Project to cut AI data centre energy use with 2D semiconductors

The team at QMUL will be joined by scientists at the Universities of Nottingham and Glasgow in the £6m NEED2D (Enabling Net Zero and the AI Revolution with Ultra-Low Energy 2D Materials and Devices) project.

The team will work in partnership with manufacturers and research institutions to develop new materials and prototype transformational low-energy-consumption electronic devices such as transistors.

In a statement, Sir Colin Humphreys, Professor of Materials Science at Queen Mary University of London, said: “Governments around the world are spending billions building wind, solar, nuclear and gas power stations to meet the huge energy demands of AI data centres. Our approach is to tackle the problem at the source: by reducing the power these centres consume in the first place.

“To do this we will use the latest new materials… which are atomically thin. This will save over 90 per cent of the energy required by data centres and computers, reduce the cost of electricity, and help to enable Net Zero.”