Are we prepared for the 1 megawatt (MW) IT rack? By Google’s reckoning, this is the future soon. The tech giant has introduced +/-400 VDC power delivery that can support up to 1 MW per rack at the recently concluded 2025 Open Compute Project (OCP) EMEA Summit. Google had talked about the power delivery transformation from 48 volts direct current (VDC) to the new +/-400 VDC, which will enable IT racks to scale from 100 kilowatts (kW) up to 1 MW.
“With the accelerating pace of AI hardware development, it’s clear that we must collectively quicken our pace to prepare data centers for what’s next,” said a blog post by Google engineers recently.
Google has a long history of advancing data center power delivery, according to the engineers. “Almost 10 years ago, we championed the adoption of 48 VDC inside the IT rack to significantly increase the power distribution efficiency and reduce losses compared to what typical 12 VDC solutions delivered. The industry responded to our call to action to collaborate on this technology, and the resulting architecture has worked well, scaling from 10 kW to 100 kW IT racks.
“The AI era requires even greater power delivery capabilities for two distinct reasons. The first is simply that ML will require more than 500 kW per IT rack before 2030. The second is the densification of each IT rack, where every millimeter of space in the IT rack is used for tightly interconnected “xPUs” (e.g. GPUs, TPUs, CPUs). This requires a much higher voltage DC power distribution solution, where power components and battery backup are outside of the IT rack.”
Google’s long-standing collaboration with OCP has been instrumental in driving industry collaboration and open innovation in infrastructure. Among other big name collaborators are Meta and Microsoft.
Initiated in 2011, OCP is an open source platform with a mission to share the benefits of open source and open collaboration on hardware to rapidly increase the pace of innovation around data centers’ hardware which includes networking equipment, general purpose and GPU servers, storage devices and appliances, and scalable rack designs, among others.
OCP debuts in Southeast Asia
With Southeast Asia being one of the fastest-growing regions in data center buildouts, coupled with massive investments targeting the region, the OCP has decided to enter Southeast Asia. By way of introduction, the OCP — in collaboration with W.Media— is hosting OCP SEA Tech Day, a full-day of technical exchange spotlighting the open hardware and software innovations reshaping the data center landscape.
Designed for hyperscalers, data center operators, silicon providers, OEMs, and network architects, this gathering offers practical insights and cross-industry collaborations as well as an opportunity to explore OCP Ready™ certification.
“I was very impressed to hear about exciting developments, new products, and big upcoming projects when I was at the OCP EMEA SUMMIT 2025,” said James Loggie, a Business Analyst with W. Media. James was in Dublin to represent W.Media at the invitation of OCP.
To check out the SEA event, click https://w.media/ocp/ocp-sea-tech-day/
