From Buildings to Token Factories: Compu Dynamics CEO Steve Altizer On Why AI Is Rewriting the Data Center Design Playbook
Compu Dynamics CEO Steve Altizer says AI workloads force data centers to shift from traditional building designs to modular, factory‑built assemblies. Power density jumps from 300‑400 W/sq ft to 2,000‑4,000 W/sq ft, demanding water‑based heat rejection, liquid cooling, and flexible white space. The company is delivering 5 MW, two‑story modules that can be stacked and transported, aiming for repeatable, rapid deployments. Altizer warns that liquid‑cooling variability and external power constraints are the biggest near‑term risks.
Hillwood, PowerHouse Advance $20B Joliet Data Campus as Midwest AI Buildout Accelerates
On March 19, 2026, Joliet’s city council voted 8‑1 to annex roughly 795 acres for a $20 billion AI‑scale data‑center campus backed by Hillwood and PowerHouse. The 24‑building, 6.9‑million‑sq‑ft campus will eventually host up to 1.8 GW of power, positioning it among...
DCF Poll: Data Centers and the Public Trust Gap
A Data Center Frontier poll highlights a widening trust gap between data‑center developers and local communities, fueled by recent legislative proposals to halt construction and a violent incident targeting a lawmaker in Indiana. Industry leaders warn the backlash has moved...
From Reactor Designs to Real Projects: SMRs Enter the Execution Era as AI Power Demand Accelerates
The small‑modular reactor (SMR) sector is shifting from design hype to concrete execution, with vendors securing licensing approvals, fuel contracts, supply‑chain partners and financing. In Q1 2026, companies such as X‑energy, GE Hitachi, NuScale, Oklo, Holtec and Rolls‑Royce moved beyond announcements...
CoreWeave and Bell Canada Reset AI Data Center Scale
CoreWeave used NVIDIA’s GTC 2026 to unveil a production‑scale AI platform, debuting the HGX B300 system with 2.1 TB of HBM3e memory and announcing early deployment of NVIDIA’s Rubin and Vera hardware. The company also integrated its Weights & Biases acquisition to deliver...
From Land Grab to Structured Scale: Kirkland & Ellis Explains How Capital, Power, and Deal Complexity Are Defining the AI...
Kirkland & Ellis partners Melissa Kalka and Kimberly McGrath explain that the AI data‑center boom has moved beyond the initial land‑grab into a phase where power certainty and execution risk dominate dealmaking. Capital remains abundant, but investors now pull money earlier,...
Data Center Jobs: Engineering, Construction, Commissioning, Sales, Field Service and Facility Tech Jobs Available in Major Data Center Hotspots
Data Center Frontier, in partnership with recruiting firm Pkaza, released a roundup of current data‑center job openings across major U.S. hotspots. The list features more than a dozen roles—from power applications and commissioning engineers to sales engineers, architects, and facility...
SoftBank’s 10 GW Ohio Campus Marks a Turning Point for AI Infrastructure
SoftBank‑affiliated SB Energy unveiled a 10‑gigawatt AI data‑center campus on the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio, coupling it with up to 9.2 GW of natural‑gas generation and $4.2 billion in new 765‑kV transmission lines. The U.S. Department of Energy is...
Q1 Executive Roundtable Recap
Data Center Frontier’s Q1 Executive Roundtable brought together senior leaders from construction, climate, transformer, and networking firms to dissect the AI‑infrastructure transition from hype to execution. The panel identified delivery discipline, ecosystem coordination, adaptable design, and public credibility as the...
International Data Center Day: Future Frontiers 2030-2070
International Data Center Day 2030 featured a global student competition where middle‑school teams built self‑sustaining tabletop data centers, integrating micro‑solar, wind, robotic operators and AI agents to manage power, cooling and workloads. The event highlighted emerging edge‑first architectures and real‑time...
Superconducting the AI Era: Rethinking Power Delivery for Gigawatt Data Centers
The data‑center industry is confronting a new bottleneck as AI workloads push campuses toward gigawatt‑scale power consumption. Traditional copper distribution struggles with cost, space, and heat, prompting executives like MetOx CEO Bud Vos to champion high‑temperature superconducting (HTS) cables as a...
Executive Roundtable: The AI Infrastructure Credibility Test
The Data Center Frontier roundtable examined how AI‑driven data‑center expansion must earn a social license amid rising public scrutiny over energy, water, and land use. Panelists from construction, climate advocacy, transformer manufacturing, and networking highlighted transparency, sustainable resource management, and...
PJM Moves to Redefine Behind-the-Meter Power for AI Data Centers
PJM Interconnection announced it will restrict legacy netting for behind‑the‑meter loads that exceed 50 MW, compelling large AI‑scale data centers to adopt new service models. The reform introduces "Connect‑and‑Manage" and "BYOG" constructs to streamline interconnection while maintaining system reliability. By making...
Meta’s Expanded MTIA Roadmap Signals a New Phase in AI Data Center Architecture
Meta unveiled an expanded roadmap for its Meta Training and Inference Accelerator (MTIA), targeting AI inference workloads across Facebook, Instagram and Reels. The custom silicon lets hyperscale data centers fine‑tune power and thermal envelopes, boosting density and enabling liquid‑to‑chip cooling....
Policy Shock: Big Tech Told to Power Its Own AI Buildout
The White House is advancing a “ratepayer protection” framework that would require large AI data‑center projects to fund their own power infrastructure. In response, hyperscalers are accelerating behind‑the‑meter generation—natural‑gas turbines, hybrid microgrids, and renewable portfolios—to secure schedule certainty and avoid...
