6 Big Takeaways from the OCP Summit 2025

I’ve been attending the OCP Summit since 2018, and let me tell you, this year was something else. Back then, we saw about 3,400 attendees. Fast forward to 2025, and the event brought in over 11,000. That’s more than triple the size in just seven years.

The San Jose Convention Center was packed wall-to-wall, no partitions, no empty corners. It’s a clear sign: this industry is booming, and the investment pouring in is real.

Here are my six biggest takeaways from this year’s summit:

1. AI Is Driving Everything. And I Mean Everything.

Every keynote, every panel, every hallway conversation circled back to AI. It’s not just hype anymore: it’s here. Healthcare, finance, telecom, manufacturing, retail: AI is being adopted across the board. And with that adoption comes a massive need for scale, speed, and power.

Mark Papermaster, AMD CEO, at OCP Summit 2025: inference workloads are growing at over 80% CAGR. That’s wild. And it’s not just software. AI accelerators (the chips that make AI possible) have seen a 15x usage increase in just 48 months. The market for these chips? $45B in 2023, projected to hit $500B by 2028.

2. Scaling Is Getting Smarter and More Complex

Scaling used to mean adding more servers. Now it’s a three-part strategy:

• Scale up: Add resources to a specific workload in a server or rack.

• Scale out: Spread resources across racks or rows in a data center.

• Scale across: This one’s new; distribute resources across multiple data centers for a single workload.

AI workloads demand flexibility and speed. Large Language Models (LLMs) review thousands of data points for one query, which means infrastructure has to respond instantly. That’s why hyperscalers are obsessed with scaling smarter, not just bigger.

Want to learn more about this new scaling paradigm? Hybrid Scaling: Scale-Up, Scale-Out, and Scale-Across Gain New Meaning.

3. Power Is the New Bottleneck and the New Frontier

AI is power-hungry. One chip today may need up to 15x more power than it did just a few years ago. Since 2023, we’ve seen a 4x increase in power and a 15x increase in density. And it’s not slowing down.

At HARTING, we’re right in the middle of this transformation. ORv3’s Power Shelf started at 18kW in 2022. Now we’re launching:

• HPRv1: 36kW (Feb 2025)

• HPRv2 & v3: 72kW (2025–2026)

• HPRv4: 100kW (2026)

But it’s not just about more power; it’s about smarter power. We’re seeing the move from 50VDC to ±400VDC or +800VDC. Why? Because higher voltage means greater efficiency. And with racks getting tighter, we can’t just cram in more gear. That’s why the industry is shifting power equipment out of the IT gear racks and into dedicated sidecars.

Learn more about the ORV3 Standard

4. Power Sidecars Are the Next Big Thing

Google, Meta, and Microsoft are collaborating on a new spec called Mount Diablo. It’s a game-changer. They will feed 8-12 200A AC inputs into a dedicated power sidecar, converting it to 400VDC, and distributing it to IT gear racks.

HARTING is proud to be part of this. We’ve been here since Mount Olympus and Mount Adams, and I helped author the ORv3 Power Shelf Input Connector Specification. Now, we’re helping solve the connector challenges for Mount Diablo, where we are looking at multiple configurations, including multi-conductor and single-conductor cables, to help make the architecture as simple and efficient as possible.

5. Labor Shortages Are Driving Connector Innovation

Here’s a reality check: there aren’t enough qualified electricians to install these complex systems. That’s why hyperscalers love working with HARTING. Our cable assemblies — also known as power whips — are safe, easy to use, and eliminate installation delays. We’re designing with usability in mind, because speed matters when you’re scaling at hyperscale.

6. Looking to Other Industries for Solutions

Everyone’s talking about aggressive power roadmaps, including some potential architectures that need up to 1600A! That’s intense. For context, 200A whips are already tricky to install. There was one technology that was generating a surprising amount of discussion at the Summit: liquid cooling inside the cable assembly. Here's the exciting part: HARTING already manufactures liquid-cooled EV chargers. We’re exploring how to adapt that tech for data centers.

It’s a perfect example of cross-industry innovation. Just like data centers borrowed 50VDC architecture from telecom, now we’re borrowing 400VDC and liquid cooling from EVs. At HARTING, we thrive on this kind of creative problem-solving — leveraging expertise across industries to build smarter, safer, and more scalable infrastructure.

Final Thoughts

OCP 2025 is a snapshot of where the future is headed. AI is pushing every boundary, and the infrastructure has to keep up. At HARTING we’re building for future. From power distribution to connector design to liquid cooling, we’re helping hyperscalers scale smarter, faster, and safer.

Can’t wait to see what next year brings.