California Data Center Intel

Recent California data center news

• 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 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.
• Jan 23, 2026

  Anna’s Archive Multiple Domains Blocked After Spotify Scraping, Court Orders Cloudflare, NIXI to Comply

  Spotify and major record labels (Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group) have sued the anonymous operators of Anna’s Archive and obtained a broad temporary restraining order to block Anna’s Archive domains.

  • Main action: The plaintiffs secured a temporary restraining order (issued Jan 16, 2026) from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York directing domain registries, registrars, hosting and internet service providers (including Cloudflare and the Public Interest Registry) to block access to annas-archive.org, annas-archive.li, and annas-archive.se, disable nameservers, prevent transfers, preserve evidence, and avoid notifying Anna’s Archive until blocking is implemented; the court set a hearing requiring Anna’s Archive to appear on January 16, 2026.
  • Background and details: The complaint alleges Anna’s Archive scraped over 86 million music files (~99.6% of Spotify’s listening data) and relied on Cloudflare and other US-based services for reverse proxying; registries/registrars named to implement blocking include NIXI, Tucows, Hosting Concepts BV, and proxy URLs remain accessible though downloading of Spotify-related data has been disabled. The article also references a related 2024 La Liga order that led to blanket blocking of Cloudflare and legal notices demanding payments of €261 to €450 to identified users.
• Jan 23, 2026

  Trienens Institute seeks solutions amid renewable energy transition

  The Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern University is described as pursuing multi-pillar, ongoing research into clean hydrogen, ammonia-based transport, reversible electrochemical cells, solar generation, grid-scale storage, and carbon capture; this article reports on existing projects and research directions rather than announcing a one-time new policy or single major deal.

  • Main action: The institute (with more than 120 faculty affiliates) is organized around five research pillars: Generate, Store, Deploy, Transform, Capture, and is advancing projects including clean hydrogen production, ammonia dissociation for transport, reversible electrochemical cells, and plasma-catalyzed ammonia formation (collaboration between Profs. Sossina Haile and Dayne Swearer).
  • Background/details: The article cites specific research activities and figures: the U.S. data center electricity use is cited as roughly 120 terawatt-hours per year, the Dunand group is investigating a high-temperature fuel cell for hydrogen/electricity generation, and cross-disciplinary work (engineering, chemistry, sociology, policy) is emphasized as ongoing rather than newly launched.
• Jan 22, 2026 · Tech Xplore

  Engineers invent wireless transceiver that rivals fiber-optic speed

  The University of California, Irvine has announced a silicon-chip wireless transceiver that achieves fiber-optic-rivaling speeds and is documented in two IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits papers.

  • Main announcement: The UC Irvine NCIC Labs team reports a bits-to-antenna transmitter and an antenna-to-bits receiver that together enable 120 Gbps end-to-end wireless links operating in the F-band (~140 GHz territory); the receiver was fabricated in 22-nanometer fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) and consumes 230 milliwatts. The work is presented in two IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits papers (DOI: 10.1109/jssc.2025.3648748 and DOI: 10.1109/jssc.2024.3523842).

  • Background and technical details: The transmitter removes the traditional DAC bottleneck by constructing signals directly in the RF domain using synchronized subtransmitters and RF-domain 64QAM; the receiver uses hierarchical analog demodulation to reduce digitization power. The team highlights potential deployment for ultrafast wireless links between server racks in data centers, standard semiconductor fabrication compatibility, and relevance to 6G/FutureG protocols.

• Jan 22, 2026

  CBRE’s 2026 Data Center Outlook: Demand Surges as Delivery Becomes the Constraint

  CBRE announced its 2026 U.S. data center outlook and confirmed the acquisition of Pearce Services (announced November 4, 2025), positioning the firm to address power and execution constraints in large-scale data center delivery.

  • Main announcement: CBRE’s outlook finds the U.S. data center market constrained by power delivery rather than land, capital, or connectivity; developers and occupiers now prioritize sites capable of supporting 300-MW-plus deliveries within 36 months, with preleasing expected in the mid-70% range and construction/interconnection timelines commonly extending 24–48 months for incremental generation or transmission upgrades.
  • Acquisition and execution detail: CBRE acquired Pearce Services (announced Nov 4, 2025) for approximately $1.2 billion in cash plus an earn-out up to $115 million; Pearce is forecast to generate > $660 million revenue and > $90 million EBITDA in 2026, and CBRE expects to produce > $350 million of Core EBITDA from its digital and power infrastructure services businesses in 2026; financial advisors included J.P. Morgan Securities and Wells Fargo, with legal advisers Sullivan & Cromwell (CBRE) and Ropes & Gray (Pearce/New Mountain Capital).
• Jan 22, 2026

  Can rising power demand boost renewables above policy obstacles in 2026?

  The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) set new July 4 construction deadlines and strict FEOC rules that curtail many Inflation Reduction Act tax credits and have immediate implications for project eligibility.

  • OBBBA actions and timelines: The OBBBA established a July 4 construction commencement deadline to qualify wind and solar projects for IRA production and investment tax credits; the FEOC rule went into effect Dec. 31, 2025 with Treasury guidance pending; the residential solar credit sunsetted at the end of 2025; commercial projects that commence construction by July 4 can qualify if placed in service by Dec. 31, 2030, while projects that do not commence construction by July 4 may still qualify if placed in service by Dec. 31, 2027.
  • Industry response and state actions: Developers (e.g., DSD Renewables) are triaging projects into mature / less-mature / at-risk buckets and cancelling or down-sizing projects that cannot meet deadlines; Treasury eliminated the 5% safe harbor test for >1.5 MW projects; states like Illinois (CRGA: 3 GW storage by 2030) and California (SB-254 transmission investment accelerator) are pursuing measures to speed transmission, interconnection and storage deployment; the Department of the Interior has issued stop-work orders and cancelled the environmental review for the 6.2-GW Esmeralda 7 project, and Dominion Energy has stated its 2.6 GW CVOW project will serve large data center demand.
• Jan 22, 2026

  Long-duration energy storage costs declining, European policymakers urged to make ‘strategic choice’  

  EPRI published a technical report for the LDES Council on 21 January presenting cost benchmarking that shows many long-duration energy storage (LDES) technologies could see cost reductions averaging ~37% by 2030.

  • Main announcement: The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) released “Cost Benchmarking for Long Duration Energy Storage Solutions” (published 21 January) based on LDES Council member project data; it finds a projected average cost decline of ~37% by 2030, with examples including a 100MW 10-hour intraday electrochemical system costing US$220–572/kWh in 2025 and projected US$244–358/kWh by 2030, and a 10MW 100-hour (1,000MWh) multi-day system projected at US$26–38/kWh by 2030.
  • Background and related action: Industry groups (LDES Council, Energy Storage Europe and others) sent a letter to five senior European Commission figures (including Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič) urging the EU to embed LDES in planning, reform market frameworks, align capacity mechanisms, and deploy targeted investment instruments; the letter is accompanied by Energy Storage Europe’s 44-page position paper ‘Policy Options to Anticipate Europe’s Long-Duration Energy Storage Deployment’ and references existing procurement frameworks in California, Australian states, and the UK (Ofgem’s cap-and-floor scheme is presently being legally challenged by Zenobē).
• Jan 21, 2026

  Silicon Valley’s AI boom is an environmental time bomb

  Tina Landis (Liberation News) publishes an opinion piece arguing that Big Tech’s rapid expansion of AI-driven hyperscale data centers is creating severe, measurable environmental harms in the United States and globally.

  • Main claim & evidence: The article documents hyperscale data center environmental impacts including freshwater use up to five million gallons per day, energy consumption currently equivalent to France, projected growth to the energy use of 1.4 billion people by 2030 (IMF), and that 20 data center proposals worth $98 billion were blocked or delayed between April and June 2025 (Data Center Watch). It also cites a UNEP warning: “We need to make sure the net effect of AI on the planet is positive before we deploy the technology at scale.”
  • Background & supporting details: The piece lists concrete harms across the lifecycle: raw material extraction (800 kg of materials for a 2 kg computer), e-waste exports to the Global South, 5–10% increases in household energy bills, community resistance across multiple U.S. states (Arizona, Wisconsin, Virginia, Oklahoma), and notes Big Tech (Microsoft, Google, Meta, Amazon) is spending collectively hundreds of billions of dollars on data centers while pushing for expanded power infrastructure and nuclear expansion by 2050.