EAGAN, MINN. — Oppidan Investment Co. has broken ground on a 61,000-square-foot data center on Argenta Trail, south of the YMCA property in the Minneapolis suburb of Eagan. The project marks one of only two ground-up data center developments currently underway in Minnesota, according to Oppidan, which is serving as the landlord and directly financing, developing and delivering the facility in partnership with a tenant. Completion is slated for 2026. Project partners include the City of Eagan, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, Dakota County, Greater MSP, Dakota Electric Association and Great River Energy. Gardner Builders is the general contractor, ERA Associates is the structural engineer, Stantec is the civil engineer, Salas O’Brien is the architect and States Manufacturing is the electric equipment supplier.
Data Centers
Amazon to Invest Minimum of $20B in AI-Based Data Center Campuses Throughout Pennsylvania
by John Nelson
SEATTLE — Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) plans to invest “at least $20 billion” in future cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) innovation campuses in Pennsylvania. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant has identified Salem Township in Luzerne County and Falls Township in Bucks County as the first communities that will host these campuses, with other Pennsylvania communities also under consideration. “I’m proud to announce that we have secured the largest private sector investment in the history of Pennsylvania,” said Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. “Pennsylvania is competing again.” Upon completion, the campuses will house data centers with computer servers, data storage drives, networking equipment and other technology infrastructure used for cloud computing capabilities and generative AI. Specific details about the sites and construction timelines were not released. Last week, Amazon made a similar announcement for a $10 billion data center innovation campus in Richmond County, N.C., which followed an $11 billion investment in Georgia that Amazon announced in January. Amazon stated that the Pennsylvania investment will create at least 1,250 new jobs, as well as thousands of jobs in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center supply chain. The new jobs will range from data center engineers and network specialists, to engineering operations managers, security …
RICHMOND COUNTY, N.C. — Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has announced plans to develop a new, $10 billion cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) innovation campus in Richmond County, roughly 80 miles east of Charlotte. According to the Seattle-based company, this marks one of the largest capital investment announcements in the history of the state. Upon completion, the campus will house data centers with computer servers, data storage drives, networking equipment and other technology infrastructure used for cloud computing capabilities and generative AI. The project will be situated at one of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina’s Selectsite Readiness Program sites, which are designed to accommodate industries like AI and advanced manufacturing. Specific details about the site and construction timelines were not released. Amazon reports that the investment will create at least 500 new jobs, adding to the more than 192,000 tech professionals already in the state, as well as thousands of jobs in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center supply chain. “Amazon’s $10 billion investment in North Carolina underscores our commitment to driving innovation and advancing the future of cloud computing and AI technologies,” says David Zapolsky, chief global affairs and legal officer with Amazon. “This investment will position North Carolina …
ABILENE, TEXAS — Newmark has arranged a $7.1 billion construction loan for a data center project in the West Texas city of Abilene. A consortium of lenders led by J.P. Morgan provided the debt, which will fund the second phase of development of an existing campus. Construction of the first phase, which comprised two buildings and 200-plus megawatts of power, began in June 2024 and is expected to come on line in the coming weeks. Construction of the second phase, which will feature six additional buildings and a total of 1.2 gigawatts, began in March 2025 and is expected to be energized in mid-2026. Jordan Roeschlaub, Nick Scribani, Ben Kroll, Brent Mayo, Doug Harmon and Andrew Warin of Newmark originated the financing on behalf of the borrower, a joint venture between Blue Owl Capital Inc., Crusoe and Primary Digital Infrastructure.
NEW YORK CITY — Private equity giant Blackstone Inc. (NYSE: BX) has provided a $925 million debt facility for Colovore, a data center owner-operator that is back by New York City-based alternative investment firm King Street Capital Management. California-based Colovore will utilize the capital to fund development of new data centers around the country that will be purpose-built to support artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives and infrastructure. According to Colovore, the company’s liquid-cooled facilities are designed from the ground-up to support the intense demands of modern AI chips, offering high per-cabinet cooling densities and smaller physical footprints. The company also said that new data centers stemming from the Blackstone credit facility will be located in “metro edge” markets. A subsequent statement from Sean Holzknecht, Colovore’s president and co-founder, stated that the first wave of new data center developments stemming from the Blackstone credit facility would include projects in the Reno, Chicago and Austin areas. “As AI infrastructure shifts rapidly toward highly distributed, inference-driven workloads, we remain focused on building the national backbone for this next phase — scalable, liquid-cooled data center platforms purpose-built for edge and core inference,” said Holzknecht. “With more than a decade of experience in liquid cooling, Colovore …
PLANO, TEXAS — Aligned Data Centers LLC, a data center developer and operator based in Plano, has partnered with Lambda Inc., a cloud computing company backed by Nvidia. Lambda will occupy DFW-04, Aligned’s newest data center under construction in its home market. The Dallas Morning News reported that the facility represents an investment of $700 million. Lambda’s AI Cloud platform will be integrated into the new data center, which is anticipated to be available in 2026. Situated at 401 N. Star Road, DFW-04 will comprise 425,000 square feet and support Lambda’s highest-density graphics processing units (GPUs), essential tools for AI and machine learning users. The new 44-acre facility will have an onsite substation and will feature Aligned’s proprietary air and liquid cooling technologies. DFW-04 will also have more than 5,000 megawatts of future capacity. The new facility will be situated within three miles of DFW-01 and DFW-02, which also serves as Aligned’s corporate headquarters. Aligned is also currently underway on DFW-03, a 27-acre data center project in Mansfield, Texas, that is set to deliver later this year. “Aligned is the ideal partner to help Lambda build large, flexible space that meets the AI demands of today and tomorrow,” says Ken …
MIAMI — Los Angeles-based Metrobloks has purchased four acres at 500 N.W. 137th Ave. in Miami’s Airport West submarket. The firm plans to develop a 15.2-megawatt data center at the site, which is situated at the intersection of Northwest 6th Street and 137th Avenue. Matthew Bittel and Stuart Gordon of Cushman & Wakefield represented Metrobloks in the land sale. Carlos Gaviria of Transwestern Real Estate Services represented the previous land owner, Sagard Real Estate. Metrobloks plans to begin operations at the new multi-tenant, AI-ready data center by the end of 2026.
MANSFIELD, TEXAS — Locally based owner-operator Aligned Data Centers will develop a 27-acre campus in Mansfield, a southeastern suburb of Fort Worth. Known as Aligned DFW-03, the data center campus will have an onsite substation and will be largely marketed toward users in the AI, cloud and enterprise applications. The facility will also feature proprietary liquid cooling technology and will be able to accommodate user density requirements upwards of 350 kilowatts per rack. Initial capacity is expected to be available in the fourth quarter.
WEST JORDAN, UTAH — J.P. Morgan and Starwood Property Trust have provided $2 billion in financing for a data center project in West Jordan, located just south of Salt Lake City. The borrower, a partnership between Los Angeles-based investment firm CIM Group and regional operator Novva Data Centers, will use the proceeds to complete construction of the second and third phases of the latter entity’s 100-acre flagship Salt Lake City campus. At full build-out, the campus will span approximately 1 million square feet and have a total power capacity of 175 megawatts (MW). According to The Wall Street Journal, that is enough electricity to power about 175,000 U.S. homes of average size. Development of the campus began several years ago, with the first phase coming on line in 2023, the same year in which ownership secured a full-campus lease with an undisclosed global tech company. Construction of Phase II of the project began in December 2023 and will feature a 318,000-square-foot data center building that will have the capacity to produce 72 MW of power. Construction of Phase III commenced in January 2024 and will also feature a 318,000-square-foot data center with a 72-MW capacity. Completion of both facilities is …
AURORA, ILL. — FCL Construction has completed a 210,000-square-foot data center for Edged in Aurora. Ware Malcomb provided architecture and interior design services for the building, which is situated on a 65-acre campus that will ultimately feature 96MW of capacity powered by renewable energy. Seefried Industrial Properties was the developer. Edged is a sustainable infrastructure provider. The new Edged campus was designed to be a model for modern engineering and sustainable infrastructure initiatives and uses significantly less energy than traditional data centers. Among the campus features is a waterless cooling technology that ensures operational efficiency while setting a new industry standard for power usage effectiveness. Other sustainable highlights include onsite solar generation, electric vehicle charge points and alternative fuel-powered backup generators. The building interior can accommodate colocation of multiple tenants and includes 13,000 square feet of office space with a lobby, conference room and break room. The exterior design features a glass façade on the north and south sides, added at the request of the city to enhance visual appeal along the adjacent tollway.