- Co-engineered reference design provides a proven blueprint for deploying high-density AI clusters faster and with less risk.
- Design supports 246 kW AI racks and large-scale deployments with modular AI clusters of up to 10.4 MW IT load for easy scalability
- Collaboration combines AMD AI platform innovation and Schneider Electric's expertise in power, cooling, and digital infrastructure
SAN FRANCISCO, July 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Schneider Electric, a global energy technology leader, and AMD today announced a jointly developed and validated reference design for the AMD Helios rackscale solution that provides a scalable blueprint for deploying high-density AI environments faster and with reduced risk and complexity. The reference design marks the first milestone of the collaboration between Schneider Electric and AMD and delivers upon the companies' joint focus to create an easier path to AI Factory deployment.
The new reference design is the first ever developed to support high-density AI workloads on the Helios rackscale solution, which is powered by AMD Instinct MI455X GPUs, 6th Gen AMD EPYC CPUs, AMD Pensando Vulcano NICs and the open ROCm software ecosystem. AMD Helios is designed to deliver breakthrough AI performance through advances in compute, interconnect bandwidth, memory capacity and system-level integration, allowing customers to run larger, more complex AI workloads faster while optimizing power and efficiency.
As AI workloads push data center infrastructure to unprecedented limits, reference designs provide data center architects and operators with tested, scalable designs proven to handle new power densities, thermal requirements and operational complexity. By modeling data center physical infrastructure performance, these pre-validated blueprints help shorten the planning process by defining how power, cooling, and IT infrastructure should be organized to build a reliable, scalable, and AI-ready data center. The AMD Helios reference design includes information on four technical areas: facility power, facility cooling, IT space, and lifecycle software.
"Today organizations require comprehensive, AI-ready reference designs that can take them from planning to deployment faster and with less risk," said Manish Kumar, Executive Vice President, Secure Power & Data Centers at Schneider Electric. "Through our collaboration with AMD, we're delivering an engineering-backed reference design that bridges the gap between advanced AI compute platforms, energy tech, and real-world data center implementation, enabling customers to deploy scalable, high-density AI environments with greater confidence, efficiency, and speed."
"AI infrastructure is rapidly moving to full-scale AI factories, and that requires compute, networking, power and cooling to be designed together from the start," said Forrest Norrod, executive vice president and general manager, Data Center Solutions Business Group, AMD. "AMD Helios provides an open, rack-scale architecture built to deliver the performance, efficiency and flexibility required for next-generation AI workloads. By working with Schneider Electric to create a validated reference design, we are giving customers a practical blueprint to accelerate high-density AI deployments, reduce integration risk and scale with greater confidence and efficiency."
Reference Design Accelerates AMD Helios Deployment
The new collaboration brings together AMD AI platform innovation and Schneider Electric's expertise in power, cooling, and digital infrastructure, creating a more tightly integrated approach to deploying both greenfield AI factories and high-density retrofit environments. The reference design supports:
- Modular, multi-cluster environments, featuring AI clusters of up to 10.4 MW IT capacity for greenfield deployments
- High-density AI workloads up to 246 kW per rack
- Advanced liquid cooling using Motivair by Schneider Electric CDU-based and hybrid air/liquid approaches capable of removing up to 84% of heat
- A digital-first infrastructure approach, which includes:
- Electrical and thermal design validated using ETAP and EcoStruxure IT Design CFD simulation tools that enable real-time monitoring and analytics, AI-driven predictive maintenance, and system-level optimization across power, cooling, and IT
- Integrated Electrical Digital Twin capabilities to model, analyze, and manage infrastructure performance
- Support from AVEVA's Unified Operations Center for real-time monitoring and operational visibility
- Power and cooling infrastructure deployments that adhere to AMD Helios platform requirements for reduced integration complexity and deployment risk
- Better energy efficiency, with ability to achieve PUE as low as ~1.12 at full load
The reference design has been validated to ANSI standards for U.S. deployments, with plans to extend the framework to support IEC standards for global implementations in the future.
Press contact:mediarelations@se.com
Related resources:
- Data Center Reference Design 121: 10.4 and 6.2 MW, Tier III, ANSI, Chilled Water, Liquid-Cooled AI Clusters (AMD Instinct MI455X GPUs)
About Schneider Electric
Schneider Electric is a global energy technology leader, driving efficiency and sustainability by electrifying, automating, and digitalizing industries, businesses, and homes. Its technologies enable buildings, data centers, factories, infrastructure, and grids to operate as open, interconnected ecosystems, enhancing performance, resilience, and sustainability. The portfolio includes intelligent devices, software-defined architectures, AI-powered systems, digital services, and expert advisory.
With 160,000 employees and one million partners in over 100 countries, Schneider Electric is consistently ranked among the world's most sustainable companies.
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