#data-centers

#data-centers

Global investors are focusing on Samsung Electronics as the group sets out a five-year artificial intelligence investment programme worth $310 billion over the coming five-year period, with analysis from Sunnov Investment Pte. Ltd. highlighting how the plan reshapes expectations for capital spending across the semiconductor industry. The commitment concentrates on AI specific semiconductors and on domestic manufacturing capacity in South Korea.

Across North America, demand for electricity this winter is expected to be 2.5% higher than last year for a total of 20 gigawatts, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) said in a report released this week. In recent years, winter demand grew by 1% or less. Data centers are driving a significant chunk of that growth, especially in the mid-Atlantic, U.S. West, and U.S. Southeast, "areas where a lot of data center development is occurring," Mark Olson, NERC manager of reliability assessments, told E&E News.

A Texas company has paid well over $90 million to buy a pair of data centers in Santa Clara in a sign that investors still hunger for these sites amid the artificial intelligence boom. The data centers are located at 4650 and 4700 Old Ironsides drives in Santa Clara, a short distance from Levi's Stadium. Centersquare, a Texas-based data center-oriented real estate firm, acted through affiliates to pay $97 million in cash for the adjacent data centers,

"In the next couple of years, it's going to be 600 kilowatts, and then we're going to a megawatt," Tim Heidel, CEO of Veir, told TechCrunch.

A critical turning point in this development occurred in October when Minnesota state regulators greenlit the acquisition of Allete by asset management behemoth BlackRock - set to become Allete's majority stakeholder - and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Allete owns Minnesota Power, the main electric utility in northern Minnesota. The approval came against significant community opposition and, as Truthout previously reported, an administrative law judge's report that strongly recommended against the deal.

Two of the world's biggest data center developers have projects in Nvidia Corp.'s hometown that may sit empty for years because the local utility isn't ready to supply electricity. In Santa Clara, California, where the world's biggest supplier of artificial-intelligence chips is based, Digital Realty Trust Inc. applied in 2019 to build a data center. Roughly six years later, the development remains an empty shell awaiting full energization.

Savills puts this down to the limited availability of new facilities coming to the market, rather than a lack of demand. The underlying strength of demand, it said, is reflected in the total contracted power capacity, which has risen to nearly 14,500MW, up 12% year-on-year. Around a quarter of take-up is now pre-let compared with less than 20% three years ago.

Voter anger over the cost of living is hurtling forward into next year's midterm elections, when pivotal contests will be decided by communities that are home to fast-rising electric bills or fights over who's footing the bill to power Big Tech's energy-hungry data centers. Electricity costs were a key issue in this week's elections for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, a data center hotspot, and in Georgia, where Democrats ousted two Republican incumbents for seats on the state's utility regulatory commission.

Valuations further differentiate the periods: dotcom tech stocks often traded at 150 to 180 times trailing earnings, while current AI frontrunners average around 40 times. Some AI hardware purchasers have reported improved return on ivested capital (ROIC), but results vary across the industry. This solid groundwork distinguishes AI from historical bubbles and primes leading companies like Nvidia for substantial expansion.

At first, the renderings looked like progress for the majority-Black town: glass-and-concrete buildings promising jobs, innovation, and a future rooted in Big Tech. But the fine print told a different story: a complex that would level 700 acres of forest, swallow nearly 2 million gallons of water a day, and draw enough electricity to power a city the size of Seattle. What officials pitched as transformation began to feel, to Simelton, like extraction.

And the features - wow! What a treat to have Tony Davis' perspective in such a balanced piece (" Dried out in Phoenix "), giving us not only up-to-the minute news but sorely needed context - history, politics, the law - along with a view from the desert floor. He painted a picture (with the help of wonderful photographs) of those isolated suburban areas I won't soon forget.