Data Center World

Manufacturing and construction teams have historically focused on supply chain performance to cut costs. In today’s data center buildout, the focus is completely different, says David Shillingford, a supply chain advisor and technology investor who’s been working with hyperscalers and suppliers who support them. “It's all about getting stuff built quickly, and it's a different way of applying supply chain discipline and skills,” Shillingford says.

From Anthropic's $45 billion compute agreement with Nscale and Nvidia's record-breaking quarter to OpenAI and Alibaba's custom silicon pivots and a slew of Australia developments, it's been another packed stretch for the sector. Plus, could a rice-grain-sized "rainbow" chip be the key to 6G? Here's a roundup of the latest data center developments.

Christopher Cox has an important and sobering story in the New York Times Magazine about the U.S. electrical grid, and particularly the role transformers play and the risk they present. As Cox explored key issues facing the U.S. grid, he inevitably turns to the role that data centers play, both in using heaps of electricity and also how data centers might shape the grid’s future.

If your business had a very expensive machine sitting underutilized 99% of the time, you’d probably put a lot of brainpower into increasing its use. An initiative called Grid 2.0, launched in a new research paper, aims to address this problem for the U.S. power industry. Utilities and transmission operators build capacity for peak energy use, which means those resources sit idle except for the 30-some hours a year of peak demand.

From Nvidia lining up half a trillion dollars in outside financing and Governor Abbott hitting pause on nearly 50GW of Texas interconnection requests to Amazon posting a record-breaking AWS quarter and a mass PJM outage still sparking reliability concerns, it's been another eventful stretch in the industry. Plus, a floating data center that makes its own drinking water? Here's a roundup of the latest data center developments.

Know what’s changing even faster than the technology inside data centers? The rulebook for building and operating one, especially in a way that’s embraced by the community. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is the latest to reset the rulebook. His Aug. 3 letter told electric grid operator ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) to stop all approvals of data center grid connections until the agencies can complete a “comprehensive verification and audit” of every request. Gov.

From AMD's blockbuster Advancing AI showcase and Meta and BlackRock's $14 billion El Paso joint venture to a voltage disturbance that rattled the grid from DC to Chicago, it's been another packed stretch for the sector. Plus, Nvidia chips are headed to the Moon. Here's a roundup of the latest data center developments.

As more companies put AI capabilities into day-to-day use for employees and customers, CIOs and their data center ops teams face the question: Where should those AI workloads run? On-premises data centers? Colocation facilities? Public clouds? A few recent surveys illuminate how enterprise data center leaders are thinking about this choice.

What do you get when you throw 24 startups at the data center industry — mixing entrepreneurs’ inspiration with one of the most cautious, risk averse industries? You get bold dreams and boring reliability documentation. Pitch decks and real-world pilot tests. We saw that dynamic in action when we created a cauldron of new data center ideas at Data Center World 2026, through the Innovation Challenge Powered by ABB.

From New York's first-in-the-nation data center moratorium and Meta's $50 billion investment in Louisiana to Microsoft layoffs and Anthropic's $19 billion Kentucky lease, this stretch's headlines showcase a mix of big spending and growing friction. Plus, could your neighbor's rooftop solar panels soon be moonlighting as AI infrastructure? Here's a roundup of the latest data center developments.