Designing AI Data Centers: Exploring AI factories through advanced computing, infrastructure design, sustainability, and autonomous systems (English Edition)

This book argues that AI is not simply software running on infrastructure; it is reshaping the infrastructure itself. As compute scales from megawatts to gigawatts, data centers evolve into AI factories, where energy, data, and silicon are fused into systems that continuously produce intelligence.

The book presents AI factories as the industrial backbone of the intelligence age, built on the foundational pillars of compute, network, power, sustainability, security, and governance. It moves from the foundations of AI factories, exascale computing, compute sovereignty, and efficient compute systems into multi-layered architectures, secure training systems, AI networking, power systems, autonomous grid systems, advanced cooling technologies, circular data centres, net-zero operations, modular construction, and water-neutral operations. Each chapter builds toward understanding how AI infrastructure is designed, operated, and governed as a living system.

By the end of this book, readers will gain a deeper understanding of the technical, operational, and strategic principles required to design and manage AI data centres. The book prepares leaders, architects, and innovators to navigate the future of intelligent infrastructure, where AI factories become essential systems for building, operating, and governing intelligence at scale, and where intelligence is manufactured, energy is cognition, and infrastructure itself begins to think.

What you will learn

● Understanding how AI factories transform data centers into intelligence production systems.

● Learn AI factory foundations, exascale computing, and intelligent infrastructure design.

● Explore efficient compute architectures, hybrid systems, and sustainable AI acceleration.

● Learn power systems, autonomous grids, and energy orchestration strategies.

● Understand how energy, water, and carbon shape AI infrastructure decisions.

● Learn practical strategies to design, scale, and operate AI infrastructure at scale.

Who this book is for

This book is intentionally written for both technical and business audiences because AI infrastructure is no longer just an engineering problem; it is a strategic and operational one. It is designed for architects, engineers, AI professionals, executives, infrastructure leaders, and sustainability experts shaping adaptive infrastructure. At its core, the book is for anyone responsible for making decisions where infrastructure, intelligence, and strategy intersect.

Table of Contents

1. Foundations of the AI Factory

2. Designing Efficient Computing for Intelligent Systems

3. Designing Sustainable AI Systems

4. Architecting Multi-Layer AI Systems

5. Secure Architecture for Scalable Training

6. Networking Foundations for AI Data Centers

7. AI-Optimized Power Systems

8. Autonomous Grids for AI Data Centers

9. Advanced Cooling Systems for Exascale

10. Circular Data Centers for AI Operations

11. Data-Driven Management for Net-Zero Operations

12. Computational Methods for Modular Construction

13. Designing Water-Neutral AI Operations

14. Implementation and Phased Transition

15. Autonomous Infrastructure and Ethical Governance

Scott Andersen has spent nearly three decades at the intersection of AI strategy, cloud platforms, and mission-critical network architecture. He is a Distinguished Architect at Verizon, where he advises federal agencies, including DHS, DoD, and the FAA, on AI strategy, Zero Trust, and infrastructure modernization. Earlier in his career, Scott held senior architect and strategy roles at Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, Accenture, CSRA/GDIT, and CGI. Across those roles, he influenced more than seven billion dollars in revenue and led large-scale transformation programs for Fortune 100 and federal customers. He is one of roughly one hundred Microsoft Certified Architects worldwide and was the first global recipient of the CITA-P certification.Scott writes and speaks about the evolution of AI-integrated infrastructure. His published work explores how AI reshapes networks, the rise of the AI factory as an industrial-scale intelligence system, and the convergence of compute, energy, and transport into a single adaptive fabric. This book extends that thread with a practical field guide for leaders whose AI ambitions will rise or fall on the network's readiness beneath them.Scott lives in New Market, Maryland. He writes at docandersen.wordpress.com and advises clients through his Creative Technology & Innovation consulting group.