North Carolina Data Center Intel

Recent North Carolina data center news

• Dec 30, 2025

  Scorecard: Looking Back at Data Center Frontier’s 2025 Industry Predictions

  Data Center Frontier published a 2025 scorecard grading eight data center industry trends and issued verdicts on each, emphasizing that power, cooling, and utility coordination dominated what shaped the industry in 2025.

  • Main announcement: Data Center Frontier released a year-end scorecard evaluating eight core trends with graded verdicts (e.g., “VERDICT: MASSIVE HIT” for power constraints and hyperscale megacampuses; “VERDICT: STRONG HIT” for natural gas bridging supply). The article cites specific figures and deals including estimates that U.S. data center energy use could reach up to 12% of U.S. electricity by 2028 (Congressional Research Service), a reported $120+ billion of AI data center spending shifted off balance sheets (Financial Times), and Alphabet’s $4.75 billion acquisition of Intersect Power to align energy and compute deployment timelines.
  • Background and details: The piece documents operational shifts in 2025—liquid direct-to-chip cooling moved to baseline design assumptions (TrendForce: DLC adoption ~33% in 2025), natural gas and behind-the-meter generation emerged as fast-to-deploy reliability options (ExxonMobil’s 1.5-GW plant plans and CCS pairing), and quantum and immersion cooling progressed technically but remained “Too Early” for broad adoption. It also notes concrete geographic and market examples (record-low primary market vacancy at 1.6% per CBRE; secondary market growth in Central Ohio, Indiana, Louisiana, Utah, Colorado, North Carolina, Tennessee).
• Dec 29, 2025

  North Texas Startup Joins Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Utilities in Open Power AI Consortium Focused On How We ‘Make, Move, and Use Electricity’

  KYRO AI signed a memorandum of understanding with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to join the Open Power AI Consortium and will contribute field-tested utility operations expertise to the consortium’s effort to develop open-source AI models and a sandbox for electricity-sector applications.

  • Main announcement: KYRO AI (Plano) signed an MOU with EPRI to participate in the Open Power AI Consortium (OPAI) alongside tech firms (Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, AWS) and major utilities (Duke Energy, Exelon, Southern California Edison). KYRO will bring field-level operational data and workflows to help build open-source models and testcases for forecasting demand, triaging outages, and prioritizing work in the consortium’s sandbox environment.
  • Background and details: The consortium (announced March 2025) is developing domain-specific LLMs trained on EPRI data and aims to shorten interconnection study timelines (currently up to 4 years) by at least five times. Article cites specific figures: 22% rise in U.S. data-center power demand this year, a potential $22 billion in returns from cutting permitting timelines by one year, and a near $10 million error at the founder’s prior company as context for KYRO’s founding.
• Dec 28, 2025

  Stokes data center plan stirs economy vs. environmental debate

  A developer has proposed zoning changes for land northeast of Walnut Cove in Stokes County to build a data center, prompting local debate between economic development supporters and environmental opponents.

  • Main announcement: A proposed rezoning and possible construction of a data center on land near Tuttle Road northeast of Walnut Cove (Stokes GIS PINs 6964918321 and 6973734188) has been publicized with a rezoning notice posted; photos of the site were taken Dec. 23, 2025 and the site lies near Duke Energy’s Belews Creek Steam Station.
  • Background and details: The article documents visible community opposition (a “No Data Centers” sign), site features including proximity to the Dan River and Hanging Rock, and local reporting credits (author Richard Craver, staff reporter John Deem contributed). Contact details published: rcraver@wsjournal.com, 336-727-7376. All facts are from the published article and photo captions.
• Dec 24, 2025

  UK’s Nscale to Boost US Footprint with $865M Data Center Deal

  UK-based Nscale will invest $865 million for a 10-year, 40 MW colocation agreement with WhiteFiber at the planned NC-1 data center in Madison, North Carolina.

  • Deal details: Nscale commits $865 million for a 10-year, 40 MW colocation agreement at WhiteFiber’s NC-1 (one million sq ft on 96 acres). Payments begin for 20 MW in April 2026 and the remaining 20 MW in May 2026; WhiteFiber will provide priority notification of additional available capacity.
  • Background and funding: WhiteFiber (a subsidiary of Enovum Data Centers) has invested $150 million in the facility and is in advanced talks with lenders to fund buildout to accommodate Nscale; Nscale raised $1.1 billion in Series B in September and recently contracted with Microsoft to deliver 104,000 Nvidia GPUs for a 240 MW site in Barstow, Texas.
• Dec 18, 2025

  Calls for US Data Center Freeze Grow as Local Enthusiasm Melts

  Senator Bernie Sanders has called for a national moratorium on new data center construction, urging Congress to slow AI expansion and involve more people in decisions about AI’s future.

  • Main action and scope:Sen. Bernie Sanders publicly advocated a national moratorium on data center construction; more than 200 environmental organizations (via a letter) also called for a moratorium citing impacts on water resources, electricity consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions; Data Center Watch reports $64 billion in data center plans have been blocked or delayed by local activism in the last two years.
  • Background and additional details: Federal debate is split—Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, and Richard Blumenthal are investigating links between data center power usage and rising consumer bills and have sent letters to major hyperscalers (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, CoreWeave, Digital Realty, Equinix); the Trump administration and U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright have pushed for accelerated permitting and less state regulation; a Carnegie Mellon University study projects data center and crypto growth could raise average U.S. electricity costs ~8% by 2030 (with regional spikes, e.g., >25% in Virginia).
• Dec 18, 2025

  New Topic Areas Electrify the 2026 State Energy Conference of NC

  The NC Clean Energy Technology Center (NCCETC) announces the 2026 State Energy Conference of North Carolina, a two-day clean energy and policy conference at NC State University’s McKimmon Center in Raleigh on April 28–29, 2026.

  • Event details: The conference will run April 28–29, 2026 at the McKimmon Center, Raleigh, NC, featuring multiple tracks on grid-scale resources, distributed resources, electrification & industrial loads (including data centers), load flexibility, energy efficiency & building technologies, and innovation & entrepreneurship, with opportunities to earn professional continuing education credits; expected attendance is ~800+ professionals from sectors such as energy companies, clean tech firms, real estate developers, government, universities, and nonprofits.

  • Participation options: NCCETC offers exhibitor opportunities and flexible sponsorship packages with branding and speaking benefits; early bird registration is open through March 20, 2026, standard registration from March 21–April 23, 2026, and on-site registration during the event, with registration, email sign-up, sponsor and exhibitor information available via the State Energy Conference website.

  • Event/conference metadata:

    • Name: State Energy Conference of North Carolina (2026 edition)
    • Dates: April 28–29, 2026
    • Location: McKimmon Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
    • Organizer: NC Clean Energy Technology Center (NCCETC)
    • Agenda/subject: Clean energy, grid-scale and distributed resources, electrification (including transportation and industrial loads), data centers, load flexibility, energy efficiency and building technologies, innovation, policy and markets, and professional networking and education.
• Dec 17, 2025

  The next big shifts in AI workloads and hyperscaler strategies

  McKinsey & Company outlines how AI-driven workloads are forcing US hyperscalers to redesign data center strategies, power sourcing, and campus architectures while rapidly scaling capacity.

  • AI demand is expected to expand US data center power capacity from ~30+ GW (2025) to 90+ GW (2030, ~22% CAGR), with inference workloads growing at 35% CAGR to >90 GW and training at 22% CAGR to >60 GW, driving shifts toward high-density, liquid-cooled, AI-ready campuses, modular builds, and tier 2 markets where power, land, and permitting are more accessible and faster.
  • Hyperscalers are restructuring capital and infrastructure models, including JVs, special-purpose vehicles, lease‑to‑own deals, behind‑the‑meter power (e.g., New APR Energy’s 100 MW+ mobile gas turbines), and hydrogen-powered microgrid campuses, while retrofitting existing sites at $4–7M/MW for co‑locators and $20–30M/MW for hyperscalers to support GPU‑intensive AI and consolidating into multifacility campuses projected to represent ~70% of deployments by 2030.
• Dec 16, 2025

  Global Hyperscale Growth Persists Despite Grid and Land Constraints

  DC Byte analysis finds hyperscale data center growth shifting from broad geographic expansion toward constraints driven by grid capacity, land availability, and regulatory complexity.

  • Main announcement/action: DC Byte, using a dataset of more than 8,000 facilities, concludes that power availability has become the dominant constraint in core hubs (Northern Virginia, Frankfurt, Singapore) and should be treated as the primary planning variable over the next 3–5 years; hyperscalers are securing land and power 24–36 months ahead of planned commissioning and monitoring substation filings, PPA announcements, land banking, and environmental approvals as leading indicators.
  • Background and details: The report cites vacancy rates below 1% in several mature regions and references a November 2025 Black & Veatch finding that AI-driven power demand now reshapes utilities’ priorities; it documents regional shifts toward Southeast US (Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama), Southern/Central Europe (Italy, Spain, Poland), and diversified APAC markets (Johor, Jakarta, Bangkok, major Indian metros) and notes a 33% five-year CAGR in Asia‑Pacific hyperscale capacity.
• Dec 15, 2025

  The Infrastructure Behind Hollywood’s Most Ambitious Franchise

  Dell Technologies highlights its role as the infrastructure partner enabling Lightstorm Entertainment’s data-intensive production of “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”

  • Lightstorm uses Dell PowerScale for high-performance access to hundreds of millions of files, with SyncIQ replication synchronizing up to 40 concurrent data streams between Los Angeles and New Zealand; Dell ObjectScale provides a private cloud for petabyte-scale archival storage, with automated checks and snapshots to maintain a fully digital workflow.
  • Dell PowerEdge servers power Lightstorm’s render farms and virtual environments, scaling clusters to support AI-assisted methods and heavier workloads while maintaining real-time reviews and uninterrupted rendering; the long-term partnership (“more than a decade”) is positioned as future-proofing the Avatar franchise’s increasingly complex virtual production pipeline.
• Dec 13, 2025

  Frontier Galvanizing: The Critical Role Of Galvanizing In Renewable Energy And Utility Projects

  Frontier Galvanizing emphasizes its hot-dip galvanizing process as critical for improving durability and corrosion resistance in renewable energy and utility infrastructure.

  • Main announcement / action: Frontier Galvanizing, with over 75 years of experience, highlights the role of hot-dip galvanizing in protecting steel components used in solar mounting systems, wind turbine towers and bolts, substations, smart grid components, and energy storage facility structures, aiming to extend service life and reduce maintenance for renewable projects.
  • Background and details: The article states coatings meet rigorous industry standards, are applied across projects throughout the country, and the company positions galvanizing as a technical quality-control measure that supports long-term performance, reliability, and resilience of renewable energy distribution and utility assets.