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The focus in AI is often models, hardware, algorithms, but perhaps its cross-industry collaboration that will be AI’s most transformative innovation.

Cross-sector AI collaboration may be the single greatest advancement in the era of AI, as companies are coming together in unconventional ways to create solutions they would not be able to achieve independently: data center owners, operators, general contractors, suppliers, PEMBs, banks, telcos, finance, hyperscalers, chipmakers, energy – they’re all combining their respective areas of expertise, and resources, to push the envelope and drive innovation.

“There’s been a huge shift over the last two or three years toward collaboration and building an ecosystem of partners,” says Joe Reele, Vice President of Solution Architects for Schneider Electric, whose hardware, software and services span grid-scale power plants, microgrids, and mission-critical facilities (i.e., hospitals, air traffic control, telecom sites). “Like a bed of nails with each nail supporting equal weight, rather than one supporting most of it, it’s driving innovation. Rather than just your own goals and KPIs, you have a shared vision.”

The “Big Bang” moment in the modern AI era might have been back in 2019 when Microsoft announced its $1 billion investment in OpenAI. At the time, it seemed revolutionary, but by 2023, Google, Amazon, Meta, AWS, and other hyperscalers were racing toward alliances that have since expanded through circular deals and what would seem like “frenemy” collaborations. Some examples would be: Nvidia-OpenAI-Microsoft; CoreWeave-Nvidia-Microsoft Web ; and startup investment loops like AWS/Azure/GCP with Anthropic.

Another iconic deal that changed perspective on partnerships was BlackRock’s $30 billion deal to build data centers and energy infrastructure with Nvidia, Microsoft, and MGX through the AI Infrastructure Partnership (AIP). BlackRock also sat between real estate developers and utility companies in deals involving Dominion and NextEra deals.

Industry/Sector focus

Those were the foundational deals that have since led to offshoots targeted at different industries and sectors, such as finance or healthcare. For example, to support enterprise demand for AI, traditional rivals co-locate hardware, like Oracle Exadata hardware installed within Microsoft Azure data centers. Hyperscalers like Meta and Microsoft, whose data centers are under construction and constrained by power issues, have signed substantial contracts with neoclouds like CoreWeave, Crusoe, Nscale, and Nebius. Also, companies like Nvidia and AMD are striking deals with these smaller cloud providers.

There’s democratization across industries, as with the IBM-Palantir partnership, the Google and Mayo Clinic Alliance, or the Siemens-Databricks Manufacturing Alliance.

Some parties are co-developing vertically focused alliances, like Microsoft with Epic for “Healthcare Intelligence,” or Google and Ascension’s “Project Nightingale,” among others. In finance, GCP and BBVA and BNY are partnering to advance the usage of Gemini within the organizations.

Telecom alliances

In the past year, partnerships between hyperscalers and telcos has shifted to be deeply integrated with each side depending on the other, with a focus on fiber deployment. Telcos like Singtel, Softbank, SK Telecom, and Telus work closely with hyperscalers and with chipmakers to try and solve several constraints, including power, edge AI, and sovereign AI, while also moving toward Network-as-a-Service and Sovereign AI-as-a-service models.

Recently, there have also been more announcements around hyperscaler-telco partnerships in high-capacity subsea cables that ultimately link global data centers. For example, Microsoft and Meta worked with Telefónica in the Marea cable venture, and Orange, Tata and Telecom Italia (Sparkle) have worked with Google, Meta, Microsoft, and AWS in joint projects. Some recent ones include AWS Fastnet, Meta’s Waterworth, Meta, Amazon, and Telin’s Bifrost, and Google’s Grace Hopper. There are many others slated for the next few years.

Real estate-engineering nexus

Here, companies like JLL and InfraPartners have partnered to create prefabricated AI data centers that accelerate the deployment and operation of AI infrastructure,

Bechtel is working with Nvidia to modularize AI factories, and Jacobs is building “AI factory digital twins with Nvidia, as well as integrating Palantir’s Foundry and AI Platform into domain-specific workflows.

Last week during the India AI Impact Summit, Adani announced it would work with Google and invest $100 billion to build India’s largest GW-scale AI data center campus in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, while also pledging  to work with Microsoft to develop additional AI data center campuses in Hyderabad and Pune.

Grid Operators

PJM Interconnection, the largest U.S. grid operator,  is working with Google and Alphabet’s Tapestry to use AI to accelerate grid interconnections, and  MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) announced recently it will work with Microsoft to deploy its technologies across the grid.  

“Grid operators, in particular, benefit if siloed approaches give way to partnership approaches, as data centers will require elasticity of grid reliability as workloads get larger,” noted Reele. He believes data centers and large loads will ultimately become the “great grid stabilizer,” as opposed to disruptors. “Instead of relying on only utilities to produce, data centers’ energy-producing equipment will work with the grid and share. That will be a game changer.”

Indeed, data centers might increasingly share their on-site power generation and storage assets with utility providers, like PJM, NYISO, and ISO-NE, to alleviate grid stress, provide emergency power, and manage demand response during peak periods. This “prosumer” model would use “behind-the-meter” (BTM) equipment, allowing data centers to operate independently and, in some cases, export excess energy back to the grid. 

According to Unison Energy blog, it’s a “misconception” that when data centers are connected to utility power, any microgrid established to bridge load becomes a “stranded asset.” The blog talks of how data center developers could increasingly leverage microgrids concurrently with utility power to back up power supply during outages. Alternatively, the blog states, “developers could employ microgrids that replace utility power entirely.” Data centers could also participate in ancillary services that center around cleaner energy and renewable energy credits (RECs) and carbon offset credits.

“We are intimately involved with policymakers and regulators to help change state and federal policy toward collaborative environments in which large electrical loads work with the electrical providers to make the grid more reliable, and to make communities better.”

Reele believes there are three pillars that have to come together: policy and legislation; technology; digital thread. “For regulations to catch up to where AI is going, for example, with nuclear reactors being built out over the next 5 to 7 years,  it’s important that infrastructure and technology work in unison.”