Oklahoma Data Center News

Jan 9, 2026

Meta Strikes Deal With Irving’s Vistra to Purchase Nuclear Power for Meta’s AI ‘Supercluster’

Meta has signed 20-year power purchasing agreements (PPAs) with Vistra to procure 2,609 MW of zero-carbon nuclear energy to support Meta’s operations and its Prometheus AI supercluster in New Albany, Ohio.

Main announcement & deal details: Meta is purchasing 2,176 MW from operating units at Perry and Davis-Besse plus 433 MW of incremental output from equipment uprates at Perry (OH), Davis-Besse (OH), and Beaver Valley (PA) for a total of 2,609 MW; the PPAs are 20-year agreements, purchases begin in late 2026 and the full 2,609 MW will be online by 2034; Vistra will use the commitment to invest in uprates and pursue subsequent 20-year license extensions for the three plants.
Background and implementation details: Vistra acquired the plants in 2023, recently agreed to acquire Cogentrix Energy in a $4 billion deal; uprate projects span approximately nine years and are expected to support ~3,000 project-related jobs, increase state and local tax revenues (described as tens of millions of dollars annually), and benefit the PJM regional grid (PJM service area list provided in article).

Jan 7, 2026

Patented: Making a Degradable Ice Straw and More North Texas Inventive Activity

Prive Products of Dallas has received a newly granted U.S. patent for a system and method to make degradable drinking straws from ice, invented by Thomas Surgent (Patent No. 12484726).

Main announcement: Prive Products, LLC — Patent No. 12484726 (Application No. 17609970 filed 05/16/2020; 2026 days app to issue) — describes a system with tubes extending into a reservoir, a connecting bar delivering hot and cold fluid into the tubes, and a resulting hollow ice straw that can cool a beverage as liquid passes through the straw. The abstract states: “A system and method for making degradable drinking straws made of ice (or other frozen liquid(s)).”
Background & roundup details: Dallas-Fort Worth was ranked No. 9 among 250 metros for the week of 12/2/25 with 134 patents granted. The article is a patent roundup (announcement/summary) listing top assignees (e.g., Texas Instruments Inc. — 15 patents), notable grants (Bank of America, Dell, IBM, Verily, Lennox, Halliburton, etc.), and includes patent abstracts, assignees, inventor locations, application numbers and days from application to issue. For partnerships or deals, the article provides assignee and patent filing/issue dates but no implementation timelines beyond application and issue dates.

Jan 2, 2026

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.

Dec 29, 2025

DCF Trends Summit 2025 - Beyond the Blueprint: The New Realities of Data Center Investment and Site Selection

Data Center Frontier hosted a panel session at the DCF Trends Summit 2025 summarizing that power scarcity, entitlement complexity, and community scrutiny are reshaping data center site selection and investment.

Main announcement/action: The panel (moderated by Ed Socia of datacenterHawk; panelists Denitza Arguirova of Provident Data Centers, Karen Petersburg of PowerHouse Data Centers, Brian Winterhalter of DLA Piper, Phill Lawson-Shanks of Aligned Data Centers, and Fred Bayles of Cologix) concluded that site selection has become power-first, with developers “chasing power, not square footage,” exploring on-site natural gas generation as a transitional measure, and prioritizing utility partnerships and credibility to secure entitlements. The session recap was published on December 29, 2025 and referenced regional opportunities in Pennsylvania, Alabama, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Minneapolis.
Background and details: Panelists noted that entitlement regimes in mature markets (e.g., Loudoun County, Prince William County) now demand higher-quality design, off-site infrastructure contributions, and sustained community engagement; sustainability discussions flagged that delivering more than 100 gigawatts of new capacity from renewables alone is not currently feasible, prompting mixed energy strategies and evolving PPA approaches. The DCF Trends Summit call for speakers for 2026 lists a proposal deadline of Jan. 9, 2026.

Dec 25, 2025

Arkansas’s best environment stories of 2025

Arkansas Times published a roundup of the state’s most notable farm and environment stories from 2025.

Main roundup and key actions: The piece summarizes reporting on Entergy proposals including the 745 MW Jefferson Power Station gas plant, the proposed Cypress Solar array (600 MW) plus 350 MW battery storage tied partially to Google’s West Memphis data center (regulators approved a special rate contract with Google); Entergy customers were estimated to face up to $20 average monthly bill increases within five years. It also documents state action preserving the Buffalo River moratorium on hog CAFO permits and a West Memphis data center groundbreaking attended by Gov. Sarah Sanders (Oct. 2, 2025).
Background and other details:Standard Lithium and majors (Equinor, ExxonMobil, Albemarle, Chevron) are advancing south Arkansas lithium projects with construction likely in 2026 and Standard Lithium targeting production in 2028; the article reports on tornado damage (a homeowner cited $60,000 in damages) and FEMA funding decisions (individual assistance approved but local government funding initially denied), and highlights local disputes over wind projects (Nimbus wind farm in Carroll County) and the farm economic crisis driving Hallie Shoffner’s U.S. Senate campaign.

Dec 23, 2025

NTIA Recommends $6.5M in Tribal Broadband Awards

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recommended nearly $6.5 million for nine Tribal broadband projects under the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP).

Main announcement: NTIA recommended nearly $6.5 million in funding for nine Tribal broadband projects, including a $2.5 million award to Dena’ Nena’ Henash to complete four engineered, environmentally permitted, shovel-ready fiber-to-the-home network designs; awards also include $496,003 for a hybrid fiber/wireless network serving the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and $500,000 to the Barona Group to expand low-cost internet access.
Background and timeline: NTIA is overhauling the $3 billion TBCP, paused most previously recommended grants in November, will hold Tribal consultations on January 13 and January 20, 2026, and plans to issue new guidance for a funding round in spring 2026; roughly $980 million from the program’s second funding round remained undistributed as of November.

Dec 19, 2025

Driving the connected mobility shift: Verizon’s view on V2X

Verizon Business, via SVP Daniel Lawson, outlines how its Edge Transportation Exchange (ETX) platform will scale vehicle‑to‑everything (V2X) by combining 5G connectivity, edge compute, and network slicing for transportation use cases.

Main details: ETX targets emergency-vehicle preemption, vulnerable road user protection, tolling efficiency, autonomous freight corridors, and OEM test facilities, leveraging ultra‑reliable low‑latency 5G, edge inferencing for cameras and sensors, and programmable network slices (for first responders, trucking, transportation) to orchestrate traffic infrastructure and vehicle data in near real time; Verizon is running pilots in Texas (Houston–Dallas autonomous trucking) and Germany (OEM facilities) and testing vulnerable‑road‑user protections with TCU manufacturers.
Background and context: Lawson emphasizes secure‑by‑design cybersecurity, multi‑stakeholder commercialization challenges (cities, OEMs, insurers, toll operators), and the need for top–down governance plus local customization; McKinsey’s ACES framing and MCFM provide analytical context, while projections cited include 90%+ of cars connected and ~50% level‑2+ autonomy by 2030, pointing to a 2030s landscape where V2X platforms, edge analytics, and programmability form critical infrastructure for mobility.

Dec 16, 2025

Did Hyperscalers Solve the Power Problem in 2025 – or Rethink It?

DatacenterKnowledge reports that cloud giants accelerated hyperscale construction in 2025 while rewriting energy, network, and risk playbooks because GPU scarcity and grid connection delays made electricity the limiting factor.

Main announcement/action: Cloud giants shifted strategy to build at unprecedented scale and to prioritize time-to-power, combining owned campuses and leased colocation to manage capacity; notable financial moves include Google’s $9B Virginia commitment, a $9B Stillwater, Okla. campus, and a $600M expansion in The Dalles, Ore., while Q2 2025 enterprise cloud infrastructure spending reached $99B and neoclouds exceeded $5B in the quarter.
Background and details: Analysts (Synergy, JLL, Moody’s) flagged that power availability is the chief bottleneck, with JLL projecting ~10 GW of new capacity starting construction in 2025 and Moody’s warning of overbuild and credit risks; hyperscalers are responding with direct solar procurement, utility partnerships, phased builds, and subsea cable co-investments to secure supply and resilience.

Dec 15, 2025

Open Forum: Deregulate first, deal with the environmental damage later?

The author, Bruce Ruscio of Waterford, warns that President Donald Trump’s recent executive order establishing a national AI policy framework and directing federal agencies to block or challenge state-level AI regulations would increase environmental risks for Virginia.

Main announcement/action: The piece describes President Donald Trump signing an executive order that creates a federal task force to challenge state-level AI regulations, potentially pre-empting state rules; the author argues this would green-light unchecked expansion of AI data infrastructure and data centers in Virginia, which the article says hosts the largest concentration of data centers in the world.
Background and concrete details: The article highlights that AI data infrastructure consumes enormous amounts of electricity and water, cites existing federal environmental baselines (the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act) as models for balancing national standards with state flexibility, and calls for federal reporting of AI-related energy use, greenhouse-gas emissions, and water consumption plus investments in renewables, grid modernization, and low-water cooling technologies.

Dec 11, 2025

United States Cloud Computing Provider Using Nvidia AI Chips $44 Billion CoreWeave Issues $2.25 Billion Convertible Bonds (1.75% Convertible Senior Notes Due 2031) at $215.60 Per Share Representing +150% Premium to Last Reported Sale Price (8/12/25: $86.24)

CoreWeave announced issuance of $2.25 billion convertible senior notes due 2031 and earlier announced a $9 billion all-share acquisition of Core Scientific.

Main announcement: CoreWeave will issue $2.25 billion of convertible bonds (1.75% convertible senior notes due 2031) convertible at $215.60 per share, stated to represent a +150% premium to the last reported sale price (8/12/25: $86.24). The issuance date reported 11th December and the note maturity is 2031.
Background and related actions: In 10 July 2025 filings/announcements CoreWeave agreed to buy Core Scientific for $9 billion in an all-share transaction (reported +66% premium to unaffected close 25/6/25: $12.30). Other verifiable details: CoreWeave IPO on Nasdaq in April 2025, raised $1.5 billion in the IPO; previous financing and investor activity includes reported talks at $16 billion valuation (Mar 2024), reported Cisco investment at $23 billion valuation (Oct 2024), reported Blackstone $7.6 billion loan default issues (2024–2025), and planned/reported IPO raises of $2.5–4 billion in 2025 in press reports.

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