New York Data Center Intel

Recent New York data center news

• Oct 4, 2025

  Fears of massive battery fires spark local opposition to energy storage projects

  Local governments across the United States have passed temporary moratoriums on development of large lithium-ion battery energy storage systems.

  • Scope and local actions: At least a few dozen localities have adopted temporary moratoriums or are considering bans; examples include Island Park, NY (moratorium passed in July), Maple Valley, WA (six-month moratorium approved in July), and Halstead, KS (voter referendum on Election Day). Opposition cites the Moss Landing, CA fire in January (indoor storage fire that forced evacuation of about 1,500 people) and specific proposed projects such as a 250-megawatt lithium-ion system in the Town of Ulster, NY (opposed by residents). The developer Terra-Gen says its design will prevent fire spread and “poses no credible, scientific-based threat to neighbors, the public or the environment.”

  • Background, deployment and rules: Developers added 4,908 megawatts of battery storage capacity in Q2 2025 (about three-quarters of that in Arizona, California and Texas). New York targets 6,000 MW by 2030 (about half large-scale). Research from BloombergNEF notes large projects commissioned or started since 2024 in Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Australia, Netherlands, Chile, Canada and the U.K. The federal budget preserved key tax credits for qualified storage projects that begin construction within the next eight years, and New York has adopted fire codes requiring modular enclosure design and minimum spacing to limit fire spread. Experts (e.g., Ofodike Ezekoye, UT Austin) say systems are maturing but not foolproof.

• Oct 2, 2025

  Microsoft Bets $33B on Neoclouds to Ease AI Crunch

  Microsoft announced a major capacity deal with neocloud Nebius to source AI computing power as part of a broader neocloud strategy.

  • Main action: Microsoft agreed a deal with Nebius Group worth up to $19.4 billion (outlined Sept. 8) to access computing capacity including more than 100,000 Nvidia GB300 chips, enabling Microsoft to run internal large-language-model training and a consumer AI assistant at neocloud facilities and free its own servers to sell AI services. This is part of more than $33 billion in commitments Microsoft has made to neocloud providers (including CoreWeave, Nscale, Lambda).
  • Background and implementation details: The move addresses tight AI data-center capacity and gives Microsoft financial flexibility by shifting some costs to operational expenses (per Bernstein analyst Mark Moerdler). Microsoft continues in-house expansion (announced a second phase at its Racine, Wisconsin site to bring utility power capacity to at least 900 megawatts). Deals include regional arrangements (e.g., Nscale for the UK and Norway) and earlier capacity rentals (e.g., Oracle for an AI-infused Bing).
• Sep 30, 2025 · RMI

  The Surprising Value of the Energy You Don’t Use

  RMI cofounder Amory Lovins presented integrative (whole-system) design at Stanford’s Energy Seminar, arguing that rethinking design and component interactions in buildings, industry, vehicles, and data centers can raise delivered-energy-to-service efficiency up to fivefold and produce large cost savings.

  • Main announcement / action: Lovins advocated for integrative design as a practical pathway to dramatically reduce energy use across sectors, citing up to 5x increases in end-use energy productivity, examples where building retrofits cut 38–51% energy use (Empire State Building retrofit), and industry cases showing 40–90% potential savings for pumps, fans, motors and pipes. He said these measures often have lower capital cost and short paybacks (e.g., his home: ~99% water-heating energy saved, 90% electricity saved, combined savings “paid back in 10 months”).

  • Background and supporting details:

    • Event: Stanford Energy Seminar (lecture date: June 2, 2025); location: Stanford University; subject: integrative design to accelerate clean-energy transition and improve energy productivity.
    • Concrete examples cited: Amory’s Snowmass, Colorado residence (passive solar, superinsulation), RMI Innovation Center (Basalt, CO), Empire State Building retrofit (38% then 51% savings), BMW i3 lightweight/carbon-fiber example (reduced battery needs and improved efficiency), and potential AI data center and industrial system architecture improvements.
    • Quantified context: Lovins highlighted global energy losses of $4.5 trillion per year and noted integrative design can reduce delivered-energy waste across buildings, industry, transport, and data centers.
• Sep 26, 2025

  United States $572 Billion Alternative Investment Manager Ares Management Corporation to Raise $8 Billion for New Data Centre Fund 

  Ares Management Corporation plans to raise a new data centre fund and has recently closed a Japan-focused vehicle.

  • Main announcement: Ares is planning to raise $8 billion for a new data centre fund (announced 26 Sept). Separately, on 11 June 2025 Ares announced the final close of Japan DC Partners I LP (JDC I) with ~US$2.4 billion (¥350 billion) in equity commitments; CPP Investments committed ~US$1.3 billion (¥193 billion) and GLP is a named institutional investor. JDC I will develop three data centre campuses in Greater Tokyo expected to deliver nearly 240MW of IT load, incorporating renewable-enabled power sourcing and water-efficient cooling systems.
  • Background & related details: Ares’ asset figures vary by date in the article (examples: $572B / $546B / $525B AUM in different datelines). The firm’s Ares Private Markets Fund (APMF) reached $3 billion AUM (as of March 31, 2025) and is distributed via Ares Wealth Management Solutions (about 150 professionals). Ares acquired GCP International (closed March 1, 2025) and integrated Ada Infrastructure to operate JDC I campuses.
• Sep 23, 2025

  Unstoppable Africa 2025: Africa’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ambitions and Digital Future Go Global

  Strive Masiyiwa announced that steps are underway to establish Africa’s first network of AI factories.

  • Main announcement: Strive Masiyiwa (Founder and Executive Chairman of Econet Global and Cassava Technologies) confirmed plans for a continent-wide network of AI factories powered by NVIDIA GPUs, with facilities scheduled to be completed by the end of 2026; the announcement was made at Unstoppable Africa 2025 in New York on September 23, 2025.
  • Background and additional actions: The Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), in collaboration with African Pension and Social Security Institutions, launched the ‘Africa Savings for Growth’ initiative to explore channeling institutional savings into longer-term investments — AFC’s 2025 analysis identified $1.17 trillion in institutional assets across Africa; GABI also launched Digital Transformation and Healthcare Action Pathways to connect businesses, governments, and innovators.

  Event details:

  • Date: September 23, 2025
  • Location: New York, United States of America (ahead of the 80th UN General Assembly)
  • Agenda: CEOs, heads of state, global investors and institutions discussing AI infrastructure expansion, digital transformation, healthcare pathways, and investment commitments for Africa’s economic transformation.
• Sep 23, 2025

  At Climate Week NYC, NVIDIA Details AI’s Key Role in the Sustainable Energy Transition

  NVIDIA is showcasing how accelerated computing supports the sustainable energy transition at Climate Week NYC, highlighting LLM inference energy-efficiency gains and publishing product carbon footprint summaries.

  • Main announcement/action: NVIDIA is presenting its climate and sustainability work at Climate Week NYC (through Sept. 26 in New York City), emphasizing that LLM inference energy efficiency improved 100,000x over the past 10 years, releasing product carbon footprint comparisons that show a 24% reduction in embodied carbon intensity between HGX H100 and HGX B200, and stating that all offices and operational data centers run on 100% renewable energy (with carbon-free electricity purchases covering 100% of leased data-center footprint).

    • Event: Climate Week NYC
      • Date: through Sept. 26 (year referenced: 2025)
      • Location: New York City (Nest Climate Campus referenced for a fireside chat)
      • Agenda / subject: sessions on AI and energy, AI for climate and weather research, panels including “AI: Powering a More Productive Energy Future” and multiple panels featuring Earth-2 work (Columbia University, AI for Energy, Google, AWS).

  • Partnerships, products, and implementation details: NVIDIA is collaborating with startups and internal programs—notably Emerald AI (an NVIDIA NVentures portfolio company and NVIDIA Inception member)—on an NVIDIA Omniverse Blueprint / reference design for energy-efficient, grid-friendly AI factories aimed at maximizing energy-use efficiency; Emerald AI cites the design as capable of unlocking 100 gigawatts of grid capacity. NVIDIA also promotes the NVIDIA Earth-2 platform for high-resolution AI weather and climate modeling and will continue publishing product carbon footprint summaries for new products.

• Sep 17, 2025

  Record-breaking £150bn investment unveiled during US State Visit

  The UK Government announced the securing of £150 billion of new inward investment commitments from US companies during the US President’s State Visit.

  • Main announcement: £150 billion total inward investment package including £90 billion pledge from Blackstone (additional to a prior £10bn datacentre commitment), £3.9 billion from Prologis for Cambridge Biomedical Campus and Daventry upgrades, £150 million from Amentum (creating over 3,000 jobs over the next four years), up to £1.5 billion from Palantir (creating up to 350 jobs), £1.5 billion from CoreWeave for AI data centre capacity, $30 billion (£22 billion) from Microsoft for AI infrastructure, Google £5 billion data-centre investment, and nuclear and small modular reactor commitments (X-Energy/Centrica up to 12 AMRs targeting a 6GW fleet; Last Energy/DP World backed by £80 million private investment). The announcements include ~7,600 new UK jobs (1,000 in Belfast; ~6,000 across Glasgow, Warrington, Midlands, North-East) and specific regional projects in Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, West Cumbria, Humber, Suffolk, Bristol, and Birmingham.
  • Background and additional details: reciprocal UK→US commitments include GSK $30 billion in US R&D and manufacturing over five years (including $1.2 billion in new facilities and AI), BP >$5 billion p.a. in the US for five years, OakNorth >$5 billion into the US over three years, and UK Central Government procurement plans of around £60 billion from US companies over five years (part of a wider commercial package of around £280 billion when UK-to-US commitments are included).

  Event: Tomorrow [Thursday], at Chequers — UK and US investors will meet the Prime Minister and the US President to discuss deepening economic ties and unlocking further collaboration (agenda: investor discussions on cross-Atlantic investment and implementation of announced commitments).

• Sep 16, 2025

  US-UK pact will boost advances in drug discovery, create tens of thousands of jobs and transform lives

  The UK and US governments announced the Tech Prosperity Deal as part of the US President’s State Visit to accelerate AI, quantum and nuclear collaboration and mobilise private sector investment into UK tech infrastructure.

  • Main announcement: The Tech Prosperity Deal will create joint UK–US research programmes and industry partnerships to scale AI, quantum and civil nuclear technologies; industry commitments announced total £31 billion in new private investment today (from companies including Microsoft, NVIDIA, Google, OpenAI and CoreWeave). Key implementation actions include NVIDIA deploying 120,000 GPUs across the UK, Nscale partnering with OpenAI and Microsoft to deliver the Stargate UK project and the UK’s largest supercomputer, and Microsoft’s $30 billion (≈£22 billion) investment over 4 years to build cloud/AI infrastructure including a >23,000 GPU supercomputer in Loughton.
  • Background and additional details: The deal formalises joint research on AI-driven drug discovery, fusion and quantum computing and a civil nuclear cooperation to speed licensing and delivery of nuclear projects; other named commercial commitments include Google £5 billion over 2 years (new Waltham Cross data centre), CoreWeave £1.5 billion (plus £2.5 billion total over past year) to build renewable-powered AI data centres in partnership with DataVita in Scotland, Salesforce $2 billion (≈£1.4 billion) through 2030, AI Pathfinder initial investment >£1 billion in Northamptonshire, Scale AI £39 million over 2 years, BlackRock £500 million (including >£100 million initial data centre expansion west of London), Oracle $5 billion over 5 years reaffirmed, and previously-announced Amazon £8 billion in UK data centre investment. The agreement also includes a UK–US taskforce and exchange programmes for top researchers and industry to accelerate adoption and standards.
• Sep 16, 2025

  Green Data Center Developer Soluna Secures $100 Million Financing from Generate Capital

  Soluna Holdings announced it has secured a $100 million scalable credit facility from Generate Capital to finance and refinance its pipeline of renewable-powered data centers.

  • Deal structure and immediate uses: The facility totals $100 million (USD) with an initial $12.6 million draw to refinance Soluna’s Texas-based Dorothy 1A and Dorothy 2 projects; a $22.9 million delayed draw to provide continued funding for Dorothy 2 and to support the newly launched 166 MW Project Kati 1 data center project; and an uncommitted $64.5 million accordion to support Soluna’s renewable-powered pipeline and fund AI-related long-lead equipment procurement. As part of the transaction, Generate Capital received warrants to purchase 4 million shares of Soluna common stock and a board observer right.
  • Background and operational details: Soluna, founded in 2018 and based in Albany, New York, designs and operates data centers co-located with wind, solar, or hydroelectric power to convert curtailed or underutilized renewable energy into high performance computing. The credit facility will be used for refinancing and construction of data center projects; CEO John Belizaire and Generate Principal Ryan Miller are quoted on the strategic fit and growth support.
• Sep 12, 2025

  Which tech trends are rising to the top of the business agenda?

  McKinsey senior partners Lareina Yee, Sven Smit, and partner Roger Roberts discussed McKinsey’s research on 13 frontier technology trends on The McKinsey Podcast, focusing on agentic AI, robotics, semiconductors, the energy transition, and digital trust.

  • Main announcement/action: McKinsey leaders outlined concrete examples and early outcomes of agentic AI and automation in business—e.g., a sales use case that delivered an 11% increase in lead generation and conversion—while describing how organizations should onboard, train, and manage digital coworkers; they emphasized robotics examples (Schiphol wheelchair, logistics robots) and noted semiconductor and cooling innovations that reduce data-center power intensity (chips claimed to be ~1,000x more efficient in compute density over recent years).
  • Background and details: The discussion framed the energy transition as a demand challenge driven by AI and rising wealth, noting the need to double energy capacity with a mix of solar, wind, nuclear, storage, and grid build-outs; McKinsey cited rapid mega-installation build rates in China (“almost every week”), supply-chain and infrastructure constraints, and the need to balance speed and affordability in deployment.