With data center news moving faster than ever, we want to make it easy for industry professionals to cut through the noise and find the most important stories of the week.
The Data Center Knowledge News Roundup brings you the latest news and developments across the data center industry – from investments and mergers to security threats and industry trends.
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Staffing Change at ASML
Amid plans for expansion and the threat of export restrictions, Dutch-based ASML’s long-time CEO Peter Wennink has retired.
On Wednesday, Wennink handed over the keys to incoming CEO Christophe Fouquet. Previously, Fouquet served as ASML’s chief business officer. Fouquet has big shoes to fill. Under Wennink, ASML shares surged 1,300% over the past decade.
Insights From Data Center World
Coverage of last week’s Data Center World conference and expo in Washington, D.C. continued into this week.
Data Center Knowledge contributor Drew Robb offers insights from the most striking talks and panels, including:
- Will US Data Centers Get Good Marks in New Energy Report to Congress?Researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) previewed their initial findings from a revamped report studying U.S. data center energy use in the AI era.
- ARPA-E Talks ‘Moonshot’ Program to Revolutionize Cooling. Peter de Bock, a program director of the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy updated attendees on the progress of the COOLERCHIPS program and how it could change data center cooling forever.
- Augmenting Data Center Revenue With Grid Services: What to Know. Leaders from CloudHQ and CPower discussed how data centers can work with utilities and vendors to enroll their back-up generators in demand response grid service programs.
For you visual learners, check out our Data Center World slideshow to explore the highlights of Data Center World in pictures.
This Week’s Data Center Deals and Developments
North America
At the top of this week’s data center development news, AWS announced plans Thursday to invest $11 billion in constructing a data center complex in Indiana, the largest capital investment in the state's history. According to Amazon, the investment will create an estimated 1,000 jobs.
“Indiana’s long-term economic strategy is paying dividends for Hoosiers as we cultivate the growth of critical sectors like technology infrastructure,” said Indiana Governor Eric J. Holcomb.
In Austin, Texas, Prime Data Centers is planning to build a $1.3 billion turnkey data center campus, as reported by the Austin Business Journal.
In New Castle, Delaware, colo provider DāSTORacquired a 60,000 square foot facility with a capacity of 8 MW of power.
CEO Kevin Mulqueen said: "We are excited about this strategic expansion into New Castle, which supports the growing demand for our services. Our commitment to providing straightforward, adaptable solutions enables our clients to leverage the latest in AI and cloud services, supporting our ongoing growth and scalability.”
Finally, a former Hertz data center in Oklahoma and a former Truist data center in North Carolina are up for sale. Elsewhere, Canadian telco Rogers Communications is planning to put some or all of its data centers on the market in an effort to erase a billion dollars of post-merger debt.
Asia-Pacific
In Asia-Pacific data center developments this weeks, SK Hynix announced a $14.6 billion investment to build a new memory chip complex in Cheongju, South Korea. The Korean chipmaker plans to break ground at the end of April and complete construction by November 2025.
In Malaysia, Axis Real Estate Investment Trust sold a former steel complex in Johor to an unnamed data center operator.
“Given the favorable price of this asset sale and leveraging on the best and highest use of the property as a data centre development, this is an opportune time to dispose of the property, and to redeploy the capital towards potential yield-accretive properties,” said the company.
Europe
In Dublin, Vantage Data Centers announced Wednesday its entry into the Irish data center market. Dubbed DUB1, the 405,000 square foot flagship campus is expected to be operational in late 2024 with 52MW of IT capacity.
Similarly, AtlasEdge, a joint venture between telco company Liberty Global and digital infrastructure fund DigitalBridge, announced on Wednesday its own plans to enter the Portuguese data center market.
So far, the company has acquired two sites in Lisbon that will deliver more than 20MW of IT load. Once operational, both sites will run on 100% renewable power with zero water waste.
Other Great Reads on DCK This Week
What Is an Unmanned Data Center and Should You Use One? Here's what to know about unmanned data centers, including how they work, why they're valuable and how they could impact the data center industry over the next decade or so.
A History of AWS Cloud and Data Center Outages. Outages at AWS is nothing new. Since AWS first debuted in 2006, we've reported on the cloud giant’s data center outages. Here’s the timeline of events.
Google Fires More Workers After CEO Says Workplace Isn't for Politics. A number of employees protested the tech giant’s contract with the Israeli government. They’ve been let go.
Bellwether Texas Instruments Set for Biggest Gain Since 2020. Following its quarterly report, the chipmaking industry's bellwether company saw the biggest shares gain in four years.
8 Cloud Migration Challenges. Organizations are moving deeper into the cloud, and many have the scars to prove it. Here are some of the top migration challenges IT professionals face.
MIT Proposes Making Quantum Computers Easier to Program. Researchers identify why programming a quantum computer is challenging and suggest a way to make it more accessible.
