RAISE Summit 2025: AI Infrastructure. Compute is the New Oil

The evolution of AI infrastructure is catalyzing a fundamental transformation in how computational resources are designed, deployed, and operated. This shift is highlighted by the ascent of startups outpacing traditional hyperscalers through innovations such as gigawatt-scale data centers, sovereign clouds, and AI-native software stacks. The panel delineates how speed, deep specialization, and vertical integration serve as strategic levers enabling these agile players to tailor infrastructure precisely to AI workloads' unique requirements, including power efficiency and cooling innovations.

Key themes emerging from this discussion include the critical role of sovereign clouds in ensuring data sovereignty and geopolitical autonomy, particularly within European markets. The conversation stresses the importance of enterprise-friendly solutions that simplify AI infrastructure through managed services and accessible developer APIs, thereby lowering barriers for broader enterprise adoption. Ultimately, the debate underscores infrastructure as a linchpin competitive moat in the AI age, especially as the advent of AGI threatens to commoditize software capabilities, shifting the battleground to hardware and foundational platforms.

• Specialized hardware and software co-design for optimized AI workloads
• Speed and vertical integration as competitive advantages over hyperscalers
• Importance of sovereign cloud models for strategic compute control
• Need for simplicity and developer-friendly interfaces to drive enterprise adoption
• Infrastructure as the foundational moat in an era of AI commoditization