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Colorado Data Center Intel
Latest data center news, projects, power and policy across Colorado — updated daily.
Recent Colorado data center news
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How Data Center Controversies Have Transformed the Midterm Elections
The Associated Press has published an analysis of the growing political opposition to U.S. data centers and how it is reshaping policy debates. It is commentary and reporting on a broader trend, not a first-time corporate announcement.
- The article says Oracle, Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft expect to spend more than $700 billion on U.S. data centers this year, while OpenAI and Oracle are building Project Jupiter, a $165 billion complex near the Mexican border in New Mexico.
- It also notes opposition over water use, electricity costs, and climate impacts; examples include a challenge to well drilling permits in New Mexico, a one-year ban on large data centers in New York, and tougher regulatory steps in Texas under Greg Abbott.
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Economist Warns Data Center Interconnection Requests May Be Inflated
UC Berkeley energy economist Severin Borenstein argued that U.S. data center interconnection queues overstate real demand and described how utilities are changing rules in response.
- He said developers often submit duplicate interconnection requests across multiple utility territories, making queue data inflated and a poor measure of actual buildout demand; he also compared current forecasts with past electricity-demand overestimates tied to internet growth and AI efficiency improvements.
- He pointed to Ohio regulators approving a settlement that requires 12-year contracts before utilities invest in new substations or transmission upgrades, said Google was the first company to accept, and noted PJM rate impacts of 2 to 3 cents per kWh or 10 to 20 percent across states. He also said Texas has paused new projects pending review while considering more than 1,800 interconnection requests exceeding five times peak grid capacity.
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AVEVA CEO: Sustainability Commitments Must Be Backed by Measurable Results
AVEVA CEO Caspar Herzberg says AI-driven data center growth requires operational transparency, measurable performance data, and digital twins rather than sustainability pledges alone.
- Herzberg said AVEVA is working with NREL on eGridGPT, a generative AI model for grid control rooms that integrates with the AVEVA PI System and supports state estimation, variable-energy forecasting, and grid operations.
- He also cited AVEVA work with Ontario Power Generation and the Silicon Valley Clean Energy / ZGlobal project, and said data centers could have 20–25 GW of battery storage globally by 2030; the interview includes discussion of PUE, emissions, water use, backup-generation runtime, and digital twins.
- This is an interview/commentary piece, not a new corporate announcement, and it mainly relays Herzberg’s views on grid planning, transparency standards, and data center operations.
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Federal Trade Commission Chairman Sees AI Antitrust Risks Upstream
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said the biggest competitive risks in artificial intelligence are in chips, power, and construction rather than among AI models themselves.
- Speaking at the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum in a fireside chat with Brian Sullivan of CNBC, Ferguson said competition among large language model developers appears healthy, citing near weekly releases from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and Meta.
- Ferguson said the main concern is input monopolies in chips, energy, and construction, warning against monopoly power upstream and acquisitions that could create a chokepoint in the AI supply chain; he also said FTC enforcement is focused on false marketing claims rather than AI uses deemed merely potentially illegal.
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AI Buildout Worsening Supply Costs, Permit Worries, ISPs Say
The article reports that broadband providers raised concerns about rising supply chain costs and permitting delays as they expand networks, and said AI buildouts by hyperscalers could worsen those pressures.
- The comments were made Tuesday at the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum in Colorado.
- The piece is a short news-style report and includes promotional links for Broadband Breakfast content; it does not describe a new corporate announcement or deal.
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Supply challenges boost value of existing data centers, enterprise deployments: JLL, Morningstar
JLL and Morningstar have released commentary and a midyear report saying North American data center capacity remains extremely constrained, with tenants leasing small fragmented blocks and many deals now contracting for 2028 deliveries.
- JLL’s 2026 North America Data Center Midyear report says North America roughly doubled net new demand in H1 2026 to 25GW, while vacancy stayed at 1% for a third straight year; stabilized assets are seeing stronger pricing and renewals.
- Morningstar said existing data centers are insulated by binding utility agreements, but still exposed to curtailment, demand response, and load-shedding risk; the article also cites Texas rules for loads over 75MW and U.S. Department of Energy action involving PJM Interconnection.
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Wichita Internet Exchange Point Set to Begin Operations in Coming Weeks
Connected Nation and IXP.us said Wichita’s first internet exchange point is nearing operation, with network operators expected to begin building into the site within weeks.
- Brent Legg said the physical facility is nearing operation and operators will start building into the site in a couple of weeks; the Wichita pilot was funded by a $5 million grant from the Capital Projects Fund.
- IXP.us, the joint venture between Connected Nation and Hunter Newby, aims to expand to 135 cities in 47 states; it is also partnering with Moonshot to add compute resources for lower-latency AI use cases, and Newby said they have discussed tenant opportunities with Cox and Lumen.
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One Team, Two Rounds of Giving: Backpacks for Local Students
DataBank has announced that its employees, vendors, and customers completed a backpack drive for Bluffdale Elementary students and teachers, delivering 60 backpacks stocked with school supplies. - Over $1,250 was donated to purchase backpacks and supplies, and 27 employees helped pack them at the Salt Lake City data center.
- The backpacks included items such as a water bottle, notebook, ruler, crayons, pencil pouch, pencils, eraser, pencil sharpener, glue stick, and kid scissors; extra school supplies were also set aside for teachers.
- The article is a community relations / CSR recap, not a first-time product or infrastructure announcement, and it also references several past DataBank community activities at other data centers.
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BEAD Weariness and AI Ambition Collide at Mountain Connect
Broadband Breakfast reported on panel remarks from the Mountain Connect conference in Denver about BEAD broadband deployment challenges and how AI compute may shift between cities and rural areas.
- Panelists said the BEAD program remains stalled by unsigned sub-grant agreements, rising costs, federal liens on equipment, easement risk, compliance burdens, and FCC broadband fabric updates that removed locations from approved areas.
- They also discussed AI infrastructure economics, saying data centers and IXPs have moved toward cheap land, power and water outside metros, while latency-sensitive inference may push compute back toward population centers; Stephen Rose said sub-6 millisecond connections imply compute within about 12 miles of users, and rural passings of $10,000 to $15,000 per home versus $1,200 to $1,500 in cities make deployment difficult.
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AI’s volatile power demand is damaging its own data centers
This article explains that AI data centers are causing new reliability and grid-stability problems, based on interviews and reported observations rather than a single new company announcement.
- Power equipment strain: Rapid AI workload swings are reportedly damaging batteries, generators, turbines, cooling systems, transformers, and flywheels; examples include cracked gas-fired turbines at xAI’s Colossus site in Memphis, Tennessee, and batteries needing replacement within weeks or months.
- Grid and project impacts: The story says the issues are delaying or curtailing operations, including a 2.67-gigawatt AI campus in West Texas developed by Joulent Inc. with Chevron Corp., where power delivery is now expected in 2028 instead of 2027; NERC also issued a level-three alert for big data centers to address immediate grid risks by Aug. 3.