AI Alliance Aims to Ignite a New Era for US Vertical Farming

80 Acres, AWS and IRCAI pursue AI driven crop insights that could boost indoor farm performance

2 Dec 2025

A new partnership between 80 Acres Farms, Amazon Web Services and the International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence is seeking to use data-driven tools to address longstanding constraints in vertical farming. The group aims to build artificial intelligence models that can forecast how crops will perform inside controlled indoor sites, hoping to reduce the cost and time linked to physical trials.

The work forms part of the Compute for Climate Fellowship, which provides cloud infrastructure and research guidance for climate-focused projects. The partners say digital simulations could help growers test production methods before seeds are planted, offering a potential way around high energy use, limited crop portfolios and the need for constant system adjustments.

Advisers connected with the fellowship describe the initiative as a structured attempt to improve the economics of indoor farming rather than a quick solution. AWS executives argue that cloud-based trials allow operators to examine more scenarios than would be possible in commercial facilities. For 80 Acres Farms, the project offers a way to explore resource efficiency and to assess which varieties may eventually justify indoor cultivation.

Analysts note, however, that modelling tools cannot eliminate external pressures such as volatile electricity prices, costly equipment or broader environmental concerns. They also point to open questions around data governance and responsibility for long-term system performance.

Even with these caveats, industry observers say the sector is entering a period of more systematic experimentation as AI tools become more accessible and farms adopt more automated systems. The next stage will focus on whether the partnership can convert model outputs into measurable improvements in production and crop quality.