In our latest episode of Lexicon, we sat down with Tom Grainger, Commercial Vice President at Niron Magnetics,  to explore the hidden role permanent magnets play in modern technology and electrification.

From electric vehicles and wind turbines to smartphones and speakers, these components are essential to countless devices we rely on every day. Tom also discussed the growing strategic importance of rare earth magnets and the risks associated with highly concentrated global supply chains.

Also, subscribe to IE+ for premium insights and exclusive content!

Reinventing the magnet

Permanent magnets rarely make headlines. Yet, as Grainger explained to us, they sit at the core of modern electrification.

“Pretty well every modern electronic device relies on permanent magnets,” he told us. “The car you drive, the speakers you’re hearing me come out of right now, the microphone that’s picking up my voice, all of those are permanent magnet devices,” he added.

“Relying on rare earth magnets today means relying on a supply chain that is over 90 percent concentrated in China. Single point of failure geopolitically,” he said.

But it turns out the issue is not limited to mining.

“All through the supply chain, you see that concentration,” he explained. The result is what he calls a pinch point. “You’ve got a pinch point on which the global economy hinges,” he added.

A magnet-hungry world

Furthermore, the demand side only intensifies the pressure. “As cars install more speakers and compete on infotainment and a great in-cab experience, doubling the speakers doubles the magnets,” Grainger told us. 

“Imagine as you move from an F-35 to a swarm of drones, you’re saving a lot of money, saving a lot of material, but you are greatly increasing your magnet consumption,” he added.

Even in a stable geopolitical climate, supply would be strained. “Even if everything is peachy globally, there are just not enough rare earths to solve this magnet-hungry global economy,” he added.

“For some critical rare earths, China put in place export controls,” he said. Those elements are required for high-temperature applications, which represent roughly 80 percent of use cases. Automotive production slowed. Defense programs accelerated alternative sourcing efforts. Phones, he recalls, were “ringing off the hook.”

“Magnets may already be as strategically important as semiconductors,” he added.

Forty years without a new material

Beyond supply risk, Grainger argues, there is a deeper technological constraint. The last major breakthrough in magnetic materials came in the 1980s with rare-earth magnets.

“The last time we had a new magnetic material that has had any sort of real commercial impact was rare earth magnets in the 1980s,” he told us.

That means four decades of motor and generator design constrained by the same materials. He uses a culinary analogy. “You can imagine you are a chef. You’ve been working with four ingredients. Suddenly, you have another option. It is just an unlock for breakthroughs in motor design,” he added.

“We’ve spent four decades without a new key and without a new door open,” he said. That new key, according to Niron, is iron nitride.

Iron nitride to the rescue

According to Grainger, iron nitride is not a brand-new discovery, being first identified in the 1950s. Later attempts in Japan produced promising but inconsistent results. The missing piece was the ability to understand and control the material at the nanoscale.

“We did not have the technology at the time to be able to explain, just from a physics perspective, what makes iron nitride so magnetic, and then to reliably produce iron nitride in this magnetic phase,” Grainger told us.

Advances in imaging and characterization in the 2000s and early 2010s changed that. “The ability to see what you’re doing when you make an experimental attempt to measure it was unlocked by advances in characterization imaging,” he added.

From there, it took more than a decade to move from laboratory research to bulk, commercially viable magnets. “It was a decade from that program to actually having commercially viable bulk permanent magnets,” he said.

The potential upside is significant. “For a rare earth permanent magnet made of neodymium, that number is about 1.6 Tesla,” he explained. “For iron nitride, that equivalent limit is 2.4 Tesla,” he added.

“That ceiling is 50 percent higher than rare earth permanent magnets,” he said.

Temperature performance is another factor. Rare earth magnets rely on scarce heavy rare earth elements such as dysprosium and terbium to maintain performance at high temperatures. “Iron nitride, just by virtue of its underlying crystal structure and properties, gets that temperature stability for free,” Grainger said.

Unlocking variable flux motors

One of the most intriguing applications discussed in the episode is the variable flux motor. Traditional permanent magnet motors use a technique called flux weakening at high speeds, which requires continuous electrical input. 

Grainger described it with a metaphor: “think of it as holding a spring. If you move your hand, it pops right back up. And so you’re using power to do that.”

Variable flux offers a different approach. “Instead of continuous energy expenditure holding down that spring, it’s like a ratchet. You push down the spring once, and you lock it into place,” he said.

The result is improved efficiency across the speed range. In electric vehicles, that translates directly to range and battery savings. “You get a 2 percent decrease in battery materials. The cost savings on that don’t just pay for your magnets, that pays for your whole motor,” he added.

The same logic applies to appliances and data centers. Efficiency gains compound quickly when systems operate continuously.

Scaling manufacturing

Moving from breakthrough to production required another leap. “Niron has been introducing iron nitride permanent magnets, and we’re doing so on a nano scale,” Grainger told us. 

“Our lab breakthrough was then the second breakthrough, which is really the process. And the process in that case becomes the product,” he said. The goal is modular scalability. Facilities can be replicated in multiple regions, reducing geographic concentration risk.

Iron nitride is composed of iron and nitrogen. Both are abundant and widely sourced. “Anywhere you have an industrialized society, you’ve got an opportunity for iron nitride domestic magnet production,” he said.

A strategic shift

Looking at the bigger picture, Grainger drew a historical analogy to the Haber-Bosch process, which enabled synthetic fertilizer production and reduced reliance on guano mining. “What iron nitride is, is that shift,” he said. “So, what if we could avoid all of that digging. What if we could avoid the reliance on what is fundamentally any mine has a shelf life,” he added.

So, instead of finite ore bodies, he describes a factory-built approach. “This is innovation as a cookie-cutter. Sort of the abundance philosophy around magnets,” he told us.

And, defense customers have taken notice. Programs initially planned for five to seven-year development timelines were “suddenly on 18-month fast tracks” after export controls tightened.

What the next decade has in store

Looking ahead, Grainger defines success in pragmatic terms. “Success for iron nitride is that we’re not talking about magnets as a scarce or critical pain point in global supply chains,” he added.

Beyond stability, he anticipates innovation. New motor and generator designs built around the expanded magnetic ceiling. Localized manufacturing in Asia, Europe, and North America. Reduced vulnerability and expanded design freedom.

“It can be hard sometimes to think about, can new things be done that aren’t just new assembly or new software?” he told us. “And absolutely they can.”

A senior Android security leader is leaving Google after criticizing its Pentagon AI work, environmental commitments, and internal transparency.

Jeff Bezos’ AI startup, Prometheus, raised $12 billion to build “artificial general engineer” tools to accelerate product design and manufacturing.

A senior Android security leader resigned from Google, citing concerns over its Pentagon AI work, climate commitments, and internal transparency.

Oura Ring uses Stelo by Dexcom to show glucose patterns, meal responses, and Time Above Range for users tracking blood sugar awareness.

SpaceX’s reported mega-IPO could test investor appetite for Elon Musk’s space, Starlink, and AI ambitions amid valuation and governance concerns.

OpenAI plans to acquire Ona to strengthen Codex with secure cloud workspaces for AI coding agents in enterprise software workflows.

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have created advanced aluminum alloys that could allow for far lighter truck engines still capable of operating at higher temperatures.

The alloys have successfully met the demanding strength and durability requirements of General Motors’ new low-mass, high-efficiency (LMHE) medium-duty truck engine.

Testing under a cooperative research and development agreement showed more than 10 percent improvement in fuel efficiency and a 15 percent reduction in engine weight compared to conventional designs.

New alloys enable reduced mass and superior high-temperature performance

Commercial truck engines, such as those in GM’s Chevrolet Silverado 3500, must endure heavy loads and extended operation.

Traditional materials capable of withstanding these conditions are dense, which hurts fuel economy. Lighter alternatives often fail under the elevated temperatures and pressures of high-performance engines.

According to an ORNL press statement, their team’s new alloys resolve this conflict by providing both reduced mass and superior high-temperature performance.

The ORNL researchers tested two aluminum alloys. One of these, cast ACMZ (AlCuMnZr), was used for the LMHE engine’s cylinder heads and block. It offers high strength at low cost while resisting intense heat and mechanical stress.

The second, DuAlumin3D, is a 3D-printable alloy developed for pistons. It combines lightweight construction with what ORNL describes as the strongest known combination of strength and durability at extreme temperatures for a structural aluminum.

“The shared goal between ORNL and GM was to demonstrate next-generation engines for high-volume trucks that are lighter, lower-cost, and more efficient, all without sacrificing power and performance,” said Allen Haynes, director of the ORNL-led TTO Powertrain Materials Core Program consortium.

“This is a remarkable set of combined outcomes by the GM design team,” added Amit Shyam, who leads ORNL’s Alloy Behavior and Design Group. “Any weight shaved off an engine equates to more miles per gallon for the average driver, saving not only energy, but money.”

An accelerated alloy design approach

The GM-led project, which included ORNL and multiple suppliers, passed rigorous performance and durability tests. In 2025, it earned an R&D 100 Award and a DOE 2025 Team Award. Both ACMZ and DuAlumin3D had previously received R&D 100 honors for earlier breakthroughs.

According to the ORNL press statement, the collaboration integrated materials science, advanced manufacturing, combustion engineering, and computational modeling. ORNL’s accelerated alloy design approach compresses the timeline from concept to prototype application to two to four years. This is a massive reduction when compared with the traditional 10 to 15 years. The shorter lead time reduces costs and risks in moving laboratory innovations to commercial use.

The project received support from the Department of Energy’s Transportation Technologies Office and Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office. The successful demonstration shows how targeted federal research can move quickly from laboratory alloys to proven engine components, giving US truck manufacturers a practical path to lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles that maintain full performance and durability.

Scientists at Northwestern University have developed a new liquid material that harvests, stores, and releases energy within a single system.

Powered by sources like light or electricity, the metal- and plastic-free material physically shape-shifts from a fluid into an energy-dense gel to store power, then resets to a liquid simply by exposure to open air. 

This sustainable, adaptable platform eliminates the need for hardware components, opening new doors for clean energy and soft electronics.

“Our material’s ability to store and release energy on demand could make it useful for energy storage, environmental remediation and next-generation soft electronics,” said Samuel I. Stupp, the study’s senior author. 

Bio-inspired technique

To build it, the team looked inside our own bodies and drew inspiration from the cell’s cytoskeleton.

A cellular skeleton is incredibly dynamic. It constantly constructs, breaks down, and reconstructs itself to help the cell move and divide.

Northwestern researchers designed a material that physically builds, dismantles, and rebuilds itself to manage energy. 

Powered by external electrons from sources such as sunlight or X-rays, the initial yellow liquid transforms into an energy-rich black gel that can store energy for months and drive chemical reactions. 

The entire process resets seamlessly when exposed to open air, which dissolves the gel back into its liquid state, allowing it to be recharged and reused repeatedly.

“Living systems are remarkably dynamic,” Stupp said. “They constantly build structures, break them apart, and rebuild them. We wanted to create a synthetic material that behaves in a similar way while performing useful functions.”

To overcome the limitation where energy harvesting, storage, and usage require separate devices, researchers used supramolecular materials that self-organize into larger networks. 

A custom molecule, ANI-MV, was designed. It integrates two functional components into a single system: an amino naphthalene aromatic unit (ANI) that responds to light, and a methyl viologen (MV) unit that stores the captured electrons.

Use in soft electronics

When the light-responsive ANI portion absorbs energy, it transfers electrons to the MV portion, causing neighboring molecules to strongly attract and form pairs called pimers. 

These pimers organize into semiconducting nanoscale ribbons with free-moving, delocalized electrons that eventually entangle into a black gel. 

This network stores electrons throughout its structure, marking the first real-world example of a supramolecular polymeric pimer built from electron-storing molecular pairs.

In laboratory experiments, researchers demonstrated the material’s remarkable versatility by triggering its transformation from a yellow liquid into an energy-rich, conductive black gel using chemical fuel, light, electricity, or X-rays. 

As light can selectively target the fluid, scientists were able to print microscopic conductive patterns that completely vanish once exposed to open air, which reverts the gel back into non-conductive liquid clusters. 

Furthermore, this stored energy can be transferred to oxygen, generating highly reactive molecules that enable the gel to power chemical reactions in complete darkness. This process is known as dark photocatalysis.

“Most light-driven materials stop working when the light source is gone,” Stupp said. “Our material enables a form of ‘dark photocatalysis.'”

Researchers envision this material powering applications ranging from environmental remediation and clean energy to adaptive soft electronics.

The study was published in the journal Chem on June 11.

💾

In the urgent race to cool a warming planet, scientists have long dreamed of turning a major villain into a valuable asset. The challenge has always been the sheer amount of energy required to force stable greenhouse gases into a more useful state.

Now, University of Nottingham scientists have developed a solar-powered reactor that couples two novel catalyst materials to drive two independent reactions at once. 

Powered entirely by sunlight, the system simultaneously transforms carbon dioxide into a valuable chemical while converting biomass waste into the essential building blocks for sustainable plastics.

This device accomplishes the feat by extracting two distinct, valuable chemical products from the energy of a single photon of light.

The split-chamber reactor

The machine is known as a bias-free photoelectrochemical (PEC) reactor. 

It works through a twin-compartment design, effectively splitting a single solar interaction down the middle to achieve two goals at once.

The dual-compartment reactor uses a single photon of sunlight to drive a highly efficient chain reaction. 

“At the heart of the process is a nanostructured photoanode made of carbon nitride and tungsten oxide semiconductors, enhanced with a cobalt oxide layer, which is coupled to a cathode in the second compartment,” said Dr Madasamy Thangamuthu, Research Fellow at the School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, who designed the PEC reactor and catalysts. 

The solar-driven process begins when a photon of light strikes the photoanode, generating a freed electron and an atomic vacancy called a hole. 

While the electron travels to the cathode to reduce carbon dioxide, the remaining hole simultaneously oxidizes the biomass molecule 5-Hydroxymethyl-2-furoic acid (HMFA), thereby executing two distinct chemical upgrades at the same time.

When light hits the first compartment, it oxidizes a biowaste molecule into a precursor for next-generation plastics. This reaction releases an electron, which travels to the second compartment to reduce carbon dioxide into formate, a versatile chemical used in textiles, paints, and pharmaceuticals.

Tailored for the real world

Operating purely on solar energy, without requiring external heat or electricity, the reactor achieves approximately 93 percent conversion for carbon dioxide and 95 percent oxidation for biomass. 

The use of photon energy offers a highly efficient and sustainable blueprint for zero-emission chemical manufacturing.

Furthermore, many modern lab breakthroughs use rare, hyper-expensive metals like platinum or iridium to drive their chemistry. These materials look wonderful in academic journals but are completely impractical for global industrial scaling.

The Nottingham team engineered their materials entirely from earth-abundant, inexpensive elements. 

The scientists kept production costs low while maintaining high efficiency rates through a unique method: they assembled the catalyst‘s metal atoms into custom-tailored sizes and shapes directly on the reactor surfaces.

A full life cycle assessment has already validated the system’s low-carbon footprint. 

The long-term vision is a decentralized manufacturing network. These modular reactors can eventually be connected directly to active factory smokestacks and local agricultural biorefineries.

Ultimately, the team views this discovery as a vital step toward meeting global net-zero targets by directly harnessing solar energy to tackle the dual challenges of greenhouse gas reduction and waste valorization.

The study was published in the journal Communications Materials on June 12.

💾

Engineers at the University of Texas at Austin have built a jacket that captures moisture from the surrounding air and converts it into drinkable water — a development that could have practical consequences for soldiers, hikers, and disaster-relief workers operating far from any water source.

How the textile works

The jacket uses a hygroscopic sorbent woven directly into the fabric. These materials have a strong thermodynamic affinity for water vapor, adsorbing moisture from the atmosphere even at relatively low humidity levels.

Once the sorbent is saturated, a low-grade heat source — potentially body heat or a small solar element integrated into the garment — triggers desorption, releasing the captured water vapor into a compact condensation chamber where it accumulates as liquid. The resulting water is then channeled through a filtration stage before it is considered safe to drink.

The design avoids the energy-intensive refrigeration cycles that conventional atmospheric water generators rely on, which makes a wearable form factor physically plausible.

Traditional atmospheric water-harvesting systems typically require significant electrical input to cool a surface below the dew point; this jacket sidesteps that requirement by using sorption-desorption kinetics.

Material selection and engineering constraints

Choosing the right sorbent is the central engineering problem. The material must adsorb water rapidly, release it cleanly under mild thermal stimulation, survive repeated wetting-and-drying cycles without degrading, and remain flexible enough not to compromise the garment’s wearability.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and certain hydrogel composites have emerged as candidate materials in the broader atmospheric water-harvesting literature, and similar classes of materials are likely candidates for this type of application, though the specific formulation used by the UT Austin team is detailed in their official announcement.

Yield rate is a genuine constraint. The volume of water a garment-scale sorbent can collect per day is governed by the exposed surface area, the ambient relative humidity, and the cycling frequency of adsorption and desorption.

In arid environments — precisely where a portable water supply is most critical — lower atmospheric humidity directly limits output, so the technology performs best in humid or semi-arid conditions rather than true desert climates.

Structural integration with the garment

Embedding a functional water-harvesting system into a garment without making it impractical to wear requires careful attention to weight distribution, vapor permeability, and thermal management. If the outer layer is too occlusive, it traps sweat, raising the wearer’s core temperature.

The UT Austin design must balance the need to expose the sorbent to ambient air against the thermal comfort requirements of the person wearing it — a tradeoff that textile engineers working on responsive smart fabrics have encountered in other contexts.

Contamination risk and water quality

Atmospheric water harvesting is not inherently free of contamination risk. Air in industrial or wildfire-affected areas can carry particulates, volatile organic compounds, and heavy metals, which a sorbent material may co-adsorb with water vapor.

The filtration stage integrated into the jacket’s collection system is therefore not a minor accessory — it is a critical safety component. Whether the filtration approach is sufficient across a range of realistic environmental conditions, and how the filter itself is serviced or replaced in the field, are questions that field trials will need to address before the technology sees wide deployment.

Potential applications and near-term limitations

Military logistics, backcountry search-and-rescue, and humanitarian response in regions with disrupted water infrastructure are the most direct use cases. Each imposes different durability, laundering, and maintenance requirements.

A garment that can survive the wash cycles of standard military field use while retaining its hygroscopic function is a considerably harder engineering target than a laboratory prototype.

This research was first published in the journal Science Advances.

NUBURU Inc., a developer of advanced blue-laser technologies and defense-focused photonics solutions, has announced a significant step forward in underwater energy transmission through a new collaboration with Italian technology company SunCubes.

The initiative will see NUBURU, through its subsidiary Lyocon S.r.l., design specialized blue-laser technology for integration into SunCubes’ DEEP LIGHT underwater wireless power platform.

Underwater laser-based power transmission system

The project represents the first concrete application emerging from a recently signed agreement between NUBURU and SunCubes. It aims to develop an underwater laser-based power transmission system capable of delivering energy wirelessly to autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and other subsea systems, potentially transforming the way underwater assets are powered and operated.

The DEEP LIGHT platform is designed around a high-power laser transmitter and receiver architecture that enables contactless energy transfer underwater. Unlike traditional underwater charging methods that require physical docking or cable connections, the system seeks to transmit power over distances of several tens of meters using laser beams operating in the blue-green optical spectrum.

This wavelength range is particularly important because blue and blue-green light experiences lower attenuation in water than many other wavelengths, allowing energy and data to travel more efficiently through underwater environments. By leveraging NUBURU’s expertise in blue-laser technology, the collaboration aims to improve the efficiency, reliability, and scalability of underwater wireless power systems.

Blue-laser technology

Lyocon, acquired by NUBURU earlier this year, will serve as the laser-source design and integration partner for the project. The company brings established expertise in laser manufacturing, photonics engineering, and systems integration, positioning it as a key contributor to the development of the DEEP LIGHT platform.

Under the planned arrangement, Lyocon is expected to design and potentially supply the blue-laser technology layer required for the platform. Its responsibilities may include laser-source development, optical integration, system validation, and support for future industrial-scale deployment.

The collaboration highlights growing interest in underwater autonomy, subsea infrastructure protection, maritime security, and offshore energy applications. As governments and commercial operators increasingly deploy autonomous underwater systems, the need for reliable long-range power delivery and recharging solutions continues to grow.

NUBURU believes the partnership could open access to a multi-billion-dollar addressable market spanning autonomous underwater vehicles, subsea sensors, offshore inspection systems, underwater communications networks, and critical maritime infrastructure. The company also views underwater laser power transmission as a strategic extension of its broader defense and security technology portfolio.

The DEEP LIGHT project has received recognition within Italy’s underwater technology ecosystem and was presented during activities associated with the National Underwater Dimension Hub (PNS), supported by the Italian Navy. SunCubes has also attracted investment support from entities linked to CDP Venture Capital, reinforcing the project’s strategic relevance within Italy’s national innovation framework.

While the collaboration remains subject to definitive agreements, regulatory approvals, and technical validation, it marks an important milestone in the development of next-generation underwater energy systems. If successful, the integration of NUBURU’s blue-laser technology into the DEEP LIGHT platform could pave the way for longer-duration underwater missions, reduced operational constraints, and new capabilities across defense, research, and commercial maritime sectors.

As underwater autonomy and subsea infrastructure become increasingly critical to national security and industrial operations, the NUBURU–SunCubes partnership demonstrates how advanced photonics technologies may help redefine the future of underwater power transmission.

Explore six AI family photo restoration trends, from archive repair to colorization, with prompts for ChatGPT, Gemini, and Qwen.

A Chinese startup has claimed a breakthrough in photonic chip manufacturing by producing 8-inch optical chip wafers without relying on conventional deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography systems.

Hangzhou-based Prinano said it successfully validated mass production of photonic chips using its nanoimprint lithography (NIL) technology, a manufacturing approach that physically stamps nanoscale patterns onto wafers instead of projecting them through optical systems.

According to the company, the process was carried out in collaboration with Shenzhen Litra Technology and used its PL-AS vacuum air-cushion nanoimprint lithography equipment. Prinano said the method “completely avoids” the need for DUV lithography tools while reducing manufacturing costs to about one-tenth of traditional solutions.

The announcement comes as Chinese chipmakers continue looking for alternative manufacturing technologies amid restrictions on access to advanced lithography systems from Dutch supplier ASML.

Seeking lithography alternatives

Photonic chips are used in applications such as optical communications, sensing systems, lidar, and data centers. Unlike conventional electronic chips, they process information using light rather than electrical signals.

Prinano said its technology supports wafer-level production of photonic chips and can be applied to optical communication and sensing devices based on gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, and silicon photonics.

The company said its PL-AS tool offers sub-10-nanometer line-width resolution along with wafer-level pressure control. However, it did not disclose production volumes, manufacturing yields, or customer shipment data.

Nanoimprint lithography has long been viewed as a potential alternative to traditional optical lithography because it can create extremely fine features without the need for expensive projection optics. The technology was pioneered in the 1990s by Princeton University professor Stephen Y. Chou.

Prinano founder Ge Haixiong studied under Chou and established the company in 2017 to develop NIL equipment, materials, and manufacturing processes.

Questions over scalability

Interest in nanoimprint lithography has increased in recent years as chipmakers seek lower-cost manufacturing methods. In 2023, Canon introduced a commercial NIL system and promoted it as an alternative to some advanced lithography tools.

Despite the promise, analysts have questioned whether the technology can match the throughput and yields required for large-scale semiconductor manufacturing.

Research firm SemiAnalysis has previously noted that while NIL equipment can be cheaper than advanced lithography tools, overall economics depend on factors such as defect rates, template production, throughput, and process integration.

Prinano’s announcement focuses specifically on photonic chips rather than advanced logic processors, a distinction that may make commercialization more achievable. Photonic devices often rely on repeating nanoscale structures such as gratings, waveguides, and ring resonators, which can be well suited to imprint-based manufacturing.

The company said the technology has moved into wafer-level production validation, but independent verification of yields, commercial deployment, and manufacturing scale has not yet been disclosed.

For China’s semiconductor industry, the development highlights ongoing efforts to explore alternative manufacturing routes as access to advanced lithography equipment remains restricted.

These five AI image-editing prompts can help improve backgrounds, outfits, headshots, product photos, and image quality across today’s top tools.

Learn eight Google Gemini AI prompts that transform ordinary photos into polished portraits for LinkedIn, personal branding, family photos, and more.

Ferveret, a startup from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is using cooling technology deployed in nuclear reactors to solve challenges faced by data centers today. The waterless cooling technology can also help establish data centers in areas where water is scarce while abundant solar energy powers the chips and cooling infrastructure. 

The recent surge in artificial intelligence (AI) applications has been made possible by high-performance computing chips from companies like NVIDIA. When AI needs to be deployed at scale, companies need to house many chips capable of processing information quickly enough. To save costs, they hire computing power from private data centers that buy and deploy the high-performance chips and rent them out over the long term. 

As more and more companies deploy AI in their workflows, the demand for data centers has shot up. With new data centers, energy demand is also growing. Estimates suggest that by the end of the decade, up to 17 percent of the US electricity usage will be consumed by data centers. The power consumption is not just for high-performance chips but also for cooling them. 

Liquid cooling chips

When data centers were first set up, chips were cooled using air. As their computing capacities increased, they began to generate more heat, which needed better cooling approaches. 

Liquids are better than air at removing heat from a chip. Their performance is even better when the heat is used to bring about a phase change. At the liquid’s boiling point, it can extract more heat from the chip without increasing the temperature difference between the liquid and the chip. 

The newest data centers use an immersion cooling approach in which the entire server rack is immersed in the cooling liquid to maximize heat transfer. However, with AI adding more computational power to the server pack, heat generation has increased, necessitating newer cooling solutions. 

Nuclear reactor-inspired tech

MIT spin-off Ferveret is looking to deploy cooling technology used in nuclear reactors and adapt it for data center use. Called subcooled boiling, it uses a liquid with a low boiling point, which produces smaller bubbles than immersion cooling approaches. 

While immersion cooling has to contend with issues such as capturing the bubbles and reliquefying them under constrained pressure and temperature conditions, in Ferveret’s approach, the bubbles recondense quickly into the surrounding liquid. 

In a recent study, Ferveret found that its cooling solution resulted in up to 15 percent improvement in computational power efficiency compared to state-of-the-art immersive cooling techniques. This, combined with Fereveret’s proprietary power control system, allows data centers to extract 35 percent more tokens from the AI models without any increase in power usage. 

Ferveret’s Adaptive Phase Cooling (APC) system is deployed in small boxes, each capable of housing one server. This modular approach allows its deploy and maintain its system much more easily. 

“The physics enable us to get to form factors that weren’t possible in the past,” said Reza Azizian, co-founder at Ferveret, in a press release. “Most immersion cooling solutions are large tanks that people submerge the servers in. We have a smaller, modular rack-mounted solution that makes it adaptable to the current infrastructure, so it’s easier for people to deploy our technology.”

The waterless cooling approach is also beneficial in areas where water is scarce, but sunlight is plentiful. Setting up solar power plants in these areas is simple, but with low water, data centers could not be cooled down. 

“This technology can help deploy data centers in regions where normally you wouldn’t have the resources to do so, including Africa, the Middle East, and of course parts of America. It’s a huge unlock,” added Matteo Bucci, associate professor at the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and also Ferveret co-founder. 

Explore the biggest ChatGPT photo editing trends of 2026, from caricatures and toy-style portraits to nostalgic film edits and AI collages.

Discover six powerful Gemini AI photo editing prompts that help you transform selfies, product shots, and portraits with professional results.

Visa and OpenAI are bringing payment tools to ChatGPT agents, raising new questions about fees, disputes, privacy, and user control.