JPMorgan Shares Patents to Drive Development of Low Carbon Technologies

NEW YORK, Oct. 7 (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) announced Thursday that it will allow others to use its intellectual property in hopes of accelerating the transition to technology and sources of low carbon energy.

The bank is filing several key patents related to how it effectively cools and ventilates its huge data centers available to anyone using low-carbon technologies as part of a joint commitment initiated by Microsoft Corp (MSFT. O), Facebook Inc (FB.O) and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (HPE.N).

Launched in April this year, the companies have shared more than 450 patents as part of the pledge, highlighting the technology they are using to reduce their carbon footprint.

Majid Al Futtaim and enterprise software company Micro Focus also shared patents on Thursday, including Micro Focus patents related to wind turbine management technology.

As part of their technology infrastructure, JPMorgan and other large companies use huge data centers, which consume large amounts of energy for cooling and ventilation to prevent systems from overheating.

While some companies, including JPMorgan, have moved some applications to a public cloud, financial services companies have remained largely dependent on private data centers because they are considered the most secure option.

JPMorgan does not disclose any information about its data centers. But it was reported in 2012 that the bank had spent $ 500 million to build a single center. The bank’s annual technology budget regularly hovers around $ 12 billion.

The bank’s head of intellectual property, Daryl Wooldridge, said the company is making the patents available to support the bank’s commitment to the international Paris climate agreement.

“Making critical technology available to innovators who develop solutions to tackle climate change is essential to this effort,” Wooldridge said.

Reporting by Elizabeth Dilts Marshall; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Nick Zieminski

Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.