Vantage plots data center campus outside Cardiff, Wales
Data center company Vantage has received planning permission to build a new campus on a 10.9-hectare site in St. Athan, just outside Cardiff, Wales. The Vale of Glamorgan Council approved plans for the demolition of existing buildings and the construction of a 120MW data center campus, including three two-story buildings with eight 4MW halls each, supported by 22 generators. According to the planning firm CarneySweeney, the site is a “challenging site” due to “levels of PFAS in the soil, the presence of defence structures associated with WWII, and the presence of dormouse and associated habitat.” Vantage has secured a 999-year lease with the Welsh Government for the site, which was formerly part of the RAF St Athan airfield.
Vantage already operates in Wales through its 2020 acquisition of Next Generation Data, which includes campuses outside Cardiff and in Newport, where Microsoft Azure is a major tenant. The company is also developing another Welsh campus at a former Ford plant in Bridgend, with plans for up to 10 buildings and three substations over 10–15 years. The new St. Athan campus is expected to start construction in early 2026 and will contribute to the 1,200-acre Bro Tathan business park, home to companies such as Aston Martin Lagonda, which has the potential to reach three million sq ft of floorspace.
DCI Data Centers and Koramco to develop 40MW facility near Seoul, South Korea
Australia’s DCI Data Centers and South Korean real estate manager Koramco are set to develop a 40MW facility near Seoul at the Sihwa National Industrial Complex in Seonggok-dong, Ansan, spanning 26,871 sqm (289,237 sq ft) across five stories. Planning approval was secured in 2023, with construction expected between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026 and operations by 2028. DCI will hold a majority stake and lead the project, while Koramco will manage “the overall development process,” with power supplied by the Korea Electric Power Corporation. DCI Group CEO Sumit Mukhija said, “This project in Ansan represents a significant step in our regional expansion in key focused markets in APAC. It is designed specifically to meet the needs of AI and cloud-first workloads,” while Koramco CEO Hugh Park added, “We are excited to take this next step in expanding our infrastructure portfolio with the development of our second data center facility in the region.” This will be DCI’s second South Korean data center, following its 20MW SEL01 facility in Seoul, and continues the company’s APAC expansion, including a recent 25MW data center plan in Canberra, Australia.
China’s Galaxy Data Center to invest $2bn in data centers in Thailand
China’s Galaxy Data Center (GDC) will invest $2 billion to develop data centers in Thailand, establishing a computing cluster in Rayong, a coastal city on the Gulf of Thailand and part of the Eastern Economic Corridor, which offers business incentives to investors. The facility will be hosted in Silicon Tech Park in Ban Chang District, west of Rayong, and will include a photovoltaic power plant. GDC’s founder, Feng Hui, highlighted that the project will deploy GW-scale green AI data center technologies, integrate international green energy resources, and foster partnerships to build a robust digital ecosystem, promote knowledge transfer, develop local talent, and position Rayong as a premier green digital hub. The announcement followed Thailand’s “Prime Minister meets investors: Confidence in Thailand’s future” forum, led by Acting Prime Minister and Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Phumtham Wechayachai. Thailand’s data center market has been attracting significant foreign investment, with recent projects including China’s Haoyang Data 300MW facility, Stratus Technology’s $727 million center, Singapore’s Empyrion 12MW facility, Alibaba Cloud’s second data center, and AWS’s new cloud region.
Rowan Digital breaks ground on 300MW data center campus outside San Antonio, Texas
US data center company Rowan Digital Infrastructure has broken ground on its 300MW Cinco data center campus outside San Antonio, Texas, on a 440-acre site in Medina County served by utility AEP. The $900 million hyperscale project, contracted to a “top five US technology company,” is expected to be fully operational by 2027, with the initial 60MW phase now slated for early 2026. The campus could ultimately include seven buildings, though the first phase will be a single building. Rowan CEO Charley Daitch described the project as critical digital infrastructure that will unlock long-term economic opportunities, while local officials praised its transparency, sustainability, and community benefits. The Cinco project brings Rowan’s total fully contracted capacity in the US to over 1GW. Founded in 2021 by Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners and Birch Infrastructure, Rowan is also developing campuses in Temple, Texas, Oregon, and Maryland, with University Pension Plan Ontario among its investors. San Antonio is already a hub for major tech companies, including Microsoft, Amazon, H5, Vantage, QTS, CyrusOne, Stream, and CloudHQ.
Meta taps Pimco and Blue Owl for $29bn data center financing – report
Meta is reportedly securing $29 billion in financing for its Hyperion data center expansion in rural Louisiana, with Pacific Investment Management Co. (Pimco) leading a $26 billion debt portion and Blue Owl Capital providing $3 billion in equity, according to Bloomberg sources. The company has been working with Morgan Stanley to raise the funds, while Apollo Global and KKR were also contenders.
The Hyperion campus, spanning 2,250 acres between Rayville and Delhi (30 miles east of Monroe), is planned to scale up to 5GW over several years. Renderings indicate up to nine buildings totaling roughly 4 million sq ft (371,610 sqm), with phased construction through 2030. Some of the project will likely rely on natural gas for power.
Meta, which has around 30 data center campuses globally, is rapidly expanding for AI workloads. CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously announced multi-gigawatt clusters, including Prometheus (coming online in 2026) and multiple other “titan clusters.” The company has even been placing IT hardware in temporary tents to keep pace with growth.
Blue Owl, with ~$192 billion in assets under management, has recently entered large-scale data center investments, including a $7 billion digital infrastructure fund and acquisitions such as Stack Infrastructure and Radius DC. Pimco, owned by Allianz, also has a growing focus on data centers, launching the Apto European data center platform in 2023.
DC Blox secures $1.15bn green loan for Atlanta data center development
DC Blox has secured a $1.15 billion green loan to build a new data center campus in Douglas County, Georgia, near Atlanta. The funding will support a 120MW facility with expansion for an additional 80MW, totaling 1.25 million sq ft across 100 acres, expected online by 2027.
The Atlanta West campus, announced in 2023, will eventually include three buildings. This financing follows a prior $265 million green loan and equity investment from Post Road Group. ING Capital, Mizuho, Natixis, and other banks structured the deal.
DC Blox operates data centers in Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and is expanding its footprint in hyperscale and edge infrastructure. Sustainability-linked financing, like this green loan, ties repayment terms to environmental goals.
Macquarie and Dell to bring Nvidia-powered sovereign AI to Australia
Macquarie Data Centres and Dell are partnering to deploy Nvidia-powered AI infrastructure in Australia, hosting Dell’s “AI Factory” at Macquarie’s IC3 Super West data center in Sydney. The facility will support sovereign AI workloads for enterprises, private AI, and neocloud projects, targeting sectors with strict data compliance like healthcare, finance, and education.
Dell’s AI Factory uses PowerEdge XE9680 servers, Nvidia GPUs, Spectrum-X Ethernet, BlueField-3 DPUs, and PowerScale F710 storage. IC3 Super West, under construction, will be a 47MW facility designed for large-scale AI demands, set to complete by mid-2026. It will be the final data center on Macquarie’s Sydney North Zone campus, with future expansion planned at other sites.
Texas utility Oncor reports 186GW of interconnection requests from data centers
Oncor Electric Delivery has received over 200GW of interconnection requests, including 186GW from data centers and 5GW from cryptocurrency facilities. About 20% of requests are signed or considered high-confidence, and the company may need to add $12B+ to its existing $36B capital plan to meet demand. Major Texas developments include Crusoe’s 200MW+ Abilene campus, QTS’s Dallas campus, and Microsoft’s San Antonio data center, with ERCOT region electricity demand projected to grow 11% annually in 2025–2026.
Southern Co has seen data center usage surge 13% year-over-year across its six-state service area. According to CEO Chris Womack, its data center pipeline is centered predominantly in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. “The large load pipeline across Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, which includes data centers and large manufacturers, remains well above 50GW of potential incremental load by the mid-2030s,” he said. To meet growing demand, Southern Co is extending the life of coal-fired plants in Mississippi and Georgia, supplementing renewable energy sources to ensure reliability.
Google to invest $9bn in cloud and AI infrastructure in Oklahoma
Google is investing $9 billion to expand its cloud and AI infrastructure in Oklahoma, funding the development of a new data center campus in Stillwater and the expansion of its Pryor facility. The Stillwater campus, set on 400 acres, is expected to include up to six buildings of 300,000 sq. ft. each, with one data center built per phase, while Pryor has seen regular expansions since opening in 2011. Part of the investment will support education and workforce development, partnering with the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, and the Electrical Training Alliance to provide AI training and Google Career Certificates. Oklahoma is becoming an emerging data center market, with other projects by Cerebras, Damac, CoreWeave, and a rumored Meta campus in Tulsa.
Etix completes core & shell of 28MW data center in Bangkok, Thailand
Etix Everywhere has completed the core and shell of its new 28MW data center, Etix BKK#2, in Bangkok, Thailand, increasing campus capacity more than five-fold. Located next to the 5MW Etix BKK#1, the 16,000 sqm facility supports densities up to 150kW and both liquid and air cooling. CEO Pierre Patris highlighted that the adjacent location allows customers to benefit from the same telecom ecosystem and scale easily. Etix acquired a 67 percent stake in Genesis Data Center in 2022 and operates the Bangkok facilities through a joint venture with Interlink Telecom, expanding its presence alongside Edge facilities in France, Belgium, Thailand, and Colombia.
DayOne targets 128MW data center campus in Finland
APAC data center firm DayOne is expanding into Europe with a €1.2 billion ($1.4bn) project in Lahti, Finland, on a former industrial site in Kiveriö. The campus is planned to reach 128MW IT load at full build-out, with construction starting in Q3 2025 and the first 50MW building expected online in 2027. The site will use free-cooling and explore heat reuse opportunities, with tenant negotiations underway. “Finland is an ideal strategic choice for our European growth,” said Jamie Khoo, CEO of DayOne Data Centers. “With its reliable energy infrastructure, renewable energy leadership, highly skilled workforce, and naturally favorable climate that significantly reduces energy consumption and operational costs, Finland offers unique advantages that align perfectly with our commitment to sustainable digital infrastructure.” Lahti’s mayor, Niko Kyynäräinen, noted the project will strengthen the local digital ecosystem.
Separately, DayOne has invested in Hyperco’s Kouvola facility, which will serve ByteDance, and continues to expand its portfolio across Asia. The company currently has more than 500MW of data center capacity in service and under construction, with an additional 500MW held for future development across sites in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia (Johor), Indonesia (Batam), and Japan (Tokyo). It recently broke ground on new sites in Thailand and Singapore as part of its ongoing global expansion.
AVAIO Digital splashes $760 million Madrid data centre
AVAIO Digital is set to build a €650 million (US$715 million) hyperscale data centre in Algete, north of Madrid, redeveloping a former industrial site. Named AVAIO Digital Scorpio, the facility will support cloud services and AI applications, powered by 56.3 MW of clean energy from Iberdrola, with an additional 8 MW under an interconnection agreement. Construction is expected to create over 500 jobs, with around 50 permanent positions once operational, and power delivery is scheduled to begin in 2028.
The data centre will connect to Madrid’s Alcobendas and Alcalá clusters, Spain’s national fibre network, and international markets via subsea cables. The design incorporates sustainable features such as rainwater capture, rooftop solar panels, and air-cooling systems. AVAIO Digital emphasizes Madrid’s strategic role in cloud computing and AI, aiming to expand the northern data centre corridor while redeveloping the industrial site sustainably. The company also has ongoing projects in Northern California, Virginia, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
Samsung C&T, CMC ink MOU to build US$1 billion data center in Ho Chi Minh City
Samsung C&T and Vietnam’s CMC Corporation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop a US$1 billion hyperscale data center in Ho Chi Minh City’s High-Tech Park. The project, called CMC Hyperscale DC, will be implemented in phases, with Phase 1 providing 30 MW capacity and a US$250 million investment, while later phases will exceed 100 MW, bringing the total investment to approximately US$1 billion. Samsung C&T will contribute technology, expertise, and its global partner network, building the facility to international Uptime Tier III+ and Tier IV standards.
The data center will feature advanced technologies including AI-as-a-Service, cloud infrastructure, big data, cybersecurity, XGS-PON, SD-WAN, SASE, 800G DWDM, and a Digital Twin system for ultra-high bandwidth and low latency. The partnership marks a strategic milestone for CMC’s AI-X and Go Global initiatives, positioning Vietnam as a regional hub for data and AI. The MOU was signed during the Vietnam–Korea Economic Forum, attended by top officials from both countries, alongside 14 other MOUs between CMC, tech enterprises, and South Korean universities for AI, hyperscale data centers, and talent development.
Saudi’s center3 targets 1GW of data center capacity by 2030
Saudi data center company center3, a subsidiary of Saudi Telecom Company (STC), plans to reach 1GW of capacity by 2030 through a $10 billion investment, building on $3 billion already spent on its current data center portfolio. Formed in 2022, center3 currently has around 20 data centers in operation or development across Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, aiming for 300MW of installed capacity by 2027. Specific investment allocations and locations for the full 1GW target have not yet been disclosed.
CEO Fahad AlHajeri emphasized that the expansion will support AI, cloud, and hyperscale workloads, strengthening Saudi Arabia’s position in the global digital economy. Recent developments include a 9.6MW expansion at the Khurais Riyadh facility and hosting of Oracle and Huawei cloud regions in its centers. Center3 also announced a partnership with Saudi data center developer DataVolt to further its growth ambitions.
