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New Data Center Developments: August 2024
We look at some of the latest data center developments that have been announced over the past month.
James Walker
August 5, 2024
6 Min Read
A rendering of Meta’s planned hyperscale data center in Cheyenne, Wyoming.Image: Meta
The demand for new data centers isn’t showing any sign of slowing. With new projects being announced each week, keeping track of the latest data center developments is not always easy.
To keep you informed about the latest data center news involving design, construction, and related developments, we bring you the highlights from the past month.
This curated selection will help you stay on top of the latest data center development news with ease.
North American Data Center Deals
Meta has unveiled plans to develop a hyperscale data center in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Once complete, the $800 million, 715,000 sq ft campus will be the Facebook owner’s 21st data center in the US and 25th globally.
“Cheyenne stood out as an outstanding location for Meta to call home for a number of reasons,” the company said last month. “It provides good access to infrastructure and energy, it has a strong pool of talent, and we have found a great set of community partners that have helped us move this project forward.”
Regional news publication Cowboy State Daily has been keeping a close eye on Meta’s expansion in Wyoming. According to the paper, a $1.2 billion solar project is planned near the data center with the capacity to produce enough electricity to run 771,000 homes.
In Virginia, EdgeCore has purchased 120 acres of land in the Culpeper Technology Zone and plans to develop a 1.4 million sq ft data center campus. The facility will be capable of supporting 216 MW of critical IT load. Initial power delivery is expected in early 2028.
The news came as DataBank broke ground on a third data center at its campus in Ashburn, Virginia. The new facility will bring 20 MW of power and 70,000 sq ft of “HPC-ready” data center space to the already constrained Northern Virginia market.
In the Midwest, Google is planning to invest a further $1 billion in its data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The tech company said it would contribute to water quality programs in the state.
TA Realty and EdgeConneX have unveiled plans to jointly develop a 324 MW data center campus in Atlanta, Georgia.
More North American data center news:
Crusoe Energy Systems is building a 200 MW data center at the Lancium Clean Campus outside Abilene, Texas.
CyrusOne has secured a $7.9 billion line of credit as it races to build more data centers to meet the demand from the artificial intelligence boom.
According to local reports, the City of West Memphis, Arkansas, is taking the first steps to bring a $3 billion data center to the region.
Latin American Data Center Developments
In Latin America, Elea Digital Data Centers has announced a 120 MW, $1 billion strategic expansion plan to meet Brazil’s “booming demand” for data centers.
The colocation provider’s latest investment plan includes the acquisition of two data center campuses in greater São Paulo and a large-scale footprint expansion of up to 100 MW in the coming years.
The facilities, located in São Bernardo do Campo (SPO2) and the Tamboré region (SPO3), have a current combined power capacity exceeding 10 MW. The São Bernardo do Campo site also includes a land bank and a high-voltage substation.
Meanwhile, Scala Data Centers has held a groundbreaking event for its first data center in Northeastern Brazil. With 7.2 MW of capacity, the SFORPF01 facility is expected to be completed by 2028.
According to the company, the investment “underscores Scala’s dedication to economic growth and tech advancement in the region.”
Canada-based Hive Digital Technologies has agreed to develop a 100 MW hydroelectric data center in Paraguay. The bitcoin mining facility will utilize “green and clean energy” sourced from the Itaipu hydroelectric dam, the company said.
Uruguay’s environment ministry has approved Google’s reformulated Teros data center project, according to Latin American business insight firm BN Americas. The project was announced in 2020, but the data center plans needed be reworked following sustainability concerns.
Yondr has completed the first 20 MW phase of its new data center in Slough, UK. IMAGE CREDIT: YONDR
European Data Center Developments
The UK dominated European data center news headlines this past month, with Yondr Group completing the first 20 MW phase of its data center building in London, marking what it says is a “major milestone” for its planned 100 MW+ data center campus.
Delivered in under two years, the 30 MW building, located in Slough, West London, is Yondr’s first completed data center in the UK. The second building is already under construction on site, which will add a further 30 MW of capacity, the operator said.
Also in Slough, Digital Realty has acquired a data center campus for $200 million. The facility features two data centers with a combined capacity of 15 MW.
Elsewhere, Microsoft unveiled plans to construct an AI-focused data center on the site of a former power station in the northern city of Leeds. The £2.5 billion ($3.2 billion) project aims to bring over 20,000 advanced GPUs to the UK by 2026.
And in Lincolnshire, a £3 billion ($3.8 billion) data center may result in the creation of 400 jobs, the BBC reports.
In Spain, AtlasEdge has acquired land for the development of its second data center in Barcelona.
“With initial power already secured, the new facility will deliver 10 MW by 2027, with the potential to increase this to 24 MW,” the company said.
Italian cloud hosting firm Aruba has reactivated a hydroelectric power plant in Melegnano, near Milan. This brings the group’s total number of power plants to eight, with an installed capacity of about 10 MW.
More European Data Center News this month:
Germany-based Northern Data is considering a $16 billion IPO as it looks to expand its data centers.
NTT is understood to be mulling the development of a data center on the site of a former US barracks in Germany.
Spain’s Merlin Properties Socimi said it will hold a share sale to raise capital to fund the expansion of its data center business.
Asia-Pacific Data Centers Builds
In Asia-Pacific data center news, Amazon will partner with the Australian government for a cloud data system to handle top secret information, in a move that’s aimed at improving the nation’s cyber capabilities.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles announced the partnership with Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud division, at a press conference in Canberra last month, saying the government would invest at least A$2 billion ($1.3 billion) over the next decade in the new system.
The location of the data centers and the nature of the information they will be holding weren’t disclosed.
In Southeast Asia, Telekom Malaysia and Nxera, the regional data center arm of Singtel’s Digital InfraCo unit, held a groundbreaking ceremony for their new data center campus in Johor, while Gulf Energy will spend $271 million to expand its existing data center facility in Bangkok, Thailand.
Equinix has announced its planned entry into the Philippines with the acquisition of three data centers from Total Information Management, a regional technology solutions provider.
In Japan, Keppel DC REIT has entered into an agreement to acquire a data center in Tokyo for JPY23.4 billion ($150 million). The freehold multi-story property, named Tokyo Data Centre 1, was completed in 2019 and leased to a “Fortune Global 500 company and hyperscaler.”
“With the remaining lease term of approximately seven years, there is an opportunity for positive rental reversion and potential for further organic growth on the back of growing demand for generative AI and tight data center supply in Japan,” Keppel said.
The news follows recent reports that NTT Data Group was planning to launch Japan’s first data center-focused REIT.
Singapore’s Princeton Digital Group plans to double the capacity of its data centers in three years to meet surging demand from global artificial intelligence developers, highlighting tech firms’ rising interest in Asia.
The Warburg Pincus-backed company is adding more than 300 employees in markets including Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and India by the end of 2025 as AI propels its growth, Rangu Salgame, PDG’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in an interview.
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