Where the market essay named the players, this piece explains the physics. What wide bandgap actually means, why SiC and GaN outperform silicon at the same voltage, and how a boule of vapour-grown crystal becomes a switch that runs at 800V and 200kHz. Cross-sections, process flows, roadmaps.
Every watt delivered to a GPU comes back as heat, and at 600kW per rack there is nowhere for it to go but water. Layer-by-layer analysis from die to dry cooler.
SiC and GaN are the enabling materials of 800V data centres. Boom, 60% price collapse, the Wolfspeed Chapter 11, and what comes next. Crystal boule to gate driver.
Four capacitor categories are the binding AI supply constraint: HSCs, EDLCs, MLCCs, silicon caps. Layer-by-layer on pricing, capacity, and the qualified vendor list.
The AI data centre power train is six stacks, not one. Where each stage lives, who builds it, what is standardised. Reference map for architects speccing new AI campuses.
The trade press writes about 800 VDC as one architecture. There are two, they behave differently in retrofit, and hyperscalers are choosing between them right now.
Capacity is not why data centres are going DC. Four forces are pushing the transition: density economics, grid constraints, GPU synchronicity, hyperscaler strategy.