Sustainable IT infrastructure: Research project uses discarded smartphones for data center
Researchers at the University of California San Diego are collaborating with Google to repurpose 2,000 discarded Pixel smartphone motherboards into a functional cloud computing data center. This project aims to reduce electronic waste and embodied carbon by demonstrating that old hardware can serve as efficient server clusters.
Why it matters
This initiative offers a sustainable model for IT infrastructure that could significantly lower the environmental impact of cloud computing and hardware disposal.
Pexels. Old mobile phones can be used for environmentally friendly new IT concepts. In collaboration with Google, the University of San Diego plans to build a data center using 2,000 old Pixel smartphones. This is intended to demonstrate that old cell phones can be put to good use instead of being stored in drawers. Marc Zander ( translated by Jacob Fisher), Published 06/17/2026 Google Pixel Renewable Server/Datacenter Smartphone 4 Reviews exclude selected types exclude selected tags A current collaborative project between the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and Google aims to address the topic of sustainability in information technology. The researchers hope to develop a method that repurposes discarded smartphones as resource-efficient cloud computing platforms. This approach is designed to reduce "embodied carbon," namely the greenhouse gas emissions generated during the production and transportation of electronic components. To build the server cluster, the scientists are removing the motherboards from approximately 2,000 decommissioned Google Pixel smartphones.
The article reports on a technical research project with a neutral, factual tone without political or ideological framing.
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