AWS and Orbital Materials AI innovation targets carbon emissions in data centres

Amazon is developing an AI-designed material aimed at reducing carbon emissions in its data centres. Created by Orbital Materials, the carbon-filtering substance acts like a sponge on an atomic level, selectively capturing CO2. The material represents a step towards Amazon’s goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

Orbital Materials claims the new material could add just 10% to hourly GPU training costs for AI, significantly cheaper than traditional carbon offsets. Data centres increasingly demand more energy and water for cooling, posing sustainability challenges. Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world’s largest cloud-computing provider, plans to trial the innovation in 2025 at a single facility.

The partnership with Orbital spans three years, aiming to explore additional AI-designed materials for water and cooling needs. Orbital uses AI to simulate and develop these substances, with the material being synthesised in its lab established last year. The collaboration also includes making Orbital’s open-source AI tools available to AWS customers.

Orbital, co-founded by Jonathan Godwin, operates from Princeton and London and is backed by Radical Ventures and Nvidia’s venture arm. Godwin, formerly with DeepMind, emphasised the importance of sustainable innovations in addressing growing environmental concerns linked to AI-driven energy demands.