France’s Nation DC launches 3MW data center outside Rennes
French colocation firm Nation Data Center has launched its new 3MW facility outside Rennes. “This data center embodies our ambition: to offer a sovereign, responsible, and local infrastructure, at the service of the territories and the digital transition,” the company said. The NDC Roazhon site in Noyal-sur-Vilaine offers 3,000 sqm with capacity for 560 racks and reportedly opened with four customers after a €30 million investment.
Ludovic Castillo stated: “The inauguration of NDC Rennes marks a major step forward in our deployment plan. Our ambition is clear: to build by 2030 a network of 15 data centers, all located in France.” Nation DC, acquired by Altarea in 2022 with Crédit Agricole as an investor, is also developing a site in Normandy for 2027 and planning additional locations around Paris and other major French cities as part of its sovereign national expansion.
Public inquiry opens into 147MW Slough data center scheme
A public inquiry has begun into a proposed 147MW data center on green belt land near Slough in the UK. The scheme, led by Manor Farm Propco — a Tritax Big Box vehicle — would initially deliver 107MW in a 448,000 sq ft facility with the option to expand to 147MW, alongside a battery energy storage system powered in part by renewable energy. Though the developer argues the plot is “underutilized brownfield land” with existing industrial permissions, the local council contends the need has “not been demonstrated” and warns the project would further merge Slough with Greater London.
The inquiry was triggered after the UK government intervened when the council was set to reject the application. An eight-day hearing began on October 14, after which Secretary of State Steve Reed will decide. The case comes as the government has recently overturned local refusals to push ahead with data center developments elsewhere, reflecting national demand for digital infrastructure in the already busy Slough–Heathrow market.
Alibaba Cloud launches second data center in Dubai
Alibaba Cloud has launched a second data center in Dubai, nine years after opening its first facility in the country, as part of its $53bn global cloud and AI expansion strategy. Announced at GITEX Global 2025, the new site will support expanded cloud and AI offerings in the Middle East — a region the company says is uniquely positioned to accelerate AI adoption.
During the event, Alibaba also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Wio Bank to integrate Alibaba’s cloud and AI services as part of a multi-cloud strategy using its Dubai data centers. Additional customers, including The Game Company and Accumed, have also agreed to migrate services to Alibaba Cloud, which is rapidly adding new sites in regions such as Mexico, Japan, Malaysia, and South Korea.
Meta breaks ground on 1GW data center campus in El Paso, Texas
Meta has broken ground on a new 1GW AI-optimized data center campus in El Paso, Texas — the company’s 29th facility and its third in the state. The first phase involves a $1.5 billion investment on land Meta quietly acquired through an affiliate in the city’s northeast, with plans for up to five build-out phases. Designed to support both traditional servers and “future generations of AI-enabled hardware,” the campus will use a closed-loop liquid cooling system that consumes zero water “for the majority of the year.” Despite El Paso not being a traditional data center hub, Meta says the project will be “a powerhouse data center optimized to support our growing AI workloads,” marking a significant expansion of its Texas footprint alongside existing campuses in Fort Worth and Temple.
Vantage Data Centers expands Milan presence with $400 million second campus
Vantage Data Centers will invest more than €350 million to build MXP2, a second campus in Milan located in Castelletto, about 15km from the city center. The new site will feature two data centers with 32MW of IT capacity and is scheduled to complete its first phase in spring 2026. This expansion follows the company’s first Milan site, MXP1, and is part of a broader €4 billion investment plan across Italy over eight years, expected to generate thousands of construction jobs and 250 permanent roles.
Designed with sustainability in mind — including rain gardens, vertical greenery, and permeable surfaces — the MXP2 campus has been declared of “public interest” by Italy’s Council of Ministers due to its contributions to digital innovation and energy transition efforts. Once MXP2 is complete, Vantage’s two Milan campuses will offer a combined 96MW, supporting cloud and AI demand from major hyperscalers.
AI startup Poolside teams up with CoreWeave on 2GW data center in Texas
AI startup Poolside is partnering with CoreWeave to develop Project Horizon, a 2GW data center campus in West Texas on 568 acres of Longfellow Ranch, aiming to run on natural gas from the Permian Basin. CoreWeave will anchor Phase 1 with a 250MW lease over 15 years, expandable to 500MW, with construction targeted for completion in Q1 2027. The facility will use a “hybrid modular module” design for faster parallelized buildout.
As part of the deal, CoreWeave will also provide Poolside access to Nvidia GB300 NVL72 GPUs (40,000+ GPUs) starting in December to train multi-trillion-parameter AI models. Poolside — now raising $2bn at a $14bn valuation — says this vertical integration from “dirt to intelligence” will enable it to scale reinforcement-learning-based foundation models. Texas continues to attract AI infrastructure, with Meta’s new 1GW El Paso build and growing gas-backed hyperscale plans across the state.
Google to invest $9bn in South Carolina data centers
Google will invest $9 billion in South Carolina data center infrastructure by 2027, funding expansions to its long-running Berkeley County campus and construction of two new campuses in Dorchester County that began in 2024. The company is also moving ahead with sustainability commitments in the state, including a 600MW solar PPA and a water-use agreement.
This update comes shortly after Google confirmed a separate $4 billion cloud and AI investment in Arkansas, where it will build its first data center in the state — a five-building campus in West Memphis known as Project Pyramid, alongside a partnership with Entergy for a 600MW solar project.
Google confirms $15bn data center project in Andhra Pradesh, India
Google will invest $15 billion in a massive “AI hub” in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, working with AdaniConneX and Airtel to build new data centers, a subsea cable landing station, and supporting energy infrastructure. The plan — announced during the Bharat AI Shakti event in New Delhi — includes three linked data center campuses across Adivivaram, Tarluvada, and the Rambilli–Achyutapuram cluster, and could eventually exceed 1GW of capacity, with construction expected to begin next year and finish within two and a half years.
Alongside the data centers, Google will develop a subsea cable gateway to connect global undersea networks and invest in local grid expansions, clean energy, and storage. Thomas Kurian called it “a landmark investment in India’s digital future,” while Gautam Adani said the partnership “is more than just an investment in infrastructure. It is an investment in the soul of a rising nation.” The project positions Visakhapatnam as a global AI and connectivity hub at a time when other US hyperscalers may be slowing investments in India.
Mongolia’s sovereign wealth fund looks to bring in data center development
Mongolia is seeking to attract data center investors through its Chinggis Khaan Sovereign Wealth Fund, which has $1.4bn in reserves and plans to leverage the country’s cold climate, cheap land, and clean energy potential. CEO Temuulen Bayaraa told CNBC that the government is creating special economic zones for digital infrastructure, including Hunnu City, a 31,000-hectare smart city project located 50km from Ulaanbaatar that aims to use geothermal energy.
Currently, Mongolia’s data center presence is minimal and mostly centered in the capital, with only a handful of Tier II facilities operated by banks and telecom firms. By promoting climate advantages and renewable energy access, the sovereign fund hopes to bring hyperscalers and international developers into a new frontier market for AI and compute infrastructure.
OpenAI plans 500MW data center in Argentina
OpenAI is planning its first data center in Latin America through a new initiative called Stargate Argentina, announced by the Argentine government. The company signed a Letter of Intent with Sur Energy to develop a hyperscale site in southern Patagonia with up to 500MW of AI capacity, with construction expected to begin next year and the first 100MW phase to go live in 2027.
The project — potentially worth up to $25 billion under Argentina’s RIGI incentive regime for large investments — will be developed via a joint venture between Sur Energy and an unnamed global cloud infrastructure partner, backed by a power purchase agreement from OpenAI. Sam Altman said the company is “proud to announce plans to launch Stargate Argentina,” marking one of the country’s largest tech infrastructure deals and extending OpenAI’s global Stargate buildout beyond the US and Europe.
