AI
Getting into the mindset of someone who spends their days thinking about liquid cooling and grid connections came easily over a drink at the brewery opposite Motivair by Schneider Electric’ s site on the outskirts of Buffalo, New York. That’ s where I spoke with Marc Garner, Global President of Cloud and Service Providers at Schneider Electric, to hear about the firm’ s work with Terawulf to build its Lake Mariner campus just a 45-minute drive north.
Understanding the complexity of building that facility at the pace TeraWulf has needed was just as useful in person, walking the halls of the Lake Mariner campus with Steven Carlini, Chief Advocate for AI and Data Centres at Schneider Electric, as he explained what modern AI factories demand of the grid, the rack and the people who build them.
The Terawulf campus is being converted from a retired coal power plant and bitcoin mining site into an AI high-performance computing campus with five halls designed for 3GW of capacity.
Schneider Electric and Motivair by Schneider Electric have delivered more than US $ 290m in AI infrastructure for the project, compressing a build that would typically span 36 months into around 12.
AI factories demand higher rack density The starting point for both executives in building AI data centres quickly is density.
“ Traditional data centres were what I used to call server farms,” Steven says.“ So lots of servers and rows of equipment, big IT hauls with around 10KW to 15KW per rack. And the modern AI factory with the Vera Rubin is going to go up to 227KW per rack.”
That shift changes the shape of the building as much as its contents.“ What we’ re ending up with are smaller IT rooms that are very, very densified and then lots of space for the chillers, heat rejection, generators and switch gear,” he adds.
74 August 2026