage I'm getting from Vertiv when we talk about skid solutions and all this technology they're talking about?
So these are pre-engineered, pre-fabricated, cleaned, and the cleaning is a very important step in this entire process because we are talking GPUs which are pretty expensive, right? So these are all pre-engineered, pre-fabricated, cleaned, and then skids are made and then it's sent to the site. So the installation at site is much simpler. So for the customers the benefit is it's a much faster deployment.
Absolutely. And so quick follow-up question there. You're talking about all of these technologies making, you know, the pain points easier for customers. We are here at the India AI Impact Summit. You're looking at a lot of fancy technology on display as well. You know, very practical solutions and demonstrations on display. Where do you stand here? How does Vertiv stand out? Because at the end of the day you are solving a problem which is as real and as massive as anyone else that is doing, but a lot of focus is on what people practically see. Your work is on the back end. You do a lot of infrastructure building as well. So how does an event like this, your presence here, benefit you?
I think the event very clearly specifies, and it's the various stacks involved, right? Infrastructure is the backbone, right? You can have all these fancy things without the infrastructure it won't work. And that's exactly why we have physical equipment in this booth. If you see around, these are actually what goes into a data center. And while it might, and we are getting fancier also, I think the liquid cooling solutions, the engineering that we are bringing, the technology that we are bringing is actually taking us to the next level. And Vertiv is very closely working with a lot of the silicon providers to make sure our technology is future resilient. So that's very important in this entire piece of this data center play.
Must be fascinating to know that it might be someone else's robot dancing across the booth but it's your infrastructure and your brains that made it possible. Absolutely. And Gio, quick, you know, your takeaway from this entire event. This is of course a massive event, you meet a lot of global leaders as well. Beyond networking, what are the real outcomes that you're looking at from the India AI Impact Summit?
Multiple. Of course networking is an important element, but networking not for the sake of networking but really to get an exact understanding of the direction in which the AI industry and the infrastructure industry is moving in India. And again, India for India, but also India for the world, as it's not just from a manufacturing standpoint but really from an engine of AI growth standpoint. So I think what this event has given me is a very firm handle on what the future of the industry will be in India and the conviction, personally, that this is an important place to invest and to continue to invest.
With AI, with infrastructure, we're looking at, you know, developments happening almost every week. You have a new announcement from one company or the other about a new advancement every week. As a company that is so heavily invested in hardware and, you know, the physical infrastructure, how do you keep up? How do you make sure that your infrastructure is not obsolete? How do you keep up with the technology?
Our technology. The strength of the ecosystem and the relationships within the ecosystem is absolutely paramount. In today's data center world you need to be very, very closely cooperating with Nvidia and the other leading chip providers, that could be very, very well AS6, but you also have to be very close to your customers, that could be hyperscalers or colo providers. Again, the entire ecosystem, because it's not about having the capacity today, it's about understanding as a system, as an ecosystem, as partners, what technologies we'll need tomorrow. So that's really the key. And then invest a lot in innovation and technology to make sure that you actually enable the industries, not just you follow it, you enable the industry. Because if our technology is not there a year from now, two years from now, to make the new silicon possible, to power and cool that new silicon that has new characteristics, new challenges, new opportunities, then the industry stops.
Absolutely. I mean it's tough keeping up with this particular industry and it's a very...
I would say it's absolutely exhilarating. That's our job.
It's like a marathon you're running but at a, it's like a sprint that you're running in a marathon. It's a long distance run.
There are aspects of Vertiv that, you know, we are an industrial company that operates in the speed of tech. It's very exciting.
I think I have my headline now for this particular interview. The fact that you're a technology company that's actually trying to keep up so fast. Subhashish...
We are keeping, not trying. We are keeping.
