Ex-BP Chief to Chair Prometheus Hyperscale and Develop AI
Former BP chief Bernard Looney has joined data centre company Prometheus Hyperscale, with the intention of helping its data centre development.
After working in oil sales for more than 30 years, the former BP CEO is now switching gears to confront sustainable data centre progress. He will be working with Prometheus Hyperscale as chair and supporting the company’s plans to build a sustainable one-gigawatt (1GW) data centre in Evanston, Wyoming, worth US$10bn.
This, Bernard tells The Financial Times, is to capitalise on the global AI boom.
“The opportunity to address these challenges is why I’ve joined Prometheus Hyperscale as chairman,” he said. “I can’t think of a more exciting challenge. How do we deliver net positive AI? How do we unleash AI to propel the world forward?”
Developing the next generation of AI data centres
This is Bernard’s first public appointment since he abruptly left BP in September 2023 over his failure to disclose fully to the board past relationships with colleagues at the company.
Despite only having been with the oil giant for less than four years, Bernard garnered respect within the wider industry for his attempt to transition the company towards cleaner fuel use.
Now, he is entering the world of data centres as Prometheus Hyperscale is planning to build one of the world’s largest data centres. Based on land owned by Trenton Thornock, the company’s founder and CEO, the proposed facility is said to offer up to 1GW of capacity to technology companies.
The site will cover one square mile, roughly equating to three-quarters of the size of New York’s Central Park.
Prometheus Hyperscale is a data centre company focused on advancing sustainable data centre infrastructure to meet growing technology demands.
“Data centres often add to the local community’s power needs and can drive up electricity costs,” Bernard said via a LinkedIn post. “People worry that instead of helping, AI may slow the transition and move us backwards.
“The opportunity to address these challenges is why I’ve joined Prometheus Hyperscale as Chairman.”
Building data centres with sustainability in mind
The continued proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) is driving a power surge, with data centres bearing the brunt of its energy demands. Yet, as these needs keep swelling, so are concerns over carbon emissions.
In fact, data centre carbon emissions are set to triple by 2030 on account of AI, as the technology will lead to the industry emitting 2.5 billion tonnes of CO2. As a result, the data centre industry is having to keep energy consumption low, whilst continuing to innovate.
Prometheus Hyperscale has been eager to hit the ground running with this mindset, having signed a partnership with nuclear energy developer Oklo - which is backed by OpenAI’s Sam Altman.
Bernard credits Trenton Thronock as a visionary for seeing this ‘sustainable transition’ coming, hence the company prioritising the sustainable data centre construction.
“Prometheus’s data centres aim to be largely self-sufficient, so they shouldn’t drive up local power prices,” he comments. “The flagship Evanston project in Wyoming is surrounded by abundant resources in wind, solar and natural gas.
“The cooling could come from underground reservoirs (I knew my drilling days would come in handy) and liquid (vs air) cooling reduces power usage up to 50%; waste heat is captured and reused or recycled.”
When Bernard was CEO at BP, he initially pledged to make the company net zero by 2050. He later had to walk back on these plans in 2023, committing to further fossil fuel production.
Likewise, BP’s Scope 3 emissions increased to 315 million metric tons in 2023, caused by the burning of its oil and gas.
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