3 Top Takeaways from OCP Summit
The Open Compute Project Foundation’s OCP Summit is a haven for the cutting edge of tech requirements and a hub for the industry connections that are needed to solve them.
The event was the first that TechArena sponsored starting in spring of last year, and this past week was a humdinger for new insights on the industry. In my post about what I was looking forward to from the Summit, I'd identified performance, power and cooling, and standards as topics that I'd be tracking through the week, and the Summit delivered in spades across all fronts. Let's explore!
1. Performance: As we get into the late dawn of the AI era, the persistent need for more performance as quickly as possible is not abating. In my talk with Google's Amber Huffman, she called out a need for yearly platform innovation, faster than Moore's Law, that stresses every element of infrastructure design (more on this later). This acceleration of the industry was reflected in everything I saw at OCP. First, there was the sheer size of the event – at over 7,000 people – coupled by a massive leap in sponsors and a mushrooming of content. OCP has become a central hub for what's next in data center computing, well beyond a reference design for the elite.
The attitude of vendors underscored how massive a business opportunity this moment is for all. There's a lot of business to be had with new investment in infrastructure to fuel AI, and while vendors are being pushed to innovate, being brought in earlier to align technology, and being pressured to ensure supply, there is a bright-eyed optimism that the concept of an AI hype cycle does not reflect the tsunami of purchase orders fueling hyperscale data centers. And OCP, once a very CPU-centric event, featured NVIDIA's debut of a Blackwell platform design, a keynote, and a first-of-its-kind presence at the show. Not to be outdone, AMD showcased its right-out-of-the-fabs 5th Gen EPYC and MI325X platforms at the show, very much targeting Blackwell momentum while also placing a huge reminder on the growth of AI inference ahead. And while Intel was present at the show with a keynote, the torch of leading-edge platforms has squarely passed to an NVIDIA - AMD battle for long term superiority.
The most interesting thing about the performance talks at OCP was not the shift to GPU-centric designs or advance of CPU, GPU and broad acceleration offerings...it was open discussion of model delivery with more efficiency in mind. Many technologists at the show remarked to me that the industry needs to chart a path forward that puts into question the endless pursuit of vector processing on steroids in favor of disruptive compute algorithms that advance AI without the computational cycles or energy utilization on our current trajectory.
We've come to these moments before at smaller scale. Video delivery comes to mind, where the value proposition of what was to come seemed out of reach based on what was then an inability to render, transcode and deliver at scale. That was, until new technology paths were found, in this case with parallel advances in compute, networks, and compression technologies. I do think the industry is seeking a similar answer to AI and would not be surprised at all if we see new algorithmic approaches, math, compute architectures...something...as the center of discussion at OCP Summit 2025. Expect more reporting from TechArena on this in the months ahead.
2. Power: While performance scale and greenfield deployment is being ushered ahead with frenzy, the power draw that it's requiring is eye-opening. We published our TechArena Data Center Compute Efficiency Report in advance of OCP Summit, and the conversations at OCP, regardless of where they started, at some point came to a question on what power demand will be required ahead.
One thing that was notable to me was how quickly we've all pivoted to a new normal that hyperscalers are now running nuclear power plants. Nuclear was discussed as a part of the power equation in a way where it was a future consideration just six months ago. For those who have not been following the plot on this topic, Microsoft kicked off the nuclear conversation with their eye-opening announcement regarding the re-opening of Three Mile Island on September 20, quickly followed by Amazon's announcement of their own nuclear deal last week and Google's move yesterday. Think about this: Either the big three were playing a massive game of chicken on who was going to take the nuclear plunge first, or these companies can truly pivot on a dime to deliver groundbreaking business moves at massive scale. My bet is on the former reality as the companies continued to struggle with sourcing power from traditional grid. Regardless, nuclear is now being referred to as a carbon emission-free, positive alternative to other power sources that will free up electricity to fuel mountains of compute for AI. And with all of this power-rich compute, the liquid cooling industry is about to go bonkers. Everyone and their brother is now offering liquid cooling solutions; ODMs are rushing to integrate both direct and immersion solutions to their portfolios, and the liquid cooling players – once the niche industry relegated to the HPC arena – are being gobbled up by larger players at a stunning pace. Just last week Flex announced a strategic collaboration with JetCool and Schneider announced the acquisition of Motivair following on the footsteps of Jabil's acquisition of Mikros (who was an independent entity at last month's AIHW Summit, showcasing how rapidly these moves are playing out).
My question about the liquid cooling market is not that the hyperscalers – forecasted to be a majority of infrastructure sales in the next couple of years – will use liquid cooling. It's how far liquid will...well, flow. Will we see this migration to liquid immerse itself into the enterprise as organizations build their petit versions of training clusters? (And will enterprises build compute-intensive training clusters or opt for smaller models?) As enterprises adopt AI, will these configurations be deployed in edge environments, taking liquid cooling to these harsher locales? We'll continue to explore these questions in the months ahead, but for now, I expect to see continued consolidation in this space as solution providers position themselves for competitive advantage in the market.
3. Standards: Competitive advantage in the market also takes us to our final topic, standards. When I called out standards as a trend I was hoping to hear more about at the Summit, I did not imagine the Intel - AMD kumbaya that occurred from the keynote stage with the companies joining together in x86 instruction set harmony. While it's undebatable that this was a surprise development, the really interesting question is why it's happening and why now.
GPU rise has placed a foundational fear within x86 land that general purpose computing is dead. Those who are not media trained by their companies may state that fear as bluntly as I've written it. And moments of fear create strange bedfellows, in this case the once lofty Intel realizing that a collaboration with their arch-rival places them in a much better position against accelerated computing that the traditional hands-off approach that has defined the last two decades plus of x86 land. While I believe customers win with this collaboration (and think that general purpose computing and mixed workload configurations will keep x86 alive and kicking for some time – after all, mainframes are still running strong), I also think that my first question of a need for a different architectural approach to AI performance may, in part, be answered from this collaboration.
There is more to unpack from OCP Summit in the weeks ahead, but one thing is clear: While some companies came into OCP Summit leaping (i.e. liquid cooling companies, NVIDIA) and others limping (i.e. Intel), the entire industry is operating at a pace and fury that will unleash new compute capability. And if you believe AI will deliver to the promise of business and societal change that its proponents profess, we will all win from the engineering advancements that the community is delivering. More to come.
The Open Compute Project Foundation’s OCP Summit is a haven for the cutting edge of tech requirements and a hub for the industry connections that are needed to solve them.
The event was the first that TechArena sponsored starting in spring of last year, and this past week was a humdinger for new insights on the industry. In my post about what I was looking forward to from the Summit, I'd identified performance, power and cooling, and standards as topics that I'd be tracking through the week, and the Summit delivered in spades across all fronts. Let's explore!
1. Performance: As we get into the late dawn of the AI era, the persistent need for more performance as quickly as possible is not abating. In my talk with Google's Amber Huffman, she called out a need for yearly platform innovation, faster than Moore's Law, that stresses every element of infrastructure design (more on this later). This acceleration of the industry was reflected in everything I saw at OCP. First, there was the sheer size of the event – at over 7,000 people – coupled by a massive leap in sponsors and a mushrooming of content. OCP has become a central hub for what's next in data center computing, well beyond a reference design for the elite.
The attitude of vendors underscored how massive a business opportunity this moment is for all. There's a lot of business to be had with new investment in infrastructure to fuel AI, and while vendors are being pushed to innovate, being brought in earlier to align technology, and being pressured to ensure supply, there is a bright-eyed optimism that the concept of an AI hype cycle does not reflect the tsunami of purchase orders fueling hyperscale data centers. And OCP, once a very CPU-centric event, featured NVIDIA's debut of a Blackwell platform design, a keynote, and a first-of-its-kind presence at the show. Not to be outdone, AMD showcased its right-out-of-the-fabs 5th Gen EPYC and MI325X platforms at the show, very much targeting Blackwell momentum while also placing a huge reminder on the growth of AI inference ahead. And while Intel was present at the show with a keynote, the torch of leading-edge platforms has squarely passed to an NVIDIA - AMD battle for long term superiority.
The most interesting thing about the performance talks at OCP was not the shift to GPU-centric designs or advance of CPU, GPU and broad acceleration offerings...it was open discussion of model delivery with more efficiency in mind. Many technologists at the show remarked to me that the industry needs to chart a path forward that puts into question the endless pursuit of vector processing on steroids in favor of disruptive compute algorithms that advance AI without the computational cycles or energy utilization on our current trajectory.
We've come to these moments before at smaller scale. Video delivery comes to mind, where the value proposition of what was to come seemed out of reach based on what was then an inability to render, transcode and deliver at scale. That was, until new technology paths were found, in this case with parallel advances in compute, networks, and compression technologies. I do think the industry is seeking a similar answer to AI and would not be surprised at all if we see new algorithmic approaches, math, compute architectures...something...as the center of discussion at OCP Summit 2025. Expect more reporting from TechArena on this in the months ahead.
2. Power: While performance scale and greenfield deployment is being ushered ahead with frenzy, the power draw that it's requiring is eye-opening. We published our TechArena Data Center Compute Efficiency Report in advance of OCP Summit, and the conversations at OCP, regardless of where they started, at some point came to a question on what power demand will be required ahead.
One thing that was notable to me was how quickly we've all pivoted to a new normal that hyperscalers are now running nuclear power plants. Nuclear was discussed as a part of the power equation in a way where it was a future consideration just six months ago. For those who have not been following the plot on this topic, Microsoft kicked off the nuclear conversation with their eye-opening announcement regarding the re-opening of Three Mile Island on September 20, quickly followed by Amazon's announcement of their own nuclear deal last week and Google's move yesterday. Think about this: Either the big three were playing a massive game of chicken on who was going to take the nuclear plunge first, or these companies can truly pivot on a dime to deliver groundbreaking business moves at massive scale. My bet is on the former reality as the companies continued to struggle with sourcing power from traditional grid. Regardless, nuclear is now being referred to as a carbon emission-free, positive alternative to other power sources that will free up electricity to fuel mountains of compute for AI. And with all of this power-rich compute, the liquid cooling industry is about to go bonkers. Everyone and their brother is now offering liquid cooling solutions; ODMs are rushing to integrate both direct and immersion solutions to their portfolios, and the liquid cooling players – once the niche industry relegated to the HPC arena – are being gobbled up by larger players at a stunning pace. Just last week Flex announced a strategic collaboration with JetCool and Schneider announced the acquisition of Motivair following on the footsteps of Jabil's acquisition of Mikros (who was an independent entity at last month's AIHW Summit, showcasing how rapidly these moves are playing out).
My question about the liquid cooling market is not that the hyperscalers – forecasted to be a majority of infrastructure sales in the next couple of years – will use liquid cooling. It's how far liquid will...well, flow. Will we see this migration to liquid immerse itself into the enterprise as organizations build their petit versions of training clusters? (And will enterprises build compute-intensive training clusters or opt for smaller models?) As enterprises adopt AI, will these configurations be deployed in edge environments, taking liquid cooling to these harsher locales? We'll continue to explore these questions in the months ahead, but for now, I expect to see continued consolidation in this space as solution providers position themselves for competitive advantage in the market.
3. Standards: Competitive advantage in the market also takes us to our final topic, standards. When I called out standards as a trend I was hoping to hear more about at the Summit, I did not imagine the Intel - AMD kumbaya that occurred from the keynote stage with the companies joining together in x86 instruction set harmony. While it's undebatable that this was a surprise development, the really interesting question is why it's happening and why now.
GPU rise has placed a foundational fear within x86 land that general purpose computing is dead. Those who are not media trained by their companies may state that fear as bluntly as I've written it. And moments of fear create strange bedfellows, in this case the once lofty Intel realizing that a collaboration with their arch-rival places them in a much better position against accelerated computing that the traditional hands-off approach that has defined the last two decades plus of x86 land. While I believe customers win with this collaboration (and think that general purpose computing and mixed workload configurations will keep x86 alive and kicking for some time – after all, mainframes are still running strong), I also think that my first question of a need for a different architectural approach to AI performance may, in part, be answered from this collaboration.
There is more to unpack from OCP Summit in the weeks ahead, but one thing is clear: While some companies came into OCP Summit leaping (i.e. liquid cooling companies, NVIDIA) and others limping (i.e. Intel), the entire industry is operating at a pace and fury that will unleash new compute capability. And if you believe AI will deliver to the promise of business and societal change that its proponents profess, we will all win from the engineering advancements that the community is delivering. More to come.
