Oregon Data Center News

Jan 20, 2026

GSN Roundup: Blackstone and Willis Tower, JV’s Big Data Center Refi, and Prestige Closing

Affinius Capital partnership is seeking a $925 million mortgage to refinance the second phase of the Gainesville Crossing Data Center Campus.

Deal specifics: The JV of Affinius and Corscale is pursuing a $925 million mortgage to refinance a fully leased, 482,000 sq ft building with 72 megawatts of capacity; the borrower prefers a floating-rate loan with a 2–3 year term, and Newmark is advising. The tenant is an undisclosed large cloud-computing provider on an initial 15-year lease; the building is part of a planned five-building campus totaling 306 MW.
Background & supporting facts: The 130-acre site was bought from Buchanan Partners in mid-2020 for $74.5 million after rezoning in late 2019; Corscale is the data-center arm of Patrinely and Affinius’ predecessor firm is USAA Real Estate, which helped acquire the site. Financial performance issues led Larry H. Miller Co. to close Prestige Financial Services amid an MLB expansion funding push (expansion fee expected to top $2 billion), and Blackstone is separately exploring options around a $1.32 billion securitized loan on Willis Tower.

Jan 15, 2026

Powering Progress: How Leaders Build on Dell Storage

Dell promotes its industry-leading storage platforms and showcases customer deployments across sectors.

Main announcement/action: Dell highlights its industry-leading storage portfolio—PowerStore, PowerFlex, PowerMax, PowerScale, and PowerEdge—as the foundation for scalable, reliable data infrastructure used by customers such as The Bank of New York Mellon (using PowerMax and PowerEdge) and Drogaria Araujo; the article cites PowerStore’s 5:1 data reduction guarantee and PowerMax’s multi-site replication as key product capabilities.
Background and details: The post provides customer examples and use cases: KiTZ (Hopp Children’s Cancer Center Heidelberg) using PowerScale for genomic research in Germany, Lightstorm Entertainment and Cosm for media/entertainment workloads, Fulgent Genetics combining PowerStore and PowerEdge for AI-enabled genetic data processing, University of Missouri modernizing with PowerStore/PowerMax/PowerFlex and PowerEdge, and Texas Christian University adopting PowerScale with PowerEdge for its AI² initiative; links to product pages, case studies, and customer stories are provided.

Jan 14, 2026

Climate Change Solutions - January 13, 2026

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) announced its first Congressional briefing of the year, a wildfire solutions briefing on Tuesday, January 27, hosted with the Federation of American Scientists.

Main announcement: EESI will host a Congressional briefing titled “Igniting Innovation: Progress and a Path Forward for Wildfire Policy” on Tuesday, January 27, 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. (reception to follow) at Russell Senate Office Building, Room SR-385 and online; RSVP available on the EESI briefing page and a reception follows the briefing.
Background & related actions: The newsletter summarizes recent federal actions signed by the President including MAPWaters (P.L. 119-62) improving recreational waterway data collection, Save Our Seas 2.0 (P.L. 119-65) reauthorizing EPA marine debris programs, Great Lakes Fishery Research Reauthorization (P.L. 119-67) for USGS research funding, and La Paz County Solar Energy and Job Creation Act (P.L. 119-68) (expected to create more than 700 jobs and provide enough solar and battery capacity to power about 75,000 homes); it also notes wildfire costs of $424 billion annually and highlights EESI coverage on data center water use (cited by multiple media outlets).

Jan 14, 2026

Emerging Data Center Markets: Key Locations to Watch in 2026

Cushman & Wakefield reports that power and land constraints in major U.S. data center hubs are driving operators to consider secondary and tertiary markets.

Main announcement: Cushman & Wakefield finds power and land constraints in primary hubs (Northern Virginia, Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Atlanta, Portland/Eastern Oregon) are shifting site selection toward secondary/tertiary markets; highlights include OpenAI’s Stargate (~$100 billion) and Vantage Frontier (~$25+ billion) as large upcoming projects.
Details/background: Regions such as Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Central Washington, New Jersey, and Massachusetts are offering economic incentives, faster approvals, and flexible regulatory frameworks; Central Washington offers low-cost hydro power enabling 100% renewable operation but is also facing power constraints.

Jan 13, 2026

X Down For Thousands Of Users

X suffered another service disruption and regulatory action related to AI-generated content.

Main announcement: X experienced a global outage with thousands of users affected; more than 3,000 users in India reported problems at 20:20 IST (issues loading the app and website), and the site was restored shortly after. The report references prior outages in March 2025, and May 2025 (including two outages within 24 hours, one linked to a data centre fire in Hillsboro, Oregon). The article also references a November Cloudflare outage that affected multiple global platforms.
Background and related actions: X’s AI model GrokAI generated vulgar images of women; following an official notice from the Electronics and IT Ministry (MeitY), X removed 3,500 posts of obscene content in India and removed 600 accounts linked to such content. The article cites outage tracker Downdetector and mentions Cloudflare’s past network errors impacting many services.

Jan 9, 2026

Environmental AI Governance: U.S. and China Have Different Roads to developing Green AI Systems

Jianyin Roachell argues that the United States and China are pursuing divergent approaches to govern AI’s environmental footprint: the U.S. relies on bottom-up, market and state-level measures, while China uses top-down national planning such as EWCRT and mandates for renewable energy in data centers.

Main announcement/action: The article contrasts U.S. decentralized, market-driven responses with China’s top-down EWCRT (East-West Computing Resources Transmission) strategy that directs new data centers to western provinces (Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Ningxia) to leverage cooler climates and abundant wind/solar; China projects data centers could consume 400 TWh annually (~3.2% of electricity) and the NDRC issued guidelines in March 2025 requiring increased renewable electricity shares for big data hubs. The piece cites concrete projects and deals: Meta’s 20-year PPA for a 1.1 GW nuclear plant in Illinois, local proposals for gas-fired plants by Entergy to power Meta, and the $226 million Lin-gang underwater data center project in Shanghai combining renewables and deep-sea cooling.
Background and other details: The U.S. relies on state tax exemptions (as many as 42 states) and state-level rules (e.g., Virginia 2024 PUE bill; Oregon 2025 water reporting), plus third-party verification like LEED; grassroots protests and state regulatory drafts (Texas, California, Michigan, Minnesota) are shaping policy. Research cited estimates the East-West Data Project could reduce 11,500 Mt CO2 between 2020 and 2050, but China’s grid remains ~60% coal, posing a continued emissions risk unless renewables scale faster.

Jan 8, 2026

Data Center Compliance in 2026: What Changed, What’s Next, and How to Prepare

Data Center Knowledge published a 2025 overview distilling the current compliance environment for data centers, highlighting cumulative regulatory tightening across cybersecurity, AI governance, and sustainability, and noting distinct federal-versus-local dynamics in permitting and operations.

The overview’s primary action: it synthesises 2025 regulatory changes and their operational implications, emphasising transparency for AI workloads (EU AI Act), stricter incident reporting and third-party controls under DORA and NIS 2, and enhanced sustainability reporting under the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) (EED revised in 2023; requires reporting of PUE and WUE). It also documents U.S. actions: a July 2025 federal executive order to accelerate permitting, FedRAMP 20x introduced in early 2025 to streamline agency procurement, and Oregon’s POWER Act enacted in August 2025 establishing a special electricity rate for large power consumers.
Background and concrete details: the piece records tightened audit expectations from ISO 27001 and SOC 2, notes local constraints such as land-use rules, water rights, and grid interconnection queues, and cites specific regulatory outcomes (e.g., Minnesota Public Utilities Commission denied Amazon’s request concerning 250 diesel backup generators). It stresses that permitting simplifications at the federal level coexist with material local approval risks and supply-chain pressures from tariff-driven cost increases.

Jan 3, 2026

5 Nevada environment stories to watch in the new year

Alan Halaly (Las Vegas Review-Journal) outlines five Nevada environmental issues to watch in 2026.

Main announcement: The article highlights five priority issues: Colorado River shortage negotiations among the seven basin states with an Interior Secretary Feb. 14 deadline from Doug Burgum; a permanent state water-rights buyback program signed by Gov. Joe Lombardo that has no state funding allocated (funding suggested from future state action or private donors); rising temperatures and declines in Lake Mead and groundwater aquifers; exploding data center growth raising energy and water supply concerns (noting Southern Nevada’s ban on evaporative cooling and growth at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center); federal actions stalling utility-scale solar projects (federal cancellation of environmental review for a large Esmeralda County solar farm); and an ongoing fight to block mining in the Amargosa River watershed including concerns about a clinoptilolite mine expansion and a previously lobbied 20-year mining pause.
Background and details: At the Colorado River Water Users Conference the seven basin states showed little consensus while facing an unprecedented megadrought; Gov. Lombardo signed the water-rights bill but the program was created without budgeted funds; the Amargosa coalition (environmentalists, Nye County officials and the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe) raised groundwater-impact concerns and a lithium mine proposal was later removed from the company’s public materials; federal Interior Department policy changes have caused delays or cancellations of large solar project reviews.

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

Amazon Data Centers Aren’t Raising Your Electric Bills—They May Be Lowering Them

Amazon Web Services commissioned an E3 study finding its data centers generate surplus revenue and are not subsidized by other utility customers.

Main finding and scope: The E3 study projects $33,500/MW in surplus value in 2025 rising to $60,650/MW by 2030; for a typical 100‑MW data center this equates to $3.4 million in 2025 and ~$6.1 million in 2030. The study assessed multiple utility territories including PG&E, Dominion Energy, Entergy, and Umatilla Electric Cooperative, concluding revenues above regulated returns can fund grid modernization without shifting costs to residential ratepayers.
Partnerships, structures, and project details: AWS and utilities are using innovative models (e.g., NIPSCO GenCo: 3 GW investment with 2.4 GW for data centers and 600 MW reserved for grid reliability); NIPSCO projects ~$1 billion in cost savings returned as bill credits over a 15‑year duration. Other specifics include Entergy Mississippi’s $300 million Superpower Mississippi grid campaign, AWS’s >600 renewable projects (claimed to power 8.3 million U.S. homes), investments in nuclear and 11 solar-plus-battery projects, and AWS efficiency metrics (Graviton up to 60% less energy, Inferentia2 up to 50% better performance per watt, PUE 1.15 in 2024, 35% embodied carbon reduction).

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