Schneider Electric launches RapidScale modular data center reference design compatible with NVIDIA Vera Rubin

• Schneider Electric has newly launched the RapidScale modular data center reference design, providing a flexible hardware architecture purpose-built to adapt to the NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform, helping the industry transition from traditional construction models to scaled deployment of AI compute.

• RapidScale is Schneider Electric's prefabricated modular data center solution portfolio, integrating 90% of Schneider Electric's own equipment along with end-to-end full lifecycle services, aimed at accelerating deployment speed, improving predictability and reducing project risk.

• A labor-hour study conducted jointly with Compass Datacenters found that prefabricated IT space modules can reduce on-site installation time by 80%.

Recently, Schneider Electric, a global leader in energy technology, released the RapidScale modular data center reference design. This new reference design provides a validated prefabricated blueprint for high-density AI infrastructure, simplifying on-site equipment scheduling and planning processes and helping AI factories worldwide accelerate deployment.

The reference design combines the NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform with innovative liquid cooling technology, aiming to maximize processing capacity while keeping energy consumption within a reasonable range. An advanced liquid cooling system with intelligent temperature control ensures that data centers deliver peak computing performance while avoiding overheating risks and energy waste.

On this basis, the solution integrates modularity into the overall infrastructure architecture, helping operators shift from customized engineering to replicable, risk-validated AI infrastructure blueprints. By integrating power supply, liquid cooling, IT, software and full lifecycle services, it forms a scalable industrialized delivery model.

The advantages that prefabricated modular infrastructure previously relied on to lead—deployment speed, delivery predictability, solution replicability and quality consistency—have now become baseline requirements for scaled AI data center deployment. Schneider Electric estimates that by 2030, global data center capacity will add 170 GW, reaching a total capacity of 300 GW, approximately 2.3 times the installed capacity in 2025; over the same period, AI workloads are expected to account for about 65% of overall demand. This growth trend further accelerates the deployment of AI infrastructure while driving simultaneous increases in investment scale, power demand and capacity demand.

Developers relying on traditional on-site construction methods are finding it increasingly difficult to keep pace with demand growth. At the same time, high-density computing environments place higher demands on power supply and cooling, bringing not only more complex system integration challenges but also greater pressure on grid capacity, energy efficiency metrics and compliance controls. The shortage of skilled technicians further amplifies these challenges, creating labor bottlenecks and extending installation timelines for complex AI projects.

Quantified assessment of the advantages of prefabricated IT space

In a research report jointly released by Schneider Electric and hyperscale data center developer Compass Datacenters, titled "Prefabricated IT Space Module Labor-Hour Study: Insights from High-Density Liquid-Cooled Deployment Practices" (White Paper No. 238), the deployment efficiency gains from shifting from traditional IT space construction to prefabricated modularization are quantified. Measured at a Compass Datacenters hyperscale data center campus, prefabricated IT modules can reduce the on-site installation time per module from 75.5 hours to 15 hours, a reduction of 80%. By moving core assembly, integration and validation to a more controllable factory environment, data center operators can reduce on-site labor input, lower operational complexity and bring AI compute online faster.

Schneider Electric RapidScale: An industrialized integrated architecture for the full AI lifecycle

RapidScale is Schneider Electric's end-to-end industrialized solution for scaled prefabricated modular AI infrastructure, covering the full chain of design, delivery and assurance. By integrating deep engineering capabilities across power supply, cooling, IT space, software and full lifecycle services, RapidScale helps customers move away from complex customized engineering models toward replicable, risk-validated reference designs. This reference design is an important foundation for adapting to the NVIDIA DSX POD reference architecture, enabling integration and validation of Vera Rubin AI infrastructure before factory shipment and greatly shortening the time from deployment to production.

In the current market environment, supply chain management has become a key factor in reducing schedule uncertainty and controlling project risk. Schneider Electric addresses this challenge through a globally integrated supply chain spanning from components to complete modular solutions. Since 2025, Schneider Electric's manufacturing capacity has grown to four times its original size. Currently, the company operates eight core production bases with a total production area of 125,000 square meters, supplemented by three supporting factories and 12 partner production bases across 10 countries.

Leveraging its comprehensive product portfolio, about 90% of the equipment in the RapidScale solution is self-manufactured, ensuring stable and predictable performance, a reliable supply chain, and full lifecycle support from deployment to long-term optimization.

Manish Kumar, Executive Vice President of Schneider Electric and head of its Critical Power and Data Center business, said: "AI infrastructure is expanding at an unprecedented pace, and customers need standardized, highly reliable solutions with predictable delivery. Leveraging reference designs and a prefabricated solution portfolio, combined with global supply chain advantages and full lifecycle expertise, we help AI factory operators rapidly build the resilient infrastructure required for next-generation compute and accelerate the realization of business value."

Schneider Electric has been rated by Omdia as the world's largest manufacturer of prefabricated power solutions, the largest manufacturer of prefabricated modular data centers in North America, and one of the top six global suppliers outside North America.

This modular reference design has been validated in accordance with ANSI standards and is suitable for deployment in the U.S. market; in the future, the framework is planned to be extended to IEC international standards to support global deployment.