Vienna, February 20, 2025 - At today's press event, the cooperation between Exoscale, cloud service provider of A1 Digital, and Diggers was announced. Together, they are working on more sustainable data centers of the future with a focus on artificial intelligence. The innovative liquid cooling solution from Diggers promises a significant reduction in energy consumption while at the same time using the waste heat generated in the A1 Group's data centers.

Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly important and is taking up more and more capacity in data centers. The power consumption of data centers in Germany is currently around 20 billion kilowatt hours per year, and the trend is rising. AI in particular is proving to be very energy-hungry. Between 20 and 25 percent of this energy is used for cooling. If this is made more efficient, there is enormous potential for savings in terms of energy consumption. This means lower costs and a better CO2 balance. Otherwise, the question soon arises: what is the relationship between the cost and return of artificial intelligence?

Energy consumption is also a major challenge for the European cloud service provider Exoscale. "We are currently seeing a return to cooling data centers with liquids. However, in many cases this is very expensive and the waste heat is still used far too rarely," explains Exoscale CEO Mathias Nöbauer. "However, we believe it is a sensible approach to continue using the heat generated in our data centers, provided that the cost and result are in a reasonable relationship and we can also achieve significant improvements in terms of sustainability. Our partner Diggers' approach goes in exactly this direction, is sustainable and cost-efficient."

Diggers' solution is easy to use and integrates special cooling lines directly into the server systems that are connected to the GPUs used for AI and directly absorbs the heat generated there. The standard processors in conventional servers that are not equipped with GPUs can also be cooled efficiently with Diggers' approach.

"The relevance of data centers for digital business processes has been increasing for years. Due to the increasing number of private clouds, which are particularly needed by very security-conscious companies in times of new challenges such as NIS2, and ever more powerful AI applications, the need to operate these data centers more energy-efficiently is also increasing. With the liquid cooling solution from Diggers, we realize an energy saving potential of around 30% and thus contribute significantly to a more sustainable operation of clouds and AI," explains A1 CCO Enterprise Martin Resel.

"Worldwide, the CO2 emissions generated by data centers are significantly higher than those of all global air traffic. There is therefore an urgent need for action," emphasizes Martin Schechtner, CEO of Diggers. "The first installation in the A1 data center clearly shows that our innovative solution can be an important step towards sustainable data centers."

"We wouldn't work with just anyone. It was a conscious decision to cooperate with Diggers. It has worked so far, and if it stays that way, the possibilities are limitless," says Exoscale CEO Mathias Nöbauer.