Oregon Data Center Intel

Recent Oregon data center news

• Sep 2, 2026

  AWS Wires a New US AI Route Across the Pacific

  Amazon Web Services has announced plans to build the Sta’O’Nuk subsea cable, a 420 Tbps trans-Pacific route between Japan and Washington State, with service targeted for 2029.

  • The cable will use 20 fiber pairs and is intended to support distributed large language model training, financial transactions, edge computing, and video streaming; AWS says it will add a new US landing point for trans-Pacific traffic.
  • Toptana Technologies is developing a landing station in Ocean Shores, Washington, initially designed for up to four subsea cable systems and expandable to 16; the project will connect to Seattle and Hillsboro, Oregon via terrestrial backhaul along the Interstate 5 corridor.
• Aug 31, 2026

  Noise lawsuit is latest in legal wave hitting data center operations

  Microsoft has been sued in federal district court over alleged noise nuisance from its Fairwater data center in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin.

  • The proposed class action claims a low-level hum from cooling systems and generators is not captured by dBA monitors, and asks for millions in compensation for residents.
  • The article says this is one of several noise-related lawsuits filed this year against data centers; similar cases have been filed in Mississippi, New Jersey, Michigan, New York, and Texas, while an environmental nuisance case against Amazon reportedly settled for more than $20 million.
• Aug 27, 2026

  Data Center Backlash Reaches the Ballot Box

  Data Center Knowledge reports that at least 18 incumbent officeholders lost elections between August 2025 and August 2026 after actions tied to data center projects or controversies.

  • Utah saw the clearest cases: J. Stuart Adams, Lee Perry, and Boyd Bingham all lost GOP primaries after involvement with the proposed Stratos project in Box Elder County.
  • In Missouri, four incumbent Festus city council members lost after a fight over a proposed $6 billion data center project; other losses and campaign attacks appeared in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Oregon, and Georgia.
  • The article is a news analysis/review, not a primary announcement; it aggregates election results, government records, campaign materials, and local reporting, and includes industry and policy responses from Tigercomm, Data Center Coalition, and state leaders.
• Aug 26, 2026

  How Data Center Controversies Have Transformed the Midterm Elections

  The Associated Press has published an analysis of the growing political opposition to U.S. data centers and how it is reshaping policy debates. It is commentary and reporting on a broader trend, not a first-time corporate announcement.

  • The article says Oracle, Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft expect to spend more than $700 billion on U.S. data centers this year, while OpenAI and Oracle are building Project Jupiter, a $165 billion complex near the Mexican border in New Mexico.
  • It also notes opposition over water use, electricity costs, and climate impacts; examples include a challenge to well drilling permits in New Mexico, a one-year ban on large data centers in New York, and tougher regulatory steps in Texas under Greg Abbott.
• Aug 19, 2026

  House Bill Would Put Federal Electricity Tax On Data Centers

  Rep. Andrea Salinas has introduced the Data Center Community Reinvestment Act of 2026, a bill that would impose a 1-cent-per-kilowatt-hour federal excise tax on electricity used by qualifying data centers over 1 MW and direct the revenue to five federal funds.

  • The bill was introduced by Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.) and referred to the House Ways and Means Committee with additional referrals to Energy and Commerce and Science, Space, and Technology on Aug. 13.
  • It would tax electricity used by data centers nationwide, including onsite generation, and create a new Energy Technology Trust Fund to support federal loan guarantees for clean energy, advanced nuclear, and grid infrastructure projects.
  • Salinas’ office projects about $1.76 billion annually in revenue, or roughly $352 million per year for each of the five funds; the article also notes Virginia’s earlier 1.1 cents/kWh state data center tax and estimates that a 100 MW data center could owe about $8.76 million annually at full load.
• Aug 13, 2026

  ESS Inc highlights sodium-ion BESS deployment, reports net losses in Q2 2026 financials

  ESS Tech Inc has announced its Q2 2026 financial results and highlighted its expansion into sodium-ion energy storage, including partnerships and early-stage opportunities. - The company reported a net loss of US$15.6 million in Q2 2026, revenue of US$73,000, and unrestricted cash and cash equivalents of US$5.6 million as of 31 July 2026.

  • ESS said it has developed early-stage opportunities approaching US$1 billion across data centres, critical infrastructure, and utility markets since signing its LOI with Alsym Energy; it also referenced a US$9.9 million contract with the US Air Force Research Laboratory, a 500MWh or more Na-ion BESS LOI with Juniper Energy, and a planned final agreement on a business combination by end of September.
• Aug 12, 2026

  Data center operators sneak in pair of projects hours before moratorium enacted in Hillsboro, Oregon

  Stack Infrastructure and Aligned Data Centers have filed data center-related proposals in Hillsboro, Oregon just hours before the city enacted a 120-day moratorium on new or expanded data center and BESS land use applications.

  • Stack Infrastructure submitted a development review proposal for its POR01 data center, described as a 4MW facility near the 24MW POR02 and the POR03 campus, which is planned to reach 200MW at full build-out.
  • Aligned Data Centers filed a pre-application request for PDX-02, the second phase of a planned 108MW campus at NE 30th Ave. & NE Evergreen Road; PDX-01 is expected to provide 72MW and PDX-0236MW. The Hillsboro City Council voted on Monday, July 27 to approve the moratorium, and city officials said Stack’s application will continue to review while Aligned’s preapplication was not exempt because it was not a formal application.
• Aug 11, 2026

  IT infrastructure shortages are real and lasting. Here’s how to cope

  Network World has published an analysis of IT infrastructure shortages affecting enterprise AI, networking, storage, and compute planning.

  • The article cites analysts and vendors saying memory shortages are driving lead-time extensions to 6, 12, or 18 months, with memory prices up 50% to 200%, PC prices up 35% to 45%, and some server prices up over 125%.
  • It also reports enterprise network equipment pricing is projected to rise over 20% in 2026 and by a further 3% to 5% into 2027, with no price reduction expected until end-2027; examples and advice are drawn from Gartner, TD SYNNEX, WWT, Backblaze, Cisco, and Equinix.
• Jul 28, 2026

  Climate Change Solutions - July 28, 2026

  Environmental and Energy Study Institute has published a Climate Change Solutions newsletter highlighting climate data access, data center health impacts, nuclear energy, and several congressional bills.

  • The newsletter spotlights a new online platform, Climate.us, and an interview with Rebecca Lindsey, who discusses filling the gap left by the now-defunct Climate.gov.
  • It also summarizes recent legislative activity, including the House passage of the Next-Generation Geothermal Research and Development Act (H.R. 8790) and Senate movement on the Water Resources Development Act of 2026 (S.4949) and the Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act of 2026 (S.5045).
  • A separate article in the newsletter discusses data center health impacts, noting emissions from on-site diesel generators and from natural gas and coal power plants used to power data centers.
• Jul 27, 2026

  Data Centers are Hotbeds of Health Risks

  The article argues that U.S. data center growth is driving fossil-fuel use, air pollution, and public health harms, while highlighting policy proposals and clean-energy alternatives.

  • More than 5,500 U.S. data centers already exist, with thousands more under construction or in planning; the article says developers are planning or constructing more than 90 GW of on-site, off-grid natural-gas power plants to avoid grid interconnection queues.
  • It cites estimated health damages of $53–99 million per year from permitted PM2.5 emissions at a Loudoun County, Virginia facility, $6 billion in annual U.S. health costs in 2023 from fossil-fuel plants powering data centers, and a projection of $20 billion annually by 2028; it also notes proposed congressional bills and mentions solar, battery storage, and microgrids as solutions.