Liquid cooling specialist Iceotope has hired a former Microsoft data center manager in an advisory capacity as the company eyes global expansion amid insatiable demand for powerful bit barns to feed the AI craze.

Iceotope said it has brought on board Christian Belady, who served as vice president of data center research and a Microsoft stalwart until October. He has more than four decades of experience in data center and infrastructure management.

Belady will serve as a senior advisor to the company, which recently opened its US base in a new location in Raleigh, North Carolina, to help serve as a springboard for business development.

The outfit, which is headquartered in the English city of Sheffield, anticipates the growing need for cooling systems, partly due to the recent surge in demand for powerful servers to handle the processing demands of AI.