How Swiss deep-tech company Sonexos is pioneering a new generation of plasma-based acoustic technology to help AI infrastructure grow without disturbing the communities around it.
Artificial intelligence is transforming the world.
Demand for AI computing has triggered an unprecedented global race to build new data centres. Every month, larger facilities appear, packed with thousands of high-performance processors consuming enormous amounts of electricity and generating extraordinary levels of heat.
Keeping those processors cool has become one of the defining engineering challenges of the AI era.
But a second challenge is rapidly emerging beyond the walls of these facilities.
People can hear them.
Not the computers themselves, but the continuous low-frequency hum produced by enormous cooling systems operating twenty-four hours a day. Unlike passing traffic or aircraft overhead, cooling infrastructure never truly sleeps. It becomes part of the surrounding soundscape, particularly during the quiet hours of the night.
As communities become increasingly sensitive to environmental noise, developers are finding that acoustics—not electricity or land availability—can determine whether new AI infrastructure is approved. Industry analysts estimate that more than US$130 billion worth of projects experienced delays or increased scrutiny in early 2026, with environmental noise among the most frequently cited community concerns.
For Swiss deep-tech company Sonexos, this challenge represents far more than an acoustic problem.
It marks the beginning of a new era in intelligent noise control.
A problem that physics has never solved
For decades, industrial acoustics has relied on essentially the same approach.
Build bigger barriers.
Concrete walls, acoustic enclosures, mineral wool liners and foam absorbers have become standard engineering practice around industrial cooling infrastructure. These solutions consume valuable land, require large quantities of material and often rely on petrochemical-derived acoustic absorbers that require maintenance or replacement throughout their operational life.
Most importantly, they are constrained by physics.
The dominant noise produced by large axial cooling fans, generators, transformers and compressor systems lies largely below 500 Hz—the low-frequency region where passive absorbers become fundamentally ineffective unless they become exceptionally thick and heavy. Low-frequency sound also bends around barriers far more readily than higher-frequency noise, meaning ever-larger structures often deliver diminishing returns while increasing cost, complexity and environmental impact.
Conventional Active Noise Cancellation has transformed personal listening through headphones and earbuds, but scaling the same principle to large industrial environments has proven far more difficult. Outdoor infrastructure presents constantly changing acoustic conditions, multiple noise sources and complex three-dimensional sound fields that conventional loudspeaker-based systems struggle to control effectively.
The result is an industry that has largely accepted low-frequency industrial noise as an unavoidable consequence of modern infrastructure.
Sonexos believes that assumption is about to change.
Rethinking silence
Rather than attempting to block sound with more material—or cancelling it by generating secondary sound waves—the Lausanne-based company has developed an entirely different approach.
Its patent-protected Plasmacoustic Metalayer™ uses a thin, hermetically sealed layer of cold plasma, controlled by AI-enabled electronics, to actively absorb incoming low-frequency sound energy.
The result is a new class of solid-state acoustic technology capable of addressing precisely the frequencies that have challenged conventional solutions for decades. Because the technology absorbs sound rather than obstructing airflow, it can be deployed externally on existing industrial infrastructure without compromising thermal performance or requiring fundamental redesign of certified equipment.
The technology has been engineered in multiple form factors under the Plasmapanel® brand, each optimised for particular industrial noise sources. Whether deployed around the large axial cooling fans found on AI data centres, adjacent to standby generators, compressor systems or other mechanical plant, the objective remains the same: actively absorb low-frequency noise before it spreads into the surrounding community.
Enabling the next generation of AI infrastructure
The opportunity extends far beyond making equipment quieter.
Modern AI data centres increasingly depend upon enormous rooftop cooling installations to remove heat generated by high-density processors. As computing power continues to increase, so too does the cooling infrastructure required to support it.
For operators, excessive environmental noise can become a commercial constraint.
Planning approvals become more difficult. Facilities may require larger setbacks, additional land or costly passive mitigation measures. In some cases, operators reduce fan speeds during sensitive periods, limiting cooling capacity precisely when demand is greatest.
Removing these acoustic constraints creates benefits that extend well beyond community relations.
It enables infrastructure to operate as originally intended.
Building an ecosystem for industrialisation
Sonexos has built strategic collaborations spanning research institutions, semiconductor leaders and industrial manufacturers to accelerate commercial deployment.
The company works closely with EPFL, advancing research into plasma physics, electro-acoustics and adaptive control technologies. At the same time, its strategic relationship with STMicroelectronics, developed through the company’s Startup Program, is supporting industrial electronics integration and scalable manufacturing pathways required for high-volume deployment.
More recently, Sonexos announced a strategic partnership with SIT to jointly develop next-generation low-noise cooling solutions for AI data centres and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). The collaboration combines Sonexos’ patent-protected plasmacoustic technology with SIT’s expertise in industrial cooling systems, accelerating the transition from laboratory innovation to commercially deployable infrastructure.
For Sonexos Founder and CEO Mark Donaldson, the significance extends well beyond a single application.
“For more than sixty years, the industry has accepted that controlling low-frequency noise requires more mass, more space and more compromise. We believe the future is fundamentally different. Together with partners including SIT and STMicroelectronics, we’re creating an entirely new class of intelligent acoustic technology that can solve problems passive materials and conventional active noise cancellation simply cannot.”
Beyond AI
Although AI infrastructure represents one of the first major commercial opportunities, the implications reach much further.
The same low-frequency acoustic challenges exist in residential heat pumps, commercial HVAC systems, transportation, aviation, industrial ventilation and domestic appliances. Across these sectors, manufacturers increasingly compete on comfort, sustainability and user experience, yet continue relying on acoustic technologies whose fundamental principles have changed little in decades.
Sonexos believes intelligent, AI-enabled software-defined plasmacoustics will become as commonplace as advanced thermal insulation or energy-efficient electronics.
If that vision becomes reality, the next generation of infrastructure may not simply be smarter.
It may also become something communities have been asking for all along.
Quieter.
