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Ohio Data Center Intel
Latest data center news, projects, power and policy across Ohio — updated daily.
Ohio · Construction & power moves · 2
full tracker →Land, power, and interconnection moves across Ohio — each traced to primary filings.
Recent Ohio data center news
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Weather grows as one of data center growth’s greatest risks
Zurich North America has released a report warning that AI-driven hyperscale data centers face a broader set of construction, operational, and insurance risks as buildouts accelerate.
- Report focus: Zurich’s report, “Data Center Risks Right Now: Six Critical Questions to Enable a Resilient Buildout,” highlights severe weather, compressed construction schedules, energy infrastructure, water availability, downtime, equipment replacement delays, workforce shortages, and geopolitical/regulatory pressure.
- Key figures: Zurich says hyperscalers are expected to spend $710 billion in capex during 2026, global data center investment could exceed $7 trillion by 2030, and new capacity added from 2026-2030 is expected to total about 100 GW; it also says average insured data center value has risen from about $150 million five years ago to roughly $3 billion today.
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White House plans new pledge to shield ratepayers from data center related bill hikes - report
The US government is expected to bring together data center firms and utility companies to announce a voluntary pledge aimed at preventing data center power demand from raising electricity costs for regular ratepayers.
- The pledge is expected to be announced at an event in the coming weeks; no company names were disclosed for the new pledge, though several major firms are expected to join.
- The story references earlier Ratepayer Protection Pledge signatories — Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI — and notes that states including Oregon, Oklahoma, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, and Virginia have adopted or proposed rules making large-load data centers pay for new infrastructure costs.
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Mara acquires 1,200-acre Texas site from HIF USA for up to 2GW data center campus
Mara has announced the acquisition of a powered land site in Matagorda County, Texas, to develop a large-scale digital infrastructure campus with Starwood Digital Ventures.
- The site spans more than 1,200 acres and is expected to provide up to 1GW of grid capacity initially by October 2027 and up to 2GW by April 2028.
- The campus is planned to support high-performance computing, flexible compute, and Bitcoin mining; phased construction is expected to begin this year, subject to regulatory approvals.
- Mara said the site has already drawn interest from potential tenants in the high-performance computing sector and that the acquisition expands its long-term development pipeline.
- The company also referenced prior deals, including a 505MW gas plant acquisition in Ohio and a 25MW to 50MW gas-to-power expansion in North Dakota.
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Lightpath to provide fiber infrastructure for two new hyperscale data center campuses
Lightpath has announced it will provide fiber infrastructure and multi-terabit capacity to support two hyperscale data center campuses under construction in the United States.
- The two campuses are planned to exceed one gigawatt each and are located in Saline, Michigan and Port Washington, Wisconsin.
- The Saline build is scheduled for delivery by the end of this year, while Port Washington is expected in Q2 2027; both are being delivered with an anchor hyperscale customer that was not named.
- Chris Morley said Lightpath is partnering with hyperscalers to build new fiber infrastructure for AI-driven demand; Tim Haverkate said the company will deliver route-diverse, multi-terabit capacity across new construction, existing network assets, and partner fiber.
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Siemens and FuelCell Energy partner on fuel cell power for data centers and other industrial offtakers
Siemens and FuelCell Energy have announced a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on fuel cell-based power generation, with data centers identified as a key offtaker.
- Siemens will design and supply electrical balance-of-plant systems for fuel cell installations supporting commercial projects above 100MW.
- The companies will jointly develop distributed energy systems combining fuel cells, battery energy storage, microgrid controls, and medium-voltage electrical equipment, and will evaluate ways to scale deployments, improve timelines, and reduce costs.
- The article also references prior FuelCell Energy deals: a binding agreement with Fit Energy USA for up to 380MW, and non-binding agreements with SDC for up to 450MW and Inuverse for up to 100MW in Daegu, South Korea.
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FLOPS vs Megawatts: Who’s Winning in 2026 Supercomputing?
The article provides analysis and commentary on 2026 supercomputing buildouts, contrasting public exascale systems with hyperscaler AI campuses. It is not a first-time announcement by one entity, but a roundup of recent developments and milestones.
- The piece compares public TOP500 systems and private hyperscaler AI campuses, highlighting that private builds are measured in hundreds of megawatts to gigawatts rather than HPL scores.
- It cites several recent milestones, including Microsoft’s Wisconsin Fairwater campus, xAI’s Colossus 2, OpenAI and Oracle’s Stargate, and Meta’s Prometheus nuclear power agreements.
- It also notes Alice Recoque installation in France under a €354.8 million EuroHPC JU contract with Eviden and mentions the next TOP500 list at SC26 in November.
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DOE Closes $3.26 Billion Transmission Loan to AEP Texas
The U.S. Department of Energy has announced that its Office of Energy Dominance Financing closed a loan of up to $3.26 billion to AEP Texas for transmission upgrades.
- The financing will support nearly 100 transmission projects across south and west Texas, including rebuilding, reconductoring, and new construction of roughly 2,800 miles of transmission lines.
- DOE said the projects are intended to help meet demand from data centers, advanced manufacturing, and Permian Basin oil and gas development, and it estimated $685 million in savings over 30 years for more than 1 million Texas households and businesses.
- AEP Texas said it has signed letters of agreement supporting up to 41 GW of potential new load additions through 2030.
- The article also places this loan in the context of other recent DOE financing actions, including a $26.54 billion package for Southern Co. subsidiaries and a prior $1.6 billion DOE transmission loan guarantee for AEP.
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Can Transparency Become an AI Data Center Advantage?
Decimal Digital has announced plans for Project Eagle Ridge, a 100 MW AI data center in Monroeville, Ohio, while also describing new community-facing and utility-planning measures around the project.
- Decimal says it will fund a developer-built 69-kV transmission line to Herbert Substation itself, with coordination involving American Municipal Power Transmission, FirstEnergy and PJM; Shah said the current package has been submitted to PJM and that the project is designed as an initial 100-MW Phase I compute campus.
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Monroeville rewrote its electric service agreements after the failed Gray Matter crypto operation left unpaid bills and other risks, and Decimal is publishing engineering plans, transmission strategies, consultant reports and community presentations before construction; the campus is being designed for AI training and inference, with closed-loop liquid cooling and rack densities above 130 kW per rack.
This article is a news-style feature/commentary describing a first public announcement of the project and its approach; it is not a transcript or opinion piece. Additional approvals are still required before construction begins, and the article notes future expansion would require more transmission investment and local approvals.
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Can Growing Community Backlash Quiet the AI Data Center Boom?
The article reports that organized opposition to US data center development is growing rapidly as AI infrastructure buildouts accelerate, with new survey and tracking data suggesting community acceptance is becoming a major site-selection factor.
- DataCenterOpposition.com says it now tracks 430 local groups opposing data center projects in more than 40 states, up from 268 in April and about 76 at end-2025; the groups are estimated to represent more than 525,000 members.
- The piece also cites Data Center Watch reporting opponents blocked or delayed at least 75 projects representing roughly $130 billion in Q1 2026; in Virginia, QTS ended its Prince William Digital Gateway pursuit and the Dulles South Innovation Center proposal collapsed after permitting, political, and community opposition.
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Prologis files to build 99MW data center in San Jose, California
Prologis has announced plans to develop a new data center at 5977 Silver Creek Valley Road in San Jose, California.
- The proposed project is a three-story, 516,000 sq ft facility on about 15 acres, with 99MW of capacity and an on-site substation.
- Prologis said construction would take around two years and that it will cover the costs of transmission upgrades; the site was previously acquired by Duke Realty for $40.2 million in 2021 and later transferred to Prologis through the $23 billion Duke Realty acquisition in 2022.