California Data Center Intel

Recent California data center news

• 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.
• 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

  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.