Sean James has joined Nvidia as a distinguished engineer of energy systems.

James spent the last 19 years and eight months at Microsoft, most recently as the senior director of energy and data center research.

At Microsoft, James ran the company's data center R&D team and is named on a number of patents, including for submerged data centers. Project Natick was started in 2013, with a facility submerged in 2018, but was ultimately killed in 2024.

James also helped develop robotics systems for data centers, liquid cooling systems, and power systems.

"My extensive experience spans across advanced power generation technologies, including solid oxide and proton exchange fuel cells, gas generators, turbines, and innovative battery technologies such as flow and metal-air batteries," James said on LinkedIn.

In 2023, James led a project to power a data center for 48 hours using hydrogen fuel cells and the company has experimented with gas-powered facilities since 2012.

James is also the project lead for OCP's Data Center Facilities (DCF) Sustainability Project as of this July, and an advisory board member to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems, as of this August.

Microsoft's head of AI infrastructure, Nidhi Chappell, also plans to leave the company.