California Data Center Intel

Recent California data center news

• Jan 29, 2026

  Wider view of risk, resiliency needed to thrive in an era that promises uncertainty

  Facilities Dive reports experts advising facilities managers to broaden disaster preparedness in 2026 to include non-weather risks such as energy insecurity, civil unrest, physical and cyber threats.

  • Main guidance: Experts (Laurie Gilmer of Facility Engineering Associates; Paul Morgan of JLL) recommend expanding resiliency planning beyond natural disasters to cover energy/IT outages, civil unrest, workplace violence, theft (e.g., copper) and cyber/physical attacks; they emphasize assessing where mechanical/electrical equipment is sited, preparing backup power and enabling remote operations.
  • Background & specifics:Sedgwick forecasts at least one major U.S. hurricane likely in 2026; California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection forecasts above-normal large fire potential; the EIA projects electricity consumption growth of 1% in 2026 and 3% in 2027 and reports retail electricity price at 13.63¢ per kWh at end-2025; experts note data center demand (including AI data centers) stressing grids (PJM) and growing interest in microgrids, solar + battery systems, VLAN isolation for BMS, smart cameras and advanced security measures.
• Jan 29, 2026

  Tesla ending Model S, X production in Q2, CEO Elon Musk says

  Tesla has announced on its earnings call that it will end production of the Model S sedan and Model X SUV in Q2 and convert the Fremont S/X production space into an Optimus robot factory.

  • Main announcement: Tesla will end Model S and Model X production in Q2 and retool the Fremont factory to produce humanoid Optimus robots, with a stated long-term goal of 1 million Optimus units per year; CEO Elon Musk made the statement on the company earnings call.
  • Background and additional details: Tesla reported energy storage gross revenue of $12.8 billion in 2025 (up 26.6% YoY), plans to invest billions in 2026, forecasts capital expenditure to exceed $20 billion (including a domestic “TerraFab” chip facility), and said it will scale production of the Cybercab robotaxi (slated to enter production in April) and shift Cybertruck use toward autonomous commercial applications.
• Jan 29, 2026

  Service Providers and California Officials Warn BEAD Builds Won’t Solve Affordability

  State regulators, a California congressman, and broadband providers warned that federal infrastructure spending alone will not close the digital divide.

  • Main announcement: Speakers warned that federal infrastructure funding (including the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program) is a major buildout effort but not a complete broadband policy, highlighting unresolved gaps in affordability, oversight, and long-term network sustainability; the warning was delivered during a panel at the Connecting Communities Summit.
  • Background and event details:Ana Maria Johnson, deputy executive director at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), noted California’s broadband strategy has evolved significantly since the launch of the California Advanced Services Fund in 2008.
    • Date: Jan. 28, 2026
    • Location: MILPITAS, Calif.
    • Event: Panel on multi-state broadband grant programs held alongside the Connecting Communities Summit
• Jan 29, 2026

  Key Real Estate and Environmental Considerations for Global Data Center Projects

  Morgan Lewis has published guidance on real estate and environmental considerations for global data center projects.

  • Main announcement: Morgan Lewis provides practical guidance on site selection, permitting, and contractual approaches for data center development globally, highlighting US trends such as early-stage letters of intent, pushes for exclusivity, cost reimbursement agreements between tenants and landlords, and common community concerns including air quality, noise, and traffic. The guidance lists applicable regulatory reviews in the US (wetlands, Endangered Species Act, Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and air permitting for primary and backup generators).
  • Background and concrete requirements: The guidance summarizes Japan obligations (APPI, Telecommunications Business Act registration requirements for telecom services, and Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act approvals) and France requirements (need to secure electrical connection — electrical connection can take seven years in some areas; mandatory permits including a building permit and ICPE; and new obligations effective from April 30, 2025, including that from Oct 1, 2025 projects >1 MW require a prior cost-benefit analysis for heat/cooling efficiency, mandatory heat recovery and redistribution for >1 MW, and forthcoming energy information reporting when power exceeds 500 kW). This article is a published legal guidance piece and references recently enacted French obligations rather than announcing new legislation itself.
• Jan 28, 2026

  Idaho Gets NIST Approval to Advance Broadband Deployment

  Idaho received NIST approval to advance deployment of its $583 million BEAD allocation.

  • NIST approval received: Idaho awarded 92 projects to 23 subgrantees, targeting 92,500 homes and businesses; approved deployment mix 50% fiber, 25% fixed wireless, 25% low-Earth-orbit satellite; after deployment and administrative costs the state identified about $110 million potentially eligible for non-deployment uses, subject to NTIA approval. Idaho plans to seek approval to direct non-deployment funds toward additional internet exchange points, regional traffic-routing hubs, and public safety communications (including advanced 911).
  • Background / other states: Washington has a $1.24 billion BEAD allocation across 235 project areas with a roughly even mix of fiber, fixed wireless, and satellite; states are pressing to use non-deployment funds to accelerate permitting and harden networks by reusing municipal infrastructure (e.g., Spokane County’s 20 public safety towers with “enormous capacity”). Nebraska approved a BEAD mix of ~50% fixed wireless, 40% satellite, 10% fiber, with approvals from NIST and the U.S. Department of Commerce, and intends to advocate non-deployment funding for agricultural technology, secure computing, and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
• Jan 28, 2026

  The POWER Interview: A Path Forward for Geothermal Energy

  Rodatherm Energy Corp. completed an oversubscribed $38-million Series A funding round and is developing closed-loop AGS pilot projects in Beaver and Millard counties, Utah.

  • Main announcement: Rodatherm completed an $38-million Series A (September last year) and is piloting its closed-loop, refrigerant-based Advanced Geothermal System (AGS) in Beaver and Millard counties, Utah, seeking to validate efficiency versus traditional water-based systems.
  • Background/details: The company is Utah-based with operations in Calgary, Canada, claims its organic working fluid yields ~50% more power output than water-based systems, targets data centers and communities for baseload power, and lists investors including Evok Innovations, TDK Ventures, Toyota Ventures, TechEnergy Ventures, MCJ, Active Impact Investments, Renewal Funds, The Grantham Foundation, and Giga Investments.
• Jan 27, 2026

  Prime Data Centers uses closed-loop air and liquid cooling to earn Energy Star certifications

  Prime Data Centers announced that two of its computing facilities in Dallas and Sacramento earned U.S. EPA Energy Star certification.

  • Main announcement:Prime Data Centers earned Energy Star certification for its Dallas (20-MW) and Sacramento (26-MW) facilities, citing efficiency-driven design, advanced monitoring and benchmarking, and the use of closed-loop air and liquid cooling; the company says both facilities are committed to 100% renewable energy and reported 83% waste diversion at active U.S. construction sites in 2024.
  • Background and commitments: The company’s 2025 sustainability report states it will pursue Energy Star certification for all eligible U.S. data centers, pilot “zero waste to landfill” construction, and aims to use hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) by 2030 as the main backup-generator fuel; the article also notes 25 major U.S. data center projects were abandoned in 2025, and peers such as Microsoft and OpenAI have pledged to “pay their way” for grid upgrades to support new data centers.
• Jan 27, 2026

  Pumped hydro, high-temperature thermal storage, and geothermal LDES projects make key advancements across the US

  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued a 40-year license to Rye Development and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners for the 1,200MW Goldendale pumped hydroelectric Energy Storage Project in Washington, US.

  • Main announcement and project details: The FERC license grants a 40-year approval for the 1,200MW Goldendale pumped hydro project developed by Rye Development for fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CI V) on private land at a former aluminium smelter near Goldendale, Washington. The project is expected to have a 4–5 year construction period, an MOU requires union labour via agreements with the Washington State Building & Construction Trades Council and the Columbia Pacific Building & Construction Trades Council, and Rye Development projects over 3,000 family-wage jobs during construction and more than US$10 million each year to Klickitat County upon operation.

  • Other milestones and background: Electrified Thermal Solutions has commissioned a 20MWh Joule-Hive thermal battery at Southwest Research Institute (San Antonio, Texas) that stores heat up to 1,800°C, serves 1–5MW thermal loads and targets 2GW of thermal power capacity by 2030; Sage Geosystems closed US$97 million in Series B funding led by Ormat Technologies and Carbon Direct Capital to advance its first commercial Pressure Geothermal plant at an Ormat facility and its EarthStore solution (claims of unlocking over 130× more geothermal potential in the US).

    • Event: Energy Storage Summit USA — 24-25 March 2026, Dallas, TX
      • Agenda/subject: keynote speeches and panel discussions on FEOC challenges, power demand forecasting, and managing the BESS supply chain.
• Jan 27, 2026

  Scientists empower an AI foundation model to accelerate plant research

  Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed D-CHAG, a new method that more than doubles processing speed and reduces memory usage by up to 75% for hyperspectral plant imaging, enabling training of larger AI foundation models on the Frontier exascale supercomputer.

  • Main announcement: ORNL researchers introduced Distributed Cross-Channel Hierarchical Aggregation (D-CHAG), which uses distributed tokenization across GPUs and hierarchical aggregation to split and merge spectral channels; demonstrated >2x processing speed and up to 75% memory reduction on APPL hyperspectral data and a weather dataset, enabling training of larger foundation models without loss of spatial or spectral resolution. Presented at SC25 (Nov 2025) and run on Frontier at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility.
  • Background and details: The work supports DOE’s Genesis Mission and DOE-supported projects including OPAL and a Generative Pretrained Transformer for Genomic Photosynthesis; collaborators and supporters include the Center for Bioenergy Innovation, ORNL laboratory-directed research & development funding, and partner institutions such as Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley, PNNL, and RIKEN; next steps include refining models to predict photosynthetic efficiency directly from hyperspectral images.
• Jan 27, 2026

  Nokia Strengthens Edge AI Capabilities Through Strategic Collaboration with Blaize on Hybrid Inference Solutions Across Asia Pacific Regions

  Blaize has announced a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Nokia Solutions and Networks Singapore Pte. Ltd. to collaborate on Hybrid AI inference solutions across the Asia Pacific region (announcement dated January 27, 2026).

  • Main announcement: The MOU establishes a non-binding cooperative framework for joint exploration, development, and deployment of Practical AI and Physical AI across Asia Pacific, focusing on edge and hybrid AI inference use cases, reference architectures and solution blueprints, joint validation of AI inference deployments for telecom, industrial, and smart infrastructure, and go to market and ecosystem initiatives including customer workshops, pilot programs, and solution demonstrations.
  • Background and details: The collaboration pairs Blaize’s programmable, energy-efficient AI inference hardware and software with Nokia’s IP networking, data center networking, automation and cloud infrastructure; the MOU is non-binding and states parties may pursue future definitive agreements in the Asia Pacific region. The press release was issued by Blaize on January 27, 2026 and references Blaize’s prior business combination with BurTech Acquisition Corp. and SEC filings for additional risk disclosures.