California Data Center Intel

Recent California data center news

• Jan 26, 2026

  AI impacts, policy brings frightening implications for environmental future

  Angelina Alkhouri argues that AI’s rapid expansion is creating significant environmental harms and calls for consumer demand, corporate transparency, and proactive policy.

  • Main claim and action: The column calls for consumer pressure, corporate transparency, and proactive policy to address AI’s environmental footprint, citing UCLA professor Ramesh Srinivasan and examples such as Microsoft, Anthropic, and Meta; it references an S&P Global finding that “Only 21% of responding companies mention sustainability within their AI initiatives.”
  • Background and supporting details: The piece details concrete impacts—server farms/data centers using drinking water for cooling and reliance on rare earth minerals for chips—includes student reactions (Shelby McAlpin, Katelyn Dilbeck), references the United Nations reporting on Sahel displacement, and frames the article as an opinion column urging immediate, verifiable actions (consumer demands and policy development).
• Jan 26, 2026

  Laying the Foundation for Low-Emission Cement and Concrete

  Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) introduced the Concrete and Asphalt Innovation Act (S.1067) in March 2025; the House reintroduced the IMPACT Act (H.R.1534) to establish a temporary low-emission cement, concrete, and asphalt program at the U.S. Department of Energy.

  • Main announcement/action: The Senate introduced S.1067 (Concrete and Asphalt Innovation Act) in March 2025 to accelerate the use of low-emission concrete and asphalt; the House reintroduced H.R.1534 (IMPACT Act) to create a temporary low-emission cement, concrete, and asphalt program at the U.S. Department of Energy (legislative actions introduced/reintroduced in 2025).
  • Background & other details:Market valuation: global green concrete market $39 billion (2024) projected to reach $102 billion (2032); targets to reduce clinker-to-cement ratio include the American Cement Association moving from 0.88 to 0.75 by 2050 and the GCCA projecting a global drop from 0.76 to 0.52 by 2050. Research and industry actions cited: Northwestern University developed a carbon-negative cement from seawater, Qatar University found a concrete mix with treated wastewater + recycled aggregates + 20% fly ash reduced maintenance costs by 60% and life-cycle costs by 19%; tech company partnerships include AWS using low-carbon concrete from American Rock Products for U.S. data centers and Meta partnering with CarbonBuilt.
• Jan 26, 2026

  Vanderbilt Report Argues for 'Dig Once' Policies to Reduce Fiber Instillation Costs

  Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator released a report in December recommending strong “dig once” laws to require installation of conduit during any roadway excavation, shifting conduit installation responsibility toward governments to reduce costs and speed fiber deployment.

  • Main recommendation: Require strong “dig once” laws for federally funded road construction so governments install conduit whenever roads are built or repaired; the report cites studies finding 75% to 90% of fiber deployment costs stem from digging up and repairing roadways (Fiber Broadband Association 2024; FHWA 2012).
  • Context and details: The report notes federal legislative attempts were weakened into notification requirements (states notify ISPs when construction occurs); highlights state examples such as Utah (62.5% fiber coverage vs national average 49%) and other states with laws (California, Washington, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa); it references June 2026 BEAD revisions and urges Congress, during 2026 surface transportation reauthorization, to mandate dig once on federally funded projects.
• Jan 26, 2026

  EPA moves toward changing particulate matter standard as manufacturers urge action

  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving to revisit and ask the court to vacate the Biden-era annual PM2.5 standard of nine micrograms per cubic meter.

  • Main action: The EPA filed a motion in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit asking the court to vacate the March 2024 PM2.5 annual standard (lowered from 12 µg/m3 to 9 µg/m3). The agency said the Biden EPA took a “regulatory shortcut” and failed to adequately consider compliance costs; EPA urged vacatur before the initial nonattainment determinations due on Feb. 7 and states’ implementation plans due in April.
  • Background and details: Industry groups including NAM and 15 trade associations (e.g., SMA, Aluminum Association, American Cement Association) have pressed the Trump administration to revert the standard; EPA previously estimated the 2024 rule could prevent 4,500 premature deaths and 290,000 lost workdays, with monetized benefits of $22 billion to $46 billion and $590 million in estimated costs by 2032. A 2025 ACA report estimated 1 million metric tons of cement needed for AI data centers by 2028 and projects U.S. data centers rising from 5,426 to 6,000 by 2027.
• Jan 26, 2026

  Top 10 Data Center Industry Trends in 2026

  TierPoint has published an article outlining the Top 10 data center industry trends for 2026 and beyond.

  • Main announcement: TierPoint presents a trends roundup emphasizing AI, hybrid cloud, hyperscale, edge computing, automation, cooling/energy, security, and regulatory/compliance. Key facts cited include global data center market growth of over 11% by 2034, the AI market predicted to reach almost $2 trillion by 2030, hyperscale operators forecast to account for 61% of capacity by 2030, 46% of IT decision-makers adopting hybrid-by-design, and 58% of organizations impacted by IT skills shortages.
  • Background and specifics: The article details energy and cooling context and solutions: fossil fuels (including natural gas) made up 56% of data center electricity use, while nuclear + renewables provided 43%; recommends high-density colocation, liquid–air hybrid systems, direct-to-chip cooling, closed-loop liquid cooling, and automation/self-healing infrastructure. It also highlights compliance focus with certifications like ISO/IEC 27001 and SOC 2 Type II, and references TierPoint’s 2030 IT Blueprint report and a Cloud Currents podcast episode with Tamanna Sait.
• Jan 26, 2026

  Intel wrestling with CPU supply shortage

  Intel said it expects CPU supply to improve after Q1 following its Q4 2025 earnings call and accompanying statement by CFO David Zinsner.

  • Main announcement/action:Intel stated its factory network will improve available supply beginning in Q2 and for each remaining quarter in 2026 (CFO David Zinsner). The company said the CPU shortage is peaking this quarter, is impacting the data center/server business, and that Intel is prioritizing mid-/high-end client chips and shifting excess capacity to data center customers. It announced a simplified server roadmap focusing on 16-channel Diamond Rapids, accelerating Coral Rapids (reintroducing multithreading) and a custom Xeon integrated with Nvidia NVLink.
  • Background/details: Q4 2025 revenue declined 4% year-over-year to $13.7 billion; the Data Center and AI segment revenue grew 9% YoY to $4.7 billion, and Intel said revenue would have been meaningfully higher if it had more supply. Intel cited yields on the 18A process node improving month-over-month with a target of 7%–8% improvement each month. This content is reporting from Intel’s earnings call and an accompanying statement (not an opinion piece).
• Jan 26, 2026

  Storage shortage may cause AI delays for enterprises

  Network World reports that enterprises are facing storage shortages, long lead times, and dramatic price increases driven by AI-related demand.

  • Main announcement: The article documents that enterprises are experiencing storage shortages, long lead times, and steep price increases (DRAM and NAND) driven by AI deployments; TrendForce and industry analysts predict DRAM up ~55–60% YoY and NAND up ~33–38%, with some market analysis expecting 50%+ increases and OEMs reporting multi-quarter supply constraints.
  • Background and details:Quoted timelines and figures include predictions of MLC NAND capacity falling 42% in 2026, SSD delivery delays exceeding one year, capacity contracts running to 2026/2027, and manufacturer remarks that a semiconductor plant takes ~15 months and costs $50 billion; Lenovo and industry analysts warn some component prices could rise up to four-fold versus early 2025 (example: a 64‑Gig DIMM moving from the “low two‑hundreds” to ~$800).
• Jan 26, 2026

  Data Center Milestones: From ENIAC to Generative AI

  The article traces the historical evolution of the data center industry from 1946 to the present.

  • The article provides a chronological timeline of milestones: ENIAC (1946) introduced dedicated power and cooling; IBM System/360 (1964) standardized mainframes; Intel 4004 (1971) and the IBM PC (1981) enabled smaller systems and networked demand; the World Wide Web (1989) and dot-com era (2000) expanded server demand; VMware (founded 1998) catalyzed x86 virtualization; AWS EC2 (2006) kicked off the IaaS era and hyperscale buildouts; Docker (2013) popularized containers; edge computing (2017) and COVID-19 (2020) drove distributed demand; ChatGPT (2022) accelerated AI demands; AI data centers (2024) became a distinct class, and neoclouds (2025 onward) target AI-first and specialized cloud services.
  • The article also documents operational and infrastructure trends and concrete examples: it highlights energy efficiency and AI’s staggering energy demands, virtualization’s role in utilization, and a partnership example where Lambda collaborated with Prime Data Centers to deploy high-density NVIDIA AI infrastructure at Prime’s LAX01 AI-ready campus in Vernon, Calif.
• Jan 23, 2026

  Reports of SATA’s demise are overblown, but the technology is aging fast

  Rumors reported that Samsung would phase out SATA SSD production in 2026, which Samsung denied; the article analyzes the industry momentum toward NVMe and the remaining use cases for SATA.

  • Main announcement/context: The article describes a report that Samsung would phase out SATA-based SSD production in 2026 (Samsung has denied the reports). Micron also shifted away from consumer (Crucial) toward enterprise products. IDC market share cited: Samsung 15%–18%. Performance figures:SATA III ~550 MB/s vs PCIe 5.0 NVMe up to 16 GB/s (benchmarks ~14 GB/s). Form factors: SATA uses 2.5-inch drives with cables; NVMe commonly uses M.2 (no cables).
  • Background and details:SATA history: debuted as SATA 1.0 in 2003, advanced to SATA III in 2009 (no SATA IV). Enterprise usage: vendors like Seagate and Western Digital still supply 20 TB and 30 TB SATA drives for cloud cold storage. Analysts quoted: Bob O’Donnell (TECHnalysis Research) and Rob Enderle (The Enderle Group), who note consumer SATA is declining but high-capacity SATA remains in legacy and cold-storage roles.
• Jan 23, 2026

  Unplugged: Data Centers Embrace Onsite Power to Break Free from the Grid

  Bloom Energy has released a new data center power report announcing plans and survey findings.

  • Bloom Energy report:One-third of hyperscalers and colocation providers plan to bring power production entirely onsite by 2030; demand for onsite power rose 22% versus six months earlier based on a double-blind survey of 152 decision-makers (hyperscalers, colocation developers, utilities, GPU service providers). The report also states over 50% of new data center campuses are expected to exceed 500 MW by 2035 and identifies a power expectation gap where utilities estimate delivery times 1.5–2 years longer than developers anticipate.
  • Geography and alternatives: The report projects Texas could secure nearly 30% of the US data center market by 2028 and Georgia’s market share to grow by 75%, while established markets (California, Oregon) may decline by more than 50%; it cites fuel cells and behind-the-meter solutions as growing alternatives and references a Research and Markets projection of the fuel cell market reaching $28.4 billion by 2031.