For Exodata, AI hosting opens a new page. Its president even draws a parallel with the very beginnings of the company in 2012.
Meeting Leader : Why get into AI hosting ?
Julien Mauras : Exodata’s strategy, as a leader, has always been about providing local solutions to the needs of overseas businesses and innovation ecosystems. With AI hosting, it's the case again : we provide the technical base enabling the creation of AI tools in overseas territories. An evolving technical base, which will be enriched as needs evolve with developments in AI.
How AI hosting differs from traditional data hosting ?
We are talking about infrastructure, of servers, components intended for data storage and offering calculation and processing capabilities of this data. An AI hosting infrastructure notably needs electronic chips ensuring much greater computing power and faster storage..
These chips, these are GPU graphics processors. Originally designed for computer image processing, these electronic circuits are the only ones capable of training and deploying complex AI models. Without access to GPUs, no language model can work. Securing access to GPUs is therefore essential. This is what we achieve.
Facing AI, businesses are a little lost. Does your offer include support ?
Of course ! It all starts with listening to them. We help them ask the right questions. Before arriving at AI, there are several steps to take. We advise and support companies at all these stages. This is the very principle on which our exoSMART offer is based..
Have you already been asked by clients for AI hosting? ?
Yes, there is a wait. But this is also why we took our time to design a successful and completely controlled offer.. To prepare this offer, we have established internally, on a voluntary basis, a specific think tank and work group on AI and its uses : the exoSMART AI Circle results from an analysis of customer needs, but also takes into account our own experience of AI. We then moved to the investment phase : several hundred thousand euros to build the hosting infrastructure. You should know that a GPU chip alone costs 45,000 euros !
What goals do you set for yourself ?
With this offer, we do not have an established economic model. We are launching it because it is necessary. I consider it our responsibility, and even our duty as an overseas leader, to meet local AI hosting needs. We are the only overseas company large enough to achieve this., to have the human resources, technical and financial. And let's not forget that language models evolve quickly and require more and more capacity.. Infrastructure becomes obsolete very quickly. The goal is therefore not to immediately make money, but indeed to allow customers to develop their uses of AI with confidence and security. Exodata is launching into AI hosting as it launched into digital services in its early days, knowing that a page was opening but without knowing exactly what would be written there. The economic model of AI hosting will be built little by little.
