This Week in Data Center News 9.22.25

In the dynamic landscape of the data center industry, recent developments highlight a significant acceleration in growth and technological evolution, particularly driven by the insatiable demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure. This week's news underscores key trends, including massive-scale projects like the Nvidia and OpenAI partnership and MSB Global's Matrix Data Center Campus, which are setting new benchmarks for power consumption and innovative cooling solutions. We're also seeing regional hubs like Dallas and Columbus experiencing unprecedented expansion, with new facilities rapidly being deployed to meet the high-density power requirements of modern AI applications. The industry is grappling with critical challenges such as power availability and water usage, but is also responding with advancements in sustainable design, as exemplified by projects utilizing water-free cooling and integrated renewable energy sources. This forward momentum, while presenting hurdles, also signals lucrative opportunities for developers to innovate and invest in a market defined by its explosive growth and evolving technological demands.

Project Jupiter data center gains approval for an industrial revenue bond despite major community backlash

Project Jupiter, a multibillion-dollar data center proposal in Dona Ana County, New Mexico, has received approval for industrial revenue bonds despite significant local opposition. The project, developed by Borderplex Digital and Stack Infrastructure, plans to establish four data centers near the Santa Teresa border crossing, powered by a natural gas plant that will consume approximately one gigawatt of energy—enough to power 100 million LED lightbulbs. Local residents, particularly those with engineering backgrounds, have raised concerns about the environmental impact, noting that even a smaller 700MW plant would emit more carbon dioxide than El Paso Electric's entire system.

The data center complex will utilize a closed-loop water recycling system requiring an initial 20 million gallons and approximately 7 million gallons annually thereafter. While developers have committed millions of dollars toward improving local water and wastewater infrastructure, residents in the Santa Teresa and Sunland Park areas continue to face water reliability issues. County officials maintain they will have strong oversight capabilities since they will own the water utility by the time the facility becomes operational, allowing them to monitor usage precisely and ensure compliance with water usage agreements.

Edged Energy launches 24MW data center in New Albany, Ohio after breaking ground on site only 13 months ago

Edged Data Centers has opened its first Ohio facility in New Albany, a $246 million, 206,000-square-foot data center that delivers 24 megawatts of critical capacity using innovative water-free cooling technology. The facility employs cutting-edge cooling systems developed by sister company ThermalWorks that eliminate water usage for cooling operations, saving over 92 million gallons of water annually compared to traditional data centers of similar size. Additionally, this revolutionary cooling approach reduces energy overhead by 50%, addressing two critical challenges facing the data center industry.

The New Albany facility represents a significant advancement in sustainable data center design at a time when the industry faces mounting pressure over resource consumption. Columbus has emerged as a national leader in data center growth, with facilities increasing 1,800% between 2020 and 2025, and electricity demand projected to reach Manhattan-level consumption by 2030. Edged's facility will employ approximately 70 workers and is designed to lease space to two or three enterprise clients who will operate their own servers while utilizing Edged's infrastructure, power, and cooling services. The facility is partially leased with customers expected to begin operations in early 2026.

Nvidia to invest $100 billion in Open AI as part of data center buildout

Nvidia announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI involving up to $100 billion in investments to build massive AI data centers requiring 10 gigawatts of power. According to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, this infrastructure will utilize between 4-5 million GPUs, equivalent to Nvidia's entire annual shipment and double last year's output. The first phase, featuring Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin systems, is scheduled to come online in the second half of 2026, with the initial $10 billion investment deployed upon completion of the first gigawatt of capacity.

This partnership represents one of the largest AI infrastructure projects to date, with estimated costs of $50-60 billion per gigawatt of data center capacity, of which approximately $35 billion goes toward Nvidia chips and systems. The collaboration addresses OpenAI's growing computational needs as it serves 700 million weekly active users and develops next-generation AI models. For data center developers, this signals the scale of infrastructure investment required for advanced AI applications and demonstrates the critical role of specialized hardware partnerships in meeting unprecedented computational demands. The project complements existing infrastructure work with Microsoft, Oracle, and SoftBank, indicating a multi-partner approach to scaling AI infrastructure at enterprise levels.

MSB announces 30 AI data center facilities to be built on their Sulphur Springs campus, totalling 3000MW 

MSB Global is developing the Matrix Data Center Campus, a massive 1,677-acre AI data center facility in Sulphur Springs, Texas, scheduled to open in September 2026. The project represents a $140 million investment and will be built in three phases, ultimately featuring 30 identical 100MW data center buildings with a total capacity of 3,000MW. Each facility will be 278,000 square feet and utilize NVIDIA GB300 AI GPU systems with immersion cooling technology for AI training, large-language model development, and cloud computing services.

The campus emphasizes sustainability through a combination of renewable energy sources including geothermal, solar, batteries, and natural gas with carbon capture, positioning itself as a "net-zero AI infrastructure" model. MSB plans an aggressive deployment schedule, opening the first 100MW facility in September 2026 followed by an additional 100MW data center every month thereafter. The development includes comprehensive support infrastructure such as executive conference centers, staff housing, dining facilities, and medical centers, with the potential to generate up to $18 billion in community investment. The project is a public-private partnership with the City of Sulphur Springs and Hopkins County, featuring a 35% property tax abatement for the first 10 years.

Dallas estimates a double in data center footprint by the end of 2027

Dallas is experiencing unprecedented data center growth, with vacancy rates at just 2.4% in the first half of 2025 and absorption reaching 279 megawatts—a 575% increase from the previous year. The demand is primarily driven by AI applications requiring significantly higher power density, with modern facilities needing up to 200kW per rack compared to the 5-7kW typical of facilities built just seven to ten years ago. This technological evolution has rendered many existing data centers obsolete, contributing to the tight market conditions.

The region is positioned for massive expansion, with 350 megawatts currently under construction (90% pre-leased) and an additional 1.3 gigawatts planned to come online by early 2027. By 2031, Dallas is expected to reach a total footprint of 3.7 gigawatts, effectively doubling its current capacity. The primary constraint remains power availability, with hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud driving demand as they expand their AI services. This supply-demand imbalance is keeping pricing elevated at over $200 per kilowatt, making Dallas a critical market for data center developers seeking opportunities in one of the nation's most power-constrained environments.

Tools & Solutions for Data Center Developers

Discover how we address critical challenges like power availability and project siting, and explore our range of available solutions. Book a demo with our dedicated team.LandGate provides tailored solutions for data center developers. 

You can also visit our library of data center resources.