In a significant development for the artificial intelligence infrastructure sector, Schneider Electric has announced a comprehensive partnership with NVIDIA and industrial software leader AVEVA to create validated blueprints for designing, simulating, building, operating, and maintaining gigawatt-scale AI factories. The announcement was made during the NVIDIA GTC 2026 conference in San Jose, marking a pivotal step toward next-generation data center solutions.
Advancing AI Infrastructure Through Strategic Collaboration
This collaboration builds upon existing relationships between Schneider Electric and NVIDIA, establishing a robust foundation for developing AI factories optimized for massive scale and operational efficiency. The partnership focuses on addressing critical infrastructure challenges associated with powering and cooling advanced AI systems, particularly NVIDIA's latest rack-scale architectures.
New NVIDIA Vera Rubin Reference Design
The centerpiece of this announcement is the new NVIDIA Vera Rubin reference design, one of the first created specifically for the NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 racks. This validated design comprehensively addresses power and cooling requirements while integrating with Schneider Electric's control reference designs.
The reference design introduces several innovative features:
- Enables new power distribution with increased supply voltage of 480 VAC
- Allows higher TCS loop supply temperature of 45°C for enhanced efficiency
- Supports new IT room architecture with clusters of AI racks sharing centralized networking, storage, CPU, and support racks
- Maximizes token performance by designing data centers to accommodate various operating points of GPU racks
This design has been validated using ETAP models for electrical system design and ITD CFD models for layout and airflow optimization. By incorporating NVIDIA's MaxQ operating point, the reference design enables more tokens per watt, overriding power constraints and optimizing computing performance through redundancy.
Lifecycle Digital Twin Architecture for AI Factories
AVEVA, the industrial software company owned by Schneider Electric, has collaborated with NVIDIA to develop a new lifecycle digital twin architecture specifically designed for gigawatt-scale AI factories. This architecture aims to maximize GPU efficiency and accelerate the deployment of AI factories at unprecedented speed and scale.
Schneider Electric is committed to creating SimReady assets and digital twins through NVIDIA Omniverse, supported by AVEVA's advanced software platform. With this integration, AVEVA's engineering and operations software is now embedded throughout the NVIDIA Omniverse DSX Blueprint and ecosystem.
The digital twin architecture is projected to significantly accelerate time-to-token through domain-specific simulations, digital visualization, and collaborative design tools that will drive substantial engineering optimization throughout the AI factory lifecycle.
Testing Agentic AI for Autonomous Operations
In another forward-looking development, Schneider Electric has begun testing NVIDIA Nemotron models for agentic AI applications focused on data center alarm management services. This testing represents an important step toward the next generation of autonomous, software-defined operations for AI infrastructure.
The agentic AI testing marks progress toward creating more intelligent, self-managing data center environments that can optimize operations dynamically based on real-time conditions and requirements.
Industry Implications and Future Outlook
These announcements collectively represent a major advancement in AI infrastructure development. By combining Schneider Electric's energy technology expertise with NVIDIA's computing leadership and AVEVA's industrial software capabilities, the partnership addresses critical challenges in scaling AI operations to gigawatt levels.
The validated blueprints and reference designs provide a roadmap for organizations looking to build and operate large-scale AI factories efficiently. The integration of digital twin technology throughout the design and operational phases promises to reduce deployment timelines while optimizing performance and energy efficiency.
As AI continues to drive innovation across industries, partnerships like this one between Schneider Electric, NVIDIA, and AVEVA will play a crucial role in developing the infrastructure necessary to support increasingly sophisticated AI applications at scale.
