Powering the AI Inference Wave with EPRI's Ben Sooter - Ep. 292

Welcome to the NVIDIA AI podcast. I'm Noah Kravitz. Today, we're talking microdata centers with Ben Suter, director of r and d at EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute. The relationship between AI data centers and energy grids is an increasingly important one, to say the least. In a moment, we'll talk about how micro data centers can help strengthen that relationship. But first, a quick note about GTC San Jose. Join us at the world's premier AI conference. GTC San Jose is online and in person, March 16 through the nineteenth. From physical AI and AI factories to agentic AI and inference, GTC twenty twenty six will showcase the breakthrough shaping every industry. Learn more and register at nvidia.com/gtc. Ben Suter, welcome. Thank you so much for taking the time to join the NVIDIA AI podcast. Really glad to have you here. Yeah. Great to be here, Noah. Super excited. So, Ben, to to kinda set the table before we dive in, for listeners who don't know EPRI, can you briefly explain, well, first, who you are and what you do, and as part of that, what EPRI is and what EPRI does? Yeah. Absolutely. So EPRI is a is a sort of a unique organization. We're a a five zero one c three not for profit. It's an independent institute, focusing on r and d, collaborates with more than 400 companies across more than 40 countries, and really drives innovation to ensure sort of the public has reliable and affordable energy. So really awesome mission statement and been a really exciting place to work. You've been at EPRI for a couple of decades now. Yeah. I've been here a while. I just crossed over the 20 mark, which I I feel like is is ancient times in the way the corporate world works now. Right. Well, congratulations. And, you kinda this is exactly why I asked because I'm I'm thinking about data centers and and AI, but hearing you talk about things like nuclear and thinking, like, man, you, like, must have seen some things and worked on some projects. And thinking back, you know, over twenty years and how technology and, energy reliance and consumption must have evolved. I don't know if this is a fair question to ask, but can you kind of place our current moment in context to, you know, sort of what you've seen, with how the world uses energy and stuff you've worked on over the years? Yeah. Yeah. That's a that's a a great question, a great way to frame it. Because it and it it gets to why I probably have stayed here twenty years, which is that there's just so much, you know, change and and a lot of different exciting things that have evolved across the sector in the industry, that have have sort of landed us here today. Yeah. So so lot lots of stuff going on. It's been interesting as you come in, and I'm I'm …