SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Palantir Technologies ( PLTR )

, Nvidia ( NVDA ) and U.S. utility CenterPoint Energy ( CNP )

on Thursday said they are developing a new software

platform to accelerate the building of new artificial

intelligence data centers.

The new software system will be called Chain Reaction.

It will seek to help firms that are building AI data centers,

which can consume as much electricity as a small city, with

permitting, supply chain and construction challenges. Executives

involved in the project said Chain Reaction will use AI tools to

help its customers.

The Chain Reaction system will build upon previous work

between Palantir ( PLTR ) and Nvidia ( NVDA ),

unveiled last month

, by using AI to solve logistical challenges for retailers

like Lowe's and other firms.

But the effort is more ambitious because it intends to

take into account supply chain and construction efforts at

different types of companies, executives involved in the effort

said. For example, Nvidia ( NVDA ) works with chipmaking partners like

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. ( TSM ) CenterPoint

works to secure permits for and construct electrical grid

upgrades.

All of those efforts must come together on time for data

center projects to move forward.

"It is a very complex supply chain," said Justin Boitano, a

vice president for enterprise AI products at Nvidia ( NVDA ), in an

interview. "Every ecosystem partner in the world gets touched as

we build this rack-scale infrastructure out."

AI can help because it is good at understanding data

that does not always reside in orderly corporate software

systems. For example, email conversations between a firm's

procurement department and a vendor might indicate a possible

delay that AI can detect and help formulate a response plan, the

executives said.

"Whether you're talking about the energy company, the data

center developer, the data center operator, the grid operator,

the generation company, everyone's delays kind of compound on

each other, and there's interdependencies everywhere," said

Tristan Gruska, head of energy infrastructure at Palantir ( PLTR ), in an

interview.