Super Micro Computer Inc. (SMCI) stock fell by 3% on Monday, after the company revealed a new business unit that will let clients build entire data centers using only one vendor. Super Micro told reporters that this new service, called Data Center Building Block Solutions, will handle everything (GPUs, servers, cooling, networking, and power systems) so customers don’t have to deal with multiple suppliers. The goal, the company said, is to shorten what the industry calls the “time to online,” or the period between placing an order and having a data center ready to train or run algorithms. In today’s race for AI infrastructure, that waiting period costs real money. The faster data centers go live, the faster clients start generating revenue from compute-intensive AI workloads. Charles Liang, Super Micro’s CEO, said the new line of business “offers services to expedite the construction and buildout of complete data centers.” Liang added that the liquid-cooling systems in the new setup “are optimized for the latest generation of GPUs, CPUs, and other electronics,” claiming they can cut power use by up to 40% compared to air-cooling systems. Super Micro expands into full-scale data center construction Building a modern data center is about synchronizing every moving part. From GPU deliveries to ventilation and cooling, companies spend months coordinating different contractors to bring their systems online. Super Micro’s approach consolidates all of this, offering an end-to-end package meant to make construction smoother and faster. The data center business has exploded since the AI boom, as companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and xAI race to add compute capacity. Each firm is pouring billions into new infrastructure to run large-scale AI training and inference tasks. This surge in demand has fueled sales of Nvidia and AMD chips and created opportunities for Super Micro to expand its role as a key supplier of racks, cooling, and server systems. Even with strong demand, Super Micro’s stock is up 81% this year but only 15% over the past twelve months, as that was when the company was hit by a Hindenburg Research report accusing it of accounting irregularities and violating export controls. Then, in October 2024, Ernst & Young resigned as the company’s auditor, citing “internal controls over financial reporting,” causing another 33% drop in the SMCI stock. In December, Super Micro issued a statement saying an independent committee had found no evidence of misconduct by management or the board, and that helped stabilize the company’s reputation, but investors have remained cautious ever since, according to Bloomberg. Intel unveils new AI GPU and data center system design While Super Micro pushes deeper into the one-stop data center model, its top rival, Intel Corporation, is also trying to reclaim ground in the AI hardware race. The company launched a new data center GPU called Crescent Island and showed off a rack-scale reference design based on its Gaudi 3 systems. Intel’s CEO Lip-Bu Tan said during the company’s latest earnings call that the strategy focuses on AI inference (running existing AI models) and agentic AI, which automates complex decision-making tasks. Lip-Bu emphasized that Intel’s goal is to study “emerging and real AI workloads” and then “work backwards to design software, systems, and silicon” optimized for those needs. Intel shares have gained 84% year to date and 57% over the past twelve months as investors warm up to its AI push. Lip-Bu told analysts that Intel plans to “become the compute platform of choice” and is “working toward a full-stack AI solution.” He said more details on the company’s AI roadmap will come later this year. While Intel didn’t say whether its Crescent Island data center GPU would be based on its 18A process node, it did say that it will use the company’s Xe3P microarchitecture and include up to 160GB of memory. Intel’s 18A is one of its most important pieces of processor technology. Last week, the company revealed that its Core Ultra series 3 chips and upcoming Xeon 6+ processors, both based on 18A, will be coming to market by the end of 2025 and early next year, respectively. Get seen where it counts. Advertise in Cryptopolitan Research and reach crypto’s sharpest investors and builders.
