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(Image credit: Boom) Besides having already eaten most sorts of chip production, AI is quickly coming for power sources. Gas turbines are seeing increased demand, and companies like xAI are using tens of units to power their data centers. Now, Boom, known for its supersonic airliner project , has revealed the Superpower turbine with a bang, a new project that will repurpose its aircraft engine tech to power AI data centers.
The Superpower turbine is purportedly "optimized for AI datacenters," a claim boiled down to delivering its full 42 MW with 39% efficiency, at an operating temperature up to a toasty 110° F (43° C). Judging by a quick search, that's significantly higher than contemporary designs, whose output drops at around 86° F (30° C), if not much sooner—and precisely when it's most needed, when servers are working the hardest.
Almost as importantly, Boom claims the new design is "waterless", a fact that should somewhat assuage ever-growing concerns about datacenters' water usage . Although the servers' cooling towers still need water to function, the fact that it would no longer be necessary to cool the turbines would definitely be a bonus.
Jet engine shortages threaten AI data center expansion as wait times stretch into 2030 — the rush to power AI buildout continues
xAI's new gas turbine facility gets halfway to Elon Musk's 1-gigawatt 'AI factory' goal
Massive AI data center buildouts are squeezing energy supplies — New energy methods are being explored as power demands are set to skyrocket
Boom says it's taken an order for its new design from Crusoe AI for a substantial 1.21 GW of turbines. The company says it builds everything in Denver, Colorado, and that it intends to create a Superfactory for this new enterprise . Boom expects to deliver 200 MW worth of turbines by 2027, 1 GW in 2028, and up to a meaty 2 GW come 2029. Crusoe ordered 29 units, and the first of them ought to be delivered in 2027.
According to Boom's Blake Scholl, the idea came about due to the fact that xAI and OpenAI both are using converted jet engines , whose main limitation is twofold: commercial availability and falling output at high ambient temperatures, as they're designed for high-altitude operation. The Superpower turbine design is derived from the company's existing Symphony airspace-targeted turbine.
According to Boom, the Symphony engine is designed to power supersonic flight at speeds of up to Mach 1.7 at 60,000 feet. Superpower will run on natural gas, rather than jet fuel, of course. While news of a Concorde successor pivoting its tech to AI might give aviation fans pause, Boom says the new project will actually boost its core mission. "The fastest way to a certified, passenger-carrying Symphony engine is to run its core for hundreds of thousands of hours in the real world, powering Earth’s most demanding AI data centers," Boom says.
Turns out these supersonic jet-powered AI data centers will actually serve as a giant test bed for Boom's turbines. Naturally a profitable venture, Boom also says that the profitability from Superpower will fund "the remainder of the aircraft program," creating a self-sustaining path to supersonic flight.
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- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/supersonic-airline-outfit-boom-unveils-turbine-for-ai-data-centers-42-mw-superpower-turbine-uses-the-same-tech-designed-to-power-concorde-successor-to-mach-1-7-at-60-000-ft#main
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