Intelligent Data Centres

Ecolab closed of its acquisition of CoolIT Systems, a leader in direct liquid cooling for high‑density data centres. With CoolIT, Ecolab extends its established global leadership in water technologies, research and service to the fastest-growing market in the world: AI infrastructure and computing. Ecolab has announced the close of its acquisition of CoolIT Systems, a leader in direct liquid cooling for high‑density data centres.

Light Source Communications (LSC), a leading provider of high-capacity, future-proof dark fibre networks, has announced the signing of a second major hyperscale tenant on its long-haul dark fibre route connecting Tulsa, Oklahoma and St. Louis, Missouri. This milestone underscores the increasing strategic importance of Central US as a critical corridor for the massive data demands of Generative AI and High-Performance Computing (HPC).

CVC DIF, the infrastructure business of global private markets manager CVC, has agreed to acquire a significant majority stake in firstcolo GmbH, an established data centre and digital infrastructure partner in the Frankfurt metropolitan region. The company operates two data centres in the region and serves more than 350 customers with colocation, dedicated hardware, cloud, connectivity and managed services.

The Scottish operator and cloud provider has brought forward the next phase of its Chapelhall campus following public consultation. DataVita, Scotland’s homegrown data centre operator and cloud provider, has submitted a planning application to North Lanarkshire Council for DV4, a new data centre at Chapelhall. The site forms part of the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone, designated by the UK Government in January 2026 as the first in Scotland.

As hyperscalers, cloud providers and AI developers race to secure the computing capacity needed for increasingly sophisticated models, demand for facilities capable of housing, powering and cooling that infrastructure is accelerating at extraordinary speed. Banks are becoming increasingly exposed to the global data centre boom as soaring demand for AI computing drives billions of dollars into new digital infrastructure, says Morningstar DBRS.

Building envelope specialist scales resources and partnerships to serve hyperscale demand across North America. All Weather Insulated Panels (AWIP), a premier North American provider of high-performance building envelope solutions across industrial and commercial sectors, has expanded its data centre division, scaling its operations to meet unprecedented market demand for advanced, energy-efficient building materials.

As AI infrastructure pushes enterprise data centre networks towards 400 Gbps, ExtraHop is targeting a growing security challenge: how to maintain full visibility across increasingly dense, high-speed east-west traffic without relying on sampling.

EXA Infrastructure has expanded its European long-haul network with a new terrestrial route linking Barcelona and Bilbao, positioning the Catalan capital as a direct gateway between Mediterranean subsea systems and transatlantic connectivity. The corridor is designed to shorten routes across Spain and reduce latency by 52%, according to EXA.

Worley has secured three engineering services contracts from Burr Computer Environments, Inc. (BCEI) to support energy centre projects designed to power expanding data centre campuses across the United States. The agreements will see Worley provide engineering, detailed design and procurement support for energy infrastructure incorporating behind-the-meter generation, as operators seek reliable power capacity for increasingly demanding computing workloads.

Steven Brown, Vice President, EcoStruxure IT Line of Business, Schneider Electric, on why connecting power, cooling, buildings and IT through Energy Intelligence will be critical to the operation of AI-native data centres. Steven Brown, Vice President, EcoStruxure IT Line of Business and Data Center Software at Schneider Electric Artificial Intelligence is changing far more than the workloads running inside data centres.