Data Centers

AirTrunk, a Blackstone-backed data center operator, plans to invest $30 billion in India by 2030, developing 5 gigawatts of new data center capacity. This commitment underlines India's growing appeal as a destination for AI infrastructure.

Meta has built six data center tents in Ohio, a strategy that appears to borrow from Tesla and xAI, in an effort to cut construction time in half.

AI data centers are being built in secret, sparking concerns about transparency and community involvement. Residents are reporting little to no notice before construction begins.

The EU's Cloud and AI Development Act aims to triple data center capacity in 5-7 years and introduce Chips Act 2.0 for direct EU investment, expanding domestic tech supply chains.

According to Hacker News, America's data center build-out is experiencing significant delays, with no clear indication of when the project will be completed. The delays are attributed to various factors, including supply chain issues and regulatory hurdles.

The European Union's €20 billion investment plan for five AI data centers is experiencing difficulties, with delays and funding issues causing some potential partners to become alienated. This development contrasts with SoftBank's recent announcement of a €75 billion AI data center plan in France.

Protesters are targeting data centers, a symptom of the US's failure to address AI regulation. This movement highlights the public's frustration with the lack of action on AI governance.

SpaceX has added language to its IPO filing warning investors about the company's access to water, required to cool its data centers, citing concerns about localized droughts.

OpenAI broke ground on a 1GW data center campus in Saline, Michigan, with Governor Gretchen Whitmer and partners Oracle, Related Digital, and Walbridge. The project aims to build infrastructure in a community-driven and environmentally responsible way.

Environmental activist Erin Brockovich has launched a website with a map of data centers across the US, aiming to bring transparency to data center construction and its impact on nearby communities. The website includes data centers reported by community members, with over 4,000 submissions received in the first month.

Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, and other tech giants are racing to have their views heard in Washington on energy and data centers, with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) set to propose a June rule to speed up data center connections to regional power grids.

General Compute, a new inference neocloud, has raised a $15 million seed round to address the growing demand for AI compute and overcome obstacles inrl getting the right chips and data centers for AI models.

The global AI boom is disrupting the optical communications supply chain, causing shortages and price increases for components such as lasers, substrates, optical fibers, and connectors. This is driven by the growing demand for building AI data centers.

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has hinted at the possibility of a cloud computing business if the company overspends on data centers and has excess capacity. This move would see Meta compete with major cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

The Lombardy region in Italy has introduced a tax increase of up to 200% for the construction of data centers in green and agricultural areas, as reported by Il Sole 24 ORE.

ByteDance is discussing a potential $70 billion capital expenditure in 2026 to build out data centers and AI infrastructure, backed by its $50 billion profit from 2025.

Erin Brockovich created a map to track data centers across the US, highlighting their locations and potential environmental concerns.