Getting your news
Attempting to reconnect
Finding the latest in Climate
Hang in there while we load your news feed
IA · State profile
Iowa Data Center Intel
Latest data center news, projects, power and policy across Iowa — updated daily.
Recent Iowa data center news
-
1623 Farnam in Review: 2025 Milestones and What’s Ahead for Connectivity in 2026
1623 Farnam announced its 2025 milestones and its positioning for connectivity in 2026.
- Mid-2025 facility expansion: 1623 Farnam completed a strategic expansion in mid-2025 that added 1.5 MW of IT capacity and 280 new cabinets, strengthened its carrier- and cloud-neutral interconnection fabric, and supported increased edge deployments and cross-connect capacity. The Omaha IX saw growth including the Iowa Communications Network (ICN) tapping into the Omaha IX to expand statewide reach.
- Cloud, peering and wireless capabilities: 1623 Farnam emphasized Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute private connectivity, access to 60+ carriers and Google Cloud on-ramps, and its role as a backhaul and aggregation hub for Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and wireless packet core placement. The article frames 2026 as a year for optimization around edge-first architectures, IX-based traffic exchange, hybrid/multi-cloud normalization and wireless backhaul efficiency.
-
Patented: Machine Learning Treatment for Depression and More North Texas Inventive Activity
The Board of Regents of the University of Texas System, Stanford University, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs have been granted a patent for a machine-learning method to identify depression patients likely to respond to antidepressant treatment.
- Main announcement: The three institutions received USPTO Patent No. 12490933 for a method that uses machine learning to identify subjects with depression who will respond to antidepressant treatment, listing Madhukar Trivedi among the inventors; the patent application listed is 19072469 on 03/06/2025 (278 days app to issue).
- Background and context: The article is a Dallas Innovates weekly patents roundup reporting 100 patents granted in the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metro for the week of 12/9/25 (ranked No. 11 of 250 metros); it catalogs numerous other patents and top assignees (e.g., Texas Instruments Inc. (10 patents), Toyota (9), Samsung (7)) and provides USPTO links for individual patents.
-
Emerging Data Center Markets: Key Locations to Watch in 2026
Cushman & Wakefield reports that power and land constraints in major U.S. data center hubs are driving operators to consider secondary and tertiary markets.
- Main announcement: Cushman & Wakefield finds power and land constraints in primary hubs (Northern Virginia, Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Atlanta, Portland/Eastern Oregon) are shifting site selection toward secondary/tertiary markets; highlights include OpenAI’s Stargate (~$100 billion) and Vantage Frontier (~$25+ billion) as large upcoming projects.
- Details/background: Regions such as Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Central Washington, New Jersey, and Massachusetts are offering economic incentives, faster approvals, and flexible regulatory frameworks; Central Washington offers low-cost hydro power enabling 100% renewable operation but is also facing power constraints.
-
Meta Announces 6.6 GW Of Nuclear Energy Projects To Power AI Revolution
Meta has announced agreements with Vistra, TerraPower and Oklo to secure nuclear power for its Prometheus AI supercluster at a New Albany, Ohio data centre.
- Main announcement: Meta will secure up to 6.6 GW of power by 2035 from agreements with Vistra, TerraPower and Oklo to support the Prometheus supercluster (expected online sometime in 2026). Vistra signed 20-year power purchase agreements to provide more than 2,600 MW from Beaver Valley, Davis-Besse and Perry; TerraPower deals fund two projects that could begin generating by 2032 with rights to more projects targeted by 2035; Oklo’s advanced nuclear campus in Pike County, Ohio could come online as soon as 2030, and Meta may prepay for power to advance the Aurora powerhouse deployment.
- Background and related details: Meta previously signed a 20-year deal with Constellation Energy to buy Clinton plant power from 2027; rivals Google, Amazon and Microsoft have also struck nuclear-related deals (Google backing Kairos Power SMRs; Amazon/NextEra support to restart Duane Arnold; Microsoft with Three Mile Island/Crane restart plans).
-
Data Center Jobs: Engineering, Construction, Commissioning, Sales, Field Service and Facility Tech Jobs Available in Major Data Center Hotspots
Data Center Frontier, in partnership with Pkaza Critical Facilities Recruiting, published a monthly roundup of current data center job openings on its jobs board.
- Monthly jobs roundup: The post lists roughly 15–18 open roles (examples: Data Center Facility Technician, Electrical Commissioning Engineer, Construction Project Manager, Senior Electrical Engineer, Production Architect, Strategic Sales Account Manager, Mechanical Engineer, Site Selection Manager/Director/VP, Electrical Project Manager, Electrical Superintendent, Project Executive, MEP Construction Project Manager, Mechanical Commissioning Engineer, Engineering Design Director, Navy Nuke Facility Technician) with locations across the United States including Impact, TX; Ashburn, VA; Dallas, TX; Atlanta, GA; Reading, PA; Allentown, PA; Charlotte, NC; New Albany, OH; Lyndhurst, NJ; Boulder, CO; Richmond, VA; Austin, TX.
- Role and employer context: Positions are listed with mission-critical data center providers, engineering design and commissioning firms, A/E/C architecture firms, equipment rental providers, electrical contractors and general contractors; listings repeatedly cite energy efficiency, sustainable design, and AI infrastructure support, and several technician roles explicitly note acceptance of Navy Nuke / military veterans.
-
State Broadband Bills of 2025: A Legislative Review
State legislatures across the United States enacted and considered broadband-related legislation in 2025; fewer than 140 of more than 600 proposed bills became law.
- Main actions: States enacted laws prioritizing infrastructure and permitting reforms, pole and rights-of-way access, criminal penalties for theft/vandalism, state broadband funding, and data center incentives. Notable enacted measures include Hawaii H 934 (established a state Broadband Office and programs, enacted in June and backed by $400 million in combined funding), West Virginia SB 907 (expanded the Economic Development Project Fund to allow up to $25 million annually for broadband incentives and up to $125 million annually for broadband loan insurance) and West Virginia HB 2014 (signed in April; created microgrid districts with zoning/permitting exemptions and special property tax treatment for qualifying projects).
- Additional details and timelines: States also raised criminal penalties (e.g., Oklahoma classified willful damage to a critical infrastructure facility as a Class D3 felony with fines up to $100,000 and prison up to 10 years; Louisiana authorized fines up to $50,000 and prison up to 20 years; California AB 476 increased penalties for knowingly buying illegally obtained scrap metal to $5,000). Other enacted programs include California SB 338 (a $2 million telehealth pilot), New Mexico SB 126 (Rural USF increased from $30 million to $40 million), and Oregon’s device support up to $100 in Lifeline-related assistance. At least 37 states passed data center incentives in 2025 and over 1,000 AI-focused bills were introduced nationwide, with ~38 states adopting or enacting roughly 100 AI measures in 2025.
-
Milestone unveils traffic VLM & XProtect summarisation
Milestone Systems has announced the Hafnia Vision Language Model (VLM), a traffic-focused VLM, a Video Summarization plug-in for XProtect, and a VLM-as-a-Service (VLMaaS) API offering.
- Main announcement: Milestone launched Hafnia VLM and a Video Summarization plug-in for XProtect Smart Client; the VLM is fine-tuned on 75,000 hours of responsibly sourced traffic video, offered as regionalised models for the US and EU, runs on cloud infrastructure or regional data centres, and the plug-in is available as a free download with charges applied when the VLM processes prompts.
- Background & implementation details: The company provides VLMaaS via HTTPS with a pay-per-use (API calls) pricing model, claims summarisation can reduce operator false alarm fatigue by up to 30%, claims up to 70x reduction in AI/analytics effort versus building in-house models, integrates directly into XProtect (installs within minutes), and states the training data lineage aligns with GDPR and the EU AI Act for regulated deployments.
-
Milbank Strengthens Digital Infrastructure, Energy and Latin America Capabilities with Addition of Thomas Sines
Milbank LLP has announced that Thomas Sines has joined its New York office as a partner in its Global Project, Energy and Infrastructure Finance Group.
- Mr. Sines focuses on energy and infrastructure financings (project finance, debt capital markets, bank financings, corporate transactions) and has recently represented lenders in multi‑billion‑dollar data center financings across the United States, Latin America and the Middle East, as well as sponsors and creditors in large‑scale renewable and conventional power, transport, oil & gas and desalination projects.
- His arrival follows the formal launch of Milbank’s Digital Infrastructure Practice Group; he previously was a partner at Paul Hastings’ Corporate Department, holds a J.D. (cum laude) from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. (magna cum laude) from Luther College, and will help expand Milbank’s Latin America, domestic energy and digital infrastructure practices from the New York office.
-
Letter: Maine must consider big down sides of AI
John M. Mishler (letter author) urges Mainers and their lawmakers to carefully weigh the benefits of artificial intelligence against concrete risks, notably workforce displacement and the resource demands of AI data centers.
- Main announcement: The author warns Mainers to be concerned about AI and calls on lawmakers to evaluate workforce restructuring and the environmental/resource costs of AI data centers; cites Frank Wilczek: “What worries me is not so much artificial intelligence but natural stupidity.” The letter references reporting of potential loss of employment for thousands of skilled workers (Business Insider) and the energy and water needs of AI facilities (Pew Research, BBC). The author previously wrote the column “Trump: King of the Unthinking” (Storm Lake Times Pilot, Oct. 24).
- Background and supporting details: Photo credit notes the Stargate artificial intelligence data center complex in Abilene, Texas (AP photo, Sept. 22, 2025); linked sources include New Scientist (Wilczek), Business Insider (job-loss reporting), Pew Research (data-center energy use), and the BBC (cooling water impacts). The letter is an opinion/appeal rather than a policy proposal; it urges deliberation rather than prescribing specific legislative actions.
-
‘A technology company that delivers electricity’: A talk with NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum
NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum outlines how the company will meet rapidly growing North American electricity demand—especially from data centers—through an all-of-the-above strategy including renewables, storage, gas, and nuclear, plus a new nuclear partnership with Google.
- Data center hubs & power build-out: About one-third of US power demand growth is from data centers, with hyperscaler campuses growing from 1,000 to 5,000 acres (~1 GW per 1,000 acres); NextEra positions itself to co-develop on-site solar and storage for faster interconnection, then follow with gas-fired and advanced nuclear generation, with example capex of “over $20 billion” on the power side versus hyperscalers’ “north of $100 billion” for a 5,000‑acre campus.
- Nuclear, grid resilience, storage & AI siting tools: NextEra will recommission the Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa under a 25‑year PPA with Google, expecting $9 billion in local economic impact, while FPL has invested $62 billion (2013–2023) to harden Florida’s grid (gas and nuclear build-out, undergrounding distribution, steel/concrete poles) and is scaling 4‑hour storage to 8‑hour by 2029–2030, using AI-powered siting algorithms and a digital twin of the transmission grid to choose optimal locations for data centers and new energy infrastructure.