The Open Compute Project Podcast

What if the biggest constraint on the AI era isn't compute power, software, or even money, it's how we cool the hardware that runs it all? In this episode, Rob Coyle sits down with Jean-Marc Denis, Chief Product Officer at Submer, to explore why immersion cooling has gone from an exotic idea in a Barcelona garage eleven years ago to what many believe will be the dominant cooling paradigm for AI infrastructure.
Jean-Marc brings nearly 40 years of high-performance computing experience — from designing supercomputers to founding the European Processor Initiative — to a sweeping conversation about intelligence per watt, the power and water constraints reshaping data center strategy, and why the real money in AI is not in training mega-models but in inference at the edge.
This episode covers both the technical and business dimensions of the AI infrastructure buildout, including why the six-month land-to-first-token expectation is forcing a co-design revolution, and how immersion cooling's simplicity — not its complexity — may be its most underrated advantage.
What You'll Learn
Why the AI era has shifted the core efficiency metric from raw compute performance to tokens per watt and intelligence per watt
How immersion cooling's power overhead advantage — from a PUE of 1.3 down to as low as 1.02 — translates to dramatically more compute capacity within the same power envelope
Why power availability, not cost, is now the binding constraint — and how that changes the calculus for data center operators at every scale
The community pushback on large data centers and why immersion cooling's zero water usage is a strategic asset for permitting and local acceptance
The difference between greenfield and brownfield deployments and why investors are now demanding a path from land to first token in six months or less
Why the edge is where the real AI enterprise money is — and why inference at the edge demands a fundamentally different infrastructure philosophy than training at hyperscale
How immersion cooling compares to direct-to-chip liquid cooling in terms of maintenance complexity — and why the comparison has flipped
Submer's co-design approach: turnkey nano, micro, and mini data center solutions from a few kilowatts to 100+ megawatts, designed around usage model first
Why the Cambrian explosion of inference AI engines makes cooling flexibility — not optimization for one chip — the most important infrastructure property going forward

Chapters
0:00 — Introduction — Meet Jean-Marc Denis, CPO of Submer and HPC Pioneer
0:53 — Submer's Story — From Barcelona Garage to Immersion Cooling Mainstream
3:59 — Intelligence Per Watt — How AI Redefined the Efficiency Metric
9:54 — Power Constraints at Scale — What PUE 1.02 Means at 1 Gigawatt
13:26 — Water, Permits, and Community Acceptance — The Hidden Advantage of Waterless Cooling
20:02 — The Maintenance Myth — Why Immersion Is Now Simpler Than Direct-to-Chip
24:24 — Co-Design and the 6-Month Data Center — Land to First Token
28:03 — The Inference Edge Opportunity — Where the Real AI Enterprise Money Is

About the Guest
Jean-Marc Denis
Jean-Marc Denis is the Chief Product Officer at Submer, the Barcelona-based immersion cooling company he joined in November 2024. He brings nearly 40 years of high-performance computing experience, including designing large-scale supercomputers, building an HPC organization from zero to a top-four global ranking, founding and chairing the European Processor Initiative, and launching a microprocessor design company.
About the Open Compute Project
The Open Compute Project (OCP) is a collaborative community committed to redesigning hardware technology to efficiently support the growing demands on compute infrastructure.

Every AI server rack deployed in a data center must pass electromagnetic compliance (EMC) testing before it can go live — it is a legal, regulatory requirement enforced by the FCC. But as AI hardware scales to megawatt-class racks with disaggregated compute, power, and liquid cooling systems, the test labs responsible for certifying that hardware are falling dangerously behind. There are only one or two labs in the world currently capable of handling the size, weight, and power demands of today's AI rack configurations — and the gap is widening with every new product generation.

In this episode, Jaswanth Vutukury — Lead EMC AI Hardware Infrastructure Engineer at Meta — joins host Rob Coyle to break down exactly why this bottleneck exists, what it means for hyperscalers and ODMs trying to bring next-gen AI infrastructure online, and why he is using the OCP podcast as a call to action: for test labs to join the OCP ecosystem, for hyperscalers to begin collaborating on the problem, and for the industry to explore alternatives to traditional testing before this becomes a hard stop on AI deployment.

What You'll Learn

- What electromagnetic compliance (EMC) testing is, why it is legally required, and what failure looks like in a real data center environment

- Why AI rack infrastructure — with disaggregated compute, power, and liquid cooling across multiple racks — presents an entirely different testing challenge than traditional IT equipment

- The three specific bottlenecks breaking the current EMC testing model: weight and turntable capacity, power delivery (1MW+), and physical chamber size

- Why there are only 1-2 labs globally capable of testing today's AI rack configurations — and the scheduling crisis this creates for the entire industry

- Why the problem is structurally self-perpetuating: AI rack cycles run 12-18 months, but building or upgrading an EMC lab takes about a year — with no sign of the pace slowing

- Jaswanth's direct call to action for EMC labs, hyperscalers, and ODMs — and why OCP is the right forum to bring all parties together

- What alternatives to physical testing — including simulation — may need to be explored as the industry works toward a longer-term solution

Chapters
0:00 — Introduction — Meet Jaswanth Vutukury, Lead EMC AI Hardware Infrastructure Engineer at Meta
0:33 — What Is EMC Testing and Why Does It Matter? The 30-Second Explainer
2:00 — Why AI Infrastructure Is Different — Scale, Speed, and the Widening Lab Gap
5:01 — Inside the Bottleneck — Weight, Power, and the Chamber Size Problem
11:33 — Real-World Impact — Only 1-2 Labs Globally, and Everyone Is Competing for Them
21:20 — The Path Forward — Bringing Labs into OCP, Industry Collaboration, and What Comes Next

About the Guest
Jaswanth Vutukury
Jaswanth Vutukury is the Lead EMC AI Hardware Infrastructure Engineer at Meta, where he oversees electromagnetic compliance testing and certification for AI server rack infrastructure. His background spans multiple hardware-intensive industries — including autonomous vehicles and consumer electronics — giving him a uniquely broad perspective on why the AI infrastructure EMC challenge is unlike anything the industry has faced before. He came to the OCP podcast with a clear message: the bottleneck is real, the timeline is short, and the solution requires the industry to move together.

About the Open Compute Project
The Open Compute Project (OCP) is a collaborative community committed to redesigning hardware technology to efficiently support the growing demands on compute infrastructure. Its members span hyperscalers, ODMs, component manufacturers, and ecosystem partners — sharing open designs and working together on shared technical challenges that no single company can solve alone.

In this second installment of the Women in OCP series, host Rob Coyle goes deeper with Shruti Sethi, Sr. Product Manager on Azure Storage at Microsoft, OCP Sustainability Steering Committee rep, and Women in OCP Co-Lead.

Where Part 1 covered the founding and structure of the group, this conversation digs into the harder questions: the real challenges the initiative faces, how it measures progress, what it will take to scale, and, critically, why male allies and non-women supporters are not just welcome, but essential. Shruti's perspective bridges her sustainability work with Microsoft Azure and her leadership at Women in OCP, making this a rich and candid conversation about what meaningful inclusion actually looks like in the data center industry.

What You'll Learn
The real operational challenges of running a geographically distributed community — and how Women in OCP is adapting
Why keynote abstract submissions are the most tangible, front-and-center metric for measuring women's representation at OCP Global Summit
How Women in OCP tracks membership growth as a leading indicator of community health (230+ members and climbing)
Plans to collaborate with external women's groups such as Women in Tech and Women in Mission Critical
Why scaling across all OCP technical domains — networking, security, sustainability, cooling, and more — is a deliberate priority
A clear and direct message: Women in OCP is open to all supporters, regardless of gender
How the group plans to build internal alliances with OCP domain sub-groups to ensure representation across the board

Chapters
0:00 — Introduction — Meet Shruti Sethi, Microsoft Azure PM and Women in OCP Co-Lead
1:00 — Real Challenges — Geography, Virtual Events, and Bridging the Personal Connection Gap
2:59 — Representation on Stage — The Keynote Abstract Problem and How to Fix It
6:34 — Measuring Impact — Membership Growth, Summit Momentum, and Key Metrics
7:58 — What's Next — External Partnerships, Industry Collaboration, and Scaling Across OCP Domains
12:15 — Allyship and Open Invitation — Why Women in OCP Welcomes Everyone

About Shruti Sethi
Shruti Sethi is a Senior Product Manager on the Azure Storage team at Microsoft, where her work centers on the intersection of cost efficiency and carbon efficiency — end-to-end environmental and economic impact across cloud infrastructure. At OCP, she serves on the Sustainability Steering Committee and is Co-Lead of Women in OCP alongside Sung Kim of bp Castrol. Shruti brings a systems-level perspective to both her technical product work and her community leadership, approaching inclusion as an industry-wide challenge that requires cross-organizational solutions.

About the Open Compute Project
The Open Compute Project (OCP) is a collaborative community committed to redesigning hardware technology to efficiently support the growing demands of data centers. Its members span the entire data center value chain — from hardware manufacturers to hyperscalers — sharing open designs and best practices that advance the industry as a whole.

Connect with the OCP Podcast:
Join our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/opencompute/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenComputePrj
Join our LinkedIn Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4152886/
Follow our Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/4284419/

In this episode, host Rob Coyle sits down with Sung Kim, Global Head of Technology for Data Center Liquid Solutions at bp Castrol and Co-Lead of Women in OCP, to discuss how a simple observation at an OCP summit sparked a thriving initiative that is reshaping how women are represented across the data center industry.

From founding the Women in OCP group to hosting its first Women and AI luncheon co-sponsored by Nvidia and Lenovo, Sung shares the journey, the challenges, and the collective energy that is driving real change at the industry level.

What You'll Learn
How Women in OCP was founded and why the timing was right
The mission to address gender representation at the industry level — not just within individual companies
How the group is structured, governed, and organized through a bi-weekly planning committee
Key events including the Global Summit breakfast, regional networking sessions, and the Women and AI luncheon
Insights from community feedback: mentorship programs, safe spaces vs. inclusive allies, and geography as a challenge
Plans for 2026 including expanding mentorship and regional chapters
How to get involved and subscribe to Women in OCP updates

Chapters
0:00 — Introduction — Meet Sung Kim, Global Head of Data Center Technology at bp Castrol
0:33 — What Is Women in OCP? — Origin Story and Why It Was Needed
1:44 — Mission and Goals — Driving Industry-Level Inclusion Across the Value Chain
3:38 — Structure, Events, and Community Building — How the Group Operates
6:23 — Challenges and Surprises — Geography, Feedback, and Navigating Inclusion
9:08 — Successes, Looking Ahead, and How to Get Involved with Women in OCP

About Sung Kim
Sung Kim is the Global Head of Technology for Data Center Liquid Solutions at bp Castrol, where she oversees product development, research, testing, and technical partnership activity across a global team spanning the United States, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. At OCP, Sung serves as a Sustainability Co-Lead and is the founder and Co-Lead of Women in OCP, a community initiative dedicated to increasing the visibility, representation, and leadership of women across the data center and technology industry.

About the Open Compute Project
The Open Compute Project (OCP) is a collaborative community committed to redesigning hardware technology to efficiently support the growing demands of data centers. Its members span the entire data center value chain, from hardware manufacturers to hyperscalers, sharing open designs and best practices that advance the industry as a whole.

Connect with the OCP Podcast:
Join our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/opencompute/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenComputePrj
Join our LinkedIn Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4152886/
Follow our Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/4284419/

Rob Coyle sits down with David Hirst, CEO of Macquarie Data Centres, for a deep look at the rapid changes shaping data centers in the age of AI.
David shares why Australia’s sovereign approach matters, how AI workloads are shifting design from “real estate” to “chip-out thinking,” and why early collaboration across hyperscalers, government, and the supply chain is becoming essential.
They explore the unique nature of the Australian market, the rise of liquid cooling and megawatt-per-rack designs, what it takes to build IC3 Super West, and how culture, regulation, and geopolitics all influence where and how AI infrastructure gets built.
A thoughtful conversation for anyone working in AI infrastructure, colocation, hyperscale strategy, or global data centre planning.
Chapters
00:00 – Introduction
00:27 – Why Australia Is a Prime Data Centre Hub
01:52 – How AI Changed Everything
03:23 – Planning for Bursty, Unpredictable AI Workloads
04:28 – Liquid Cooling and Blurred Boundaries
06:17 – What Makes the Australian Market Different
08:35 – Building in Dense Cities and Working With Communities
10:12 – AI, Culture, and Data Sovereignty
11:22 – Local Requirements and Power Challenges
12:57 – Long-Term Operators vs Short-Term Developers
16:20 – Compliance as a Market Advantage
18:45 – The Critical Role of Data Centres in Modern Life
20:22 – Inside IC3 Super West
21:56 – Designing for a Fast-Changing Future
23:51 – Why AI Behaves Differently Than Cloud
26:43 – The Rise of CDU Innovation
28:09 – Building for 2030 and Beyond
33:27 – What Keeps David Optimistic