Costa Rica's ICE Awards Ericsson $220m 5G Network Contract
Costa Rica’s state‑run Electricity Institute (ICE) has awarded Swedish telecom giant Ericsson a $220 million contract to build a nationwide 5G network. The deal includes a Stand‑Alone Open RAN architecture and a multi‑vendor approach, with Coasin‑Nokia providing base‑station equipment. ICE plans to launch mass 5G services within roughly 12 months, targeting urban corridors under enhanced cybersecurity standards. The project is a cornerstone of ICE’s broader digital‑transformation agenda launched in 2022.
OCP Members Tout DC Power in the Data Center to Meet Growing AI Power Demands
Open Compute Project members are rallying the data‑center ecosystem around low‑voltage direct current (LVDC) to power next‑generation AI racks. A joint working group of Google, ABB, Siemens and others released a 170‑page white paper outlining efficiency gains and standard‑setting pathways....
AMD Signs Additional 25MW Data Center Lease with Riot in Texas
Riot Platforms announced that AMD exercised its option to lease an additional 25 MW at Riot’s Rockdale, Texas campus, bringing AMD’s total contracted capacity to 50 MW. The expansion will be delivered in phases, with the first 25 MW completed by May 2026 and...
Huawei Predicts 60% Revenue Boost From Sale of Its AI Chips in 2026
Huawei forecasts a 60% jump in AI‑chip revenue for 2026, targeting $12 billion versus $7.5 billion in 2025. The surge is anchored by strong orders for its Ascend 950PR processor, now in mass production, and an upcoming upgraded 950DT version slated for Q4....
Univity Raises $31 Million for 5G Satellite Demonstrators
Paris‑based Univity announced the closing of a €27 million ($31.6 million) Series‑A round, led by Blast.Club, Expansion, and Bpifrance’s Deeptech 2030 Fund, alongside two family offices. The capital will fund UniShape, a very low Earth orbit (VLEO) 5G demonstrator comprising two satellites that...
Gulf Firms Taranis and EEC Partner to Develop 50MW Data Centers in Saudi Arabia
Dubai‑based Taranis Capital and Riyadh‑based Emaar Executive Company (EEC) have signed an MoU to develop a portfolio of 40‑50 MW carrier‑neutral data center campuses in Saudi Arabia. The Taranis Data Centre Fund is targeting roughly $2 billion of private capital to build...
Peterson Co. Plots Three-Building Data Center Campus in Leesburg, Virginia
Peterson Companies, through its affiliate Leesburg Gateway, LLC, has filed a permit to build a three‑building, 600,000‑sq‑ft data‑center campus on more than 100 acres in Leesburg, Virginia. The plan includes four additional industrial structures and a 22‑acre public park, but...
Solar-Powered Data Center Campus Proposed in Lincolnshire, UK
Rivington Energy, backed by Federated Hermes, has launched a pre‑application for the Conesby Data Centre Campus in Lincolnshire, UK. The 20‑acre site will host 12,500 sqm of data‑centre space and be powered largely by an on‑site 80‑acre solar farm. Construction could...
Qualcomm Developing Custom Silicon with Unnamed Hyperscaler as Company Continues to Plot Data Center Comeback
Qualcomm announced a partnership with an unnamed hyperscaler to develop custom silicon for data‑center servers, with first shipments slated for December 2026. The move follows the company’s FY26 Q2 earnings, where revenue rose to $10.6 billion and profit surged to $7.37 billion....
Sponsored: Liquid Cooling for AI Data Centers: 3 Risks and How a Trusted Partner Ensures Success
AI‑driven data centers are confronting unprecedented power densities as Nvidia’s latest GPUs consume 1,000‑1,400 W each, pushing rack loads to roughly 142 kW and eyeing 1 MW in the near term. Traditional air cooling can’t dissipate that heat, prompting a shift to direct...
Police Charge Two Men over 5G Telecom Tower Arson Attacks in Northern Ireland
The Police Service of Northern Ireland has charged two men for a series of arson attacks on 5G telecom towers in the Belfast area. The 45‑year‑old faces eight counts of arson and conspiracy, while the 46‑year‑old is charged with arson...
Decision on QTS' Planned Expansion of Data Center in East Windsor, New Jersey, Postponed
The East Windsor Township Planning Board delayed a vote on QTS Data Centers’ request to build a second data‑center on its 52‑acre, 70 MW site, pushing the decision to the May 4 meeting. Residents raised concerns about utility costs, noise and vibration,...
DCD>Studio: Developing Hyperscale Facilities in Europe, with Fabien Vieu, Sepia Infrastructure
Sepia Infrastructure, led by Fabien Vieu, is scaling hyperscale data center campuses across Europe, emphasizing strategic land selection, modular design, and long‑term asset stewardship. The company prioritizes brownfield sites near renewable energy sources to reduce carbon footprints and accelerate permitting....
BlockchAIn Outlines $9.9bn Plan for 715MW Data Center Portfolio
BlockchAIn Digital Infrastructure announced a $9.9 billion, five‑year plan to build a 715 MW U.S. data‑center portfolio focused on blockchain mining, AI GPU hosting, and high‑performance computing. The pipeline covers nine sites across South Carolina, Minnesota and Texas, with the first phases...
Bell Canada to Turn Winnipeg Food Processing Plant Into AI Data Center
Bell Canada is converting a former protein‑processing plant in Winnipeg into an AI data center. The $23 million CAD investment (about US$17 million) will create a 5.5 MW facility covering roughly 94,000 sq ft. The conversion is part of Bell’s “AI Fabric” network, which also...
Finland's Digita Appoints Riku Helander as CEO
Finland’s Digita announced that Riku Helander will take over as chief executive officer on May 1, replacing Vesa Tykkyläinen, who led the firm since 2019. Helander, who joined Digita in 2024 to head its telecom business, brings experience from Cisco, Nokia and...
Hut 8 Selling $3.25bn in Bonds to Finance Google and Anthropic-Backed River Bend AI Data Center Campus
Hut 8 is issuing $3.25 billion of investment‑grade bonds due 2042 to finance its 245 MW River Bend AI data‑center campus in Louisiana, the first phase of a potential 2.295 GW partnership with Fluidstack and Anthropic backed by Google. The 592‑acre site can scale beyond...
Bill Proposed in North Carolina Seeks to Mandate Large Load Data Centers to Cover Cost of Energy and Water Infrastructure
North Carolina lawmakers introduced the Ratepayer and Resource Protection Act, targeting data centers with a projected peak demand of 40 MW or more and annual water use exceeding one billion liters. The bill would strip state and local tax incentives, require facilities to...
Anan Data Center to Provide 40MW AI Infrastructure for Crusoe in Israel
Crusoe has signed a long‑term agreement with Israel’s Anan Data Center to secure up to 40 MW of AI‑focused data‑center capacity at Anan’s under‑construction Afula facility. The deal, valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars, positions Israel as a strategic...
Latitude.sh Signs $25.1m Three-Year AI Capacity Agreement with Unnamed Customer
Latitude.sh, the Megaport subsidiary, announced a three‑year AI compute and storage agreement valued at $25.1 million with an unnamed US‑based technology firm. The contract includes roughly $12.2 million in incremental capex for CPU servers that will be delivered in FY 2026, after which...
Welsh Data Center Proposal Rejected by Local Council
Anglesey County Council rejected Carbon3.ai's plan to turn the former Octel chemical plant in Amlwch into an AI data center. The proposal, submitted in January, aimed to repurpose existing structures and leverage Wales' AI Growth Zone incentives. The decision follows...
Core Scientific Secures 300MW Capacity at Pecos Data Center in Texas, Looks to Behind-the-Meter Power
Core Scientific has secured an additional 300 MW of power capacity for its Pecos, Texas campus, expanding the site’s total gross capacity to 1.5 GW and 1 GW of leasable AI/HPC space. The company is shifting the facility from Bitcoin mining to artificial‑intelligence...
Utah Planning Commission Delays Decision on Kevin O’Leary-Backed Data Center Project
The Utah Planning Commission in Box Elder County has postponed its vote on a hyperscale data‑center project backed by Kevin O’Leary’s O’Leary Digital. The "Stratos" campus could host up to 9 GW of power on 40,000 acres of private land plus...
Silicon Photonics Startup OpenLight Raises Additional $50m in Extended Series A Funding Round
OpenLight announced an additional $50 million raise, bringing its Series A total to $84 million. The oversubscribed round was led by Matter Venture Partners with new participation from Acclimate and Catapult Ventures alongside existing backers. The capital will fund expansion of the company’s...
Data Center Power Demand in Taiwan Set to Surge Eightfold by 2030 - Report
Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs forecasts that data‑center power demand will surge eightfold, reaching roughly 1 GW by 2030, driven largely by AI workloads. Overall electricity consumption is expected to rise 13% from 2023 levels, with AI data centers alone projected...
Pace Plans 100MW "Texas First" Data Center in Glasscock County
Austin‑based developer Pace announced the Lone Star Project, a 100 MW data center in Glasscock County that will initially run on behind‑the‑meter natural‑gas power. The campus is engineered for AI workloads and is designed to expand up to 1 GW as demand...
Amazon Partners with Veolia to Deploy Water-Reuse Technology at Data Centers in Mississippi
Amazon has teamed with French utility Veolia to install water‑reuse systems at its Mississippi data centers, targeting reclaimed wastewater for cooling. Veolia will provide autonomous, containerized treatment units that convert effluent into high‑purity cooling water, with the first site expected...
HPC Cloud Company Crunchbits Rebrands as Synteq HPC
US‑based HPC cloud provider Crunchbits has rebranded as Synteq HPC, a change that took effect on April 23. The rebrand coincides with the launch of two new data‑center locations in Dallas, Texas, and Sofia, Bulgaria—Synteq’s first European site—bringing the total to more...
Google Plans to Invest up to $40bn in Anthropic
Google will invest up to $40 billion in generative‑AI startup Anthropic, delivering $10 billion upfront and conditioning the remaining $30 billion on performance milestones. The deal lifts Google’s total exposure to more than $13.75 billion, cementing a roughly 14 percent stake. Anthropic also secures 3.5 GW...
Drones and Data Centers: The AI Boom Is Outpacing Security Protocol
The AI surge is driving a $7 trillion data‑center build‑out by 2030, but the rapid proliferation of over one million U.S. drones is exposing a critical security gap. Existing physical‑security models lack airspace protection, and FAA/FCC rules prevent kinetic countermeasures, leaving...
Sponsored: Data Center Dilemma: How Hyperscalers Can Meet AI-Driven Timelines without Limiting Renewable Energy Options
Hyperscale data centers are expanding rapidly, with AI‑driven facilities now consuming over 200 MW of power. Operators face mounting pressure to add renewable sources, especially solar, but fast‑build cycles often prioritize gas generation to meet tight timelines. This creates a dilemma:...
$4bn Data Center Rejected by Nobles County, Minnesota
Renewable energy developer Geronimo Power's proposed $4 billion, 959‑acre data center in Nobles County, Minnesota, was rejected by county commissioners. The plan called for eight buildings covering 2.5 million sq ft and would have consumed 400 MW to 1 GW of electricity. The rejection stems from...
QumulusAI Secures $45m in Convertible Notes for AI Cloud Expansion
AI cloud provider QumulusAI secured a $45 million convertible note facility from ATW Partners, adding to its earlier $500 million blockchain‑backed financing. The capital will fund the purchase of GPUs and expansion of data‑center infrastructure, supporting a plan to deploy over 21,000...
Wärtsilä Inks Two Natural Gas Supply Deals with Data Center Operators in Ohio and Texas
Wärtsilä signed two natural‑gas engine supply deals for U.S. data centers: a 412 MW contract in Ohio using 40 34SG engines, and a 790 MW agreement in Texas with 42 50SG units. Both projects target delivery by 2028 and full operation in late 2029....
Schneider Electric Innovation Summit
Schneider Electric released an eBook summarizing insights from its 2025 Innovation Summit, highlighting how AI‑driven data centers are being reshaped. The publication emphasizes megawatt‑scale racks and 800 VDC power architectures as a response to soaring compute loads. It also details the...
Data Centers in the UK Stymied by "Inadequate Community Engagement" - Report
A new report shows UK data‑centre projects face an average 490‑day planning consent period, with the longest case exceeding five years. Environmental objections appeared in 32 of 33 applications, while inadequate community engagement was noted in 26, driving many delays....
Lebanon's Gov't Plans to Transform Warehouse Into National Data Center
Lebanon’s Ministry of Telecommunications is converting a warehouse in Dekwaneh into a National Data Center, merging the existing Karantina and Sawwar facilities. Telecoms firm Touch, led by CEO Karim Salim Salam, is overseeing equipment installation and site clearance. A benchmarking study by...
Verne and Nscale Complete First Phase of AI Deployment in Iceland
Verne and Nscale have finished the first phase of an AI GPU deployment at Verne’s Iceland campus, installing 7.5 MW of compute power in just three months. The rollout includes 128 racks—half of them liquid‑cooled—housing Nvidia Blackwell Ultra GPUs as part...
Keppel and Shell to Launch Immersion Cooling Pilot at Singapore Data Center
Keppel and Shell are teaming up to pilot an immersion‑cooling pod at a Singapore data centre, slated to go live by May 2026 for a 12‑month trial. The system will use Shell’s proprietary gas‑to‑liquids (GTL) cooling fluid, which Shell claims can...
More than 30,000 Samsung Workers Take to the Streets to Demand Greater Share of AI Profits
More than 30,000 Samsung Electronics employees gathered in Pyeongtaek to press for a larger slice of the company’s AI‑driven earnings. The National Samsung Electronics Union is asking for a 15% profit allocation—roughly $27 billion, or over $400,000 per worker—plus the removal...
Electrical Panel Company SPAN Launches XFRA "Distributed Data Center" Offering
SPAN, known for smart electrical panels, unveiled XFRA—a distributed data center that taps underused power in homes and commercial sites. Each XFRA compute node houses 16 Nvidia RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell GPUs and four AMD EPYC GPUs, managed by the XFRA Cloud...
Planning Commission in Franklin County, Missouri, Recommends Approval of One Data Center, Denies Another
The Franklin County Planning and Zoning Commission voted to recommend approval of Provident Data Centers' Diamond Farms proposal, which would rezone roughly 575 acres for the Gateway Digital Campus. In contrast, the commission advised against BLE Landholdings' Beltline project, seeking...
Surfing on the Tube
Transport for London awarded neutral‑host Boldyn Networks a 20‑year, $1.35 bn contract to roll out 5G across the London Underground. The project installs fiber, leaky‑feeder cables and base‑station hotels, allowing EE, O2 and Vodafone to share a single DAS infrastructure. To...
EPRI Launches Data Center Flexibility Framework to Speed up Grid Connections
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has unveiled Flex MOSAIC, a voluntary classification framework for data‑center flexibility, developed through its DCFlex initiative. The framework standardizes how large loads like data centers quantify flexibility across magnitude, timing, duration, and frequency. More than...
AI Chip Startup Blaize and Hardware Developer NeoTensr to Develop Edge Infrastructure for APAC
Blaize and Chinese edge‑hardware firm NeoTensr have signed a contract worth up to $50 million to build AI‑powered edge infrastructure across the APAC region. NeoTensr will integrate Blaize’s Graph Streaming Processor, which can handle more than 200 camera streams per server,...
Tencent and Alibaba in Talks to Invest in DeepSeek - Report
Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba are reportedly in talks to invest in AI startup DeepSeek at a valuation exceeding $20 billion. DeepSeek had earlier sought at least $300 million at a $10 billion valuation, and its models already run on Nvidia hardware...
OMS Group Snaps up Second Exail DriX Vessel for Subsea Surveys
OMS Group has purchased a second Exail DriX O-16 uncrewed surface vessel, expanding its autonomous survey fleet to meet rising demand for subsea cable infrastructure. The USV offers up to 30 days of endurance and a 3,500‑nautical‑mile range, equipped with...
ERCOT and MISO Forecast Huge Increases in Peak Load, Driven by Data Center Demand
ERCOT projects Texas power demand to rise from 98 GW in 2026 to over 111 GW by 2032, pushing peak load to 367 GW, driven primarily by new data‑center construction. Non‑crypto data centers lead the growth, followed by cryptocurrency mining, industrial users, and...
SK Hynix to Invest $12.85bn in Advanced Packaging Plant in Cheongju, South Korea
SK Hynix announced a $12.85 billion investment to build the P&T7 advanced packaging plant in Cheongju, South Korea, with construction starting this month. The 230,000 sqm facility will house three floors of wafer‑level packaging and seven floors of wafer test lines, targeting...
Rethinking Location Strategy: How Long-Term Planning Is Reshaping Europe’s Data Center Map
Europe’s data center market is moving from demand‑driven siting to a constraint‑led approach, emphasizing long‑term predictability over immediate capacity. Operators are shifting focus to Tier II locations that offer clearer power governance, smoother permitting and room for phased expansion. The change...