Rhode Island Data Center News

Jan 26, 2026

Intel wrestling with CPU supply shortage

Intel said it expects CPU supply to improve after Q1 following its Q4 2025 earnings call and accompanying statement by CFO David Zinsner.

Main announcement/action:Intel stated its factory network will improve available supply beginning in Q2 and for each remaining quarter in 2026 (CFO David Zinsner). The company said the CPU shortage is peaking this quarter, is impacting the data center/server business, and that Intel is prioritizing mid-/high-end client chips and shifting excess capacity to data center customers. It announced a simplified server roadmap focusing on 16-channel Diamond Rapids, accelerating Coral Rapids (reintroducing multithreading) and a custom Xeon integrated with Nvidia NVLink.
Background/details: Q4 2025 revenue declined 4% year-over-year to $13.7 billion; the Data Center and AI segment revenue grew 9% YoY to $4.7 billion, and Intel said revenue would have been meaningfully higher if it had more supply. Intel cited yields on the 18A process node improving month-over-month with a target of 7%–8% improvement each month. This content is reporting from Intel’s earnings call and an accompanying statement (not an opinion piece).

Jan 23, 2026

Reports of SATA’s demise are overblown, but the technology is aging fast

Rumors reported that Samsung would phase out SATA SSD production in 2026, which Samsung denied; the article analyzes the industry momentum toward NVMe and the remaining use cases for SATA.

Main announcement/context: The article describes a report that Samsung would phase out SATA-based SSD production in 2026 (Samsung has denied the reports). Micron also shifted away from consumer (Crucial) toward enterprise products. IDC market share cited: Samsung 15%–18%. Performance figures:SATA III ~550 MB/s vs PCIe 5.0 NVMe up to 16 GB/s (benchmarks ~14 GB/s). Form factors: SATA uses 2.5-inch drives with cables; NVMe commonly uses M.2 (no cables).
Background and details:SATA history: debuted as SATA 1.0 in 2003, advanced to SATA III in 2009 (no SATA IV). Enterprise usage: vendors like Seagate and Western Digital still supply 20 TB and 30 TB SATA drives for cloud cold storage. Analysts quoted: Bob O’Donnell (TECHnalysis Research) and Rob Enderle (The Enderle Group), who note consumer SATA is declining but high-capacity SATA remains in legacy and cold-storage roles.

Jan 20, 2026

What’s causing the memory shortage?

TrendForce and industry analysts (Tom Mainelli of IDC and Jim Handy of Objective Analysis) warn that the DRAM memory shortage driven by AI-oriented data center buildouts will extend into 2027.

TrendForce projectsDRAM prices will rise 50%–55% this quarter versus Q4 2025; the market is concentrated among three major suppliers: Micron, SK Hynix, Samsung and analysts say the shortage will last at least into 2027 with capacity expansion taking 12–18 months or longer.
HBM adoption is diverting wafer capacity because an HBM byte uses ~3x silicon per DDR byte, forcing memory makers to build new fabs with long equipment lead times; OEMs are currently absorbing higher costs, tariffs are not a factor, and smaller Chinese vendors are considered too small to materially increase supply.

Jan 19, 2026

What's your AI footprint? Tech has an environmental cost

The Arizona Republic reports research and expert analysis quantifying AI’s environmental footprint and the resource demands of data centers.

Main finding and announcement: Reporting highlights research (Cornell; Jegham & Li) estimating that AI growth could emit 24 to 44 million metric tons CO2 annually by 2030 and use water comparable to 6 to 10 million American households; study-level details include per-query and scaled impacts (e.g., 700 million queries/day ≈ electricity of 35,000 U.S. homes and freshwater for 1.2 million people).
Background and study details: The piece summarizes multiple studies and expert comments: on-site cooling and off-site power-plant water use, a measurement showing GPT-3 training used water equal to two Olympic-size pools, location-specific metrics (Arizona: 17-ounce water bottle per 16 GPT-3 queries), and recommendations from researchers (Jegham, Pengfei Li) that developers measure and improve model resource efficiency.

Jan 15, 2026

Dell bolsters PowerStore array with capacity, security features

Dell Technology has announced an update to its PowerStore unified file and block storage array, and the software update (PowerStore 4.3) is available now for existing customers.

Main announcement: Dell announced PowerStore 4.3 and a 30TB QLC drive that enables up to 2 petabytes in a 2U rack (doubling capacity per rack unit) and claims to reduce total cost of ownership by 15%; the update is available immediately to existing customers with integrated features and AI capabilities activated.
Details and background: The release adds synchronous replication over Fibre Channel, asynchronous replication with RPO down to five minutes, Metro sync replication for zero RPO/RTO, NFSv4.2 support (server-side copy, sparse files, labeled NFS), AI-powered anomaly detection, improved QoS and Top Talkers monitoring, and up to 23% better power efficiency versus 15TB QLC-equipped 3200Q appliances introduced in 2024.

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

Vistra to Bolster Gas-Fired Fleet by 5.5 GW With $4B Cogentrix Acquisition

Vistra Corp. has executed definitive agreements to acquire Cogentrix Energy from funds managed by Quantum Capital Group in a $4 billion transaction announced Jan. 5, 2026, adding 10 natural gas plants (5,496 MW) across PJM, ISO New England, and ERCOT.

Main announcement & deal specifics: Vistra will acquire 100% ownership of the Cogentrix portfolio for $4 billion, adding 5,496 MW of modern natural gas capacity (10 plants) and increasing Vistra’s total generation footprint toward ~50 GW; the transaction is subject to FERC, DOJ (HSR), and state regulatory approvals and is expected to close mid-to-late 2026. The deal includes acquiring the remaining 25% interest in the Patriot and Hamilton-Liberty plants and excludes Cogentrix’s Cedar Bayou 4 (550 MW), which Cogentrix will retain.
Background, financing, and timing context: The acquisition follows Vistra’s October 2025 purchase of Lotus Infrastructure gas assets for $1.9 billion (2,600 MW) and is supported by capital markets actions including $2.25 billion in senior secured notes (Jan 2026) and a prior $2 billion secured notes issuance (Oct 2025); Vistra expects mid-single-digit accretion in 2027 and high-single-digit average accretion (2027–2029) to Ongoing Operations Adjusted Free Cash Flow before Growth per share. Regulatory reviews (notably FERC Section 203) will examine competitive impacts in PJM and ISO-NE.

Jan 13, 2026

Can retired naval power plants solve the data center power crunch?

HGP Intelligent Energy LLC has proposed repurposing nuclear reactors from the retired USS Nimitz to power a land-based data center project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Project details: The proposal would redirect two retired naval reactors to an Oak Ridge data center, projected to produce about 450-520 mW of steady power (stated), enough to power roughly 360,000 homes or one data center; the plan requires 5 stages and is estimated to take a decade. The company proposes a revenue share with the government and creation of a decommissioning fund.
Costs, timeline, and regulatory context: The filing estimates rewiring costs of $1 million to $4 million per megawatt (USD) as a cheaper alternative to building new reactors; Bloomberg reported the plan and HGP’s application to the Department of Energy. The proposal faces regulatory and technical obstacles cited by JLL’s Kristen Vosmaer, including weapons-grade uranium possession restrictions, no NRC licensing pathway for military reactors, and the need for complete reconstruction to meet civilian safety standards. As an alternative, floating natural gas turbine barges are noted as deployable in 12–24 months within existing regulatory frameworks.

Jan 10, 2026

Environment and Rule of Law Under Trump

The second Trump Administration has slashed environmental regulations and programs, rescinded environmental justice orders, curtailed climate reporting and grants, and moved to withdraw the U.S. from international climate agreements while seeking to repeal the EPA “endangerment finding.”

Administrative actions and rollbacks: The administration rescinded past environmental justice orders, stopped Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) grants, eliminated EPA’s environmental justice arm, relaxed air and water pollution limits, and proposed ending mandatory greenhouse gas reporting; it also announced withdrawal from IPCC processes and the UNFCCC (the treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1992 and went into effect in 1993). EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is expected to issue a final decision repealing the endangerment finding “this month” (Jan 2026), which would trigger judicial review in the D.C. Circuit and likely further appeals to the Supreme Court.
Legal and project-specific details / background:States, environmental groups and courts are challenging many rollbacks; a NYU study alleges repeated DOJ misrepresentations to courts, and the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has intervened earlier in cases; the administration has stopped five major offshore wind farms (one — the Revolution Farm off Rhode Island — was reported ~80% complete and a court ordered it allowed to finish), halted solar development on public lands, and opened the Alaska wildlife refuge to oil and gas development. Courts, appeals panels with numerous Trump appointees, and Congressional dynamics are central to implementation timelines.

Jan 7, 2026

Lenovo unveils purpose-built AI inferencing servers

Lenovo Group Ltd. has introduced a new family of enterprise servers—the Hybrid AI Advantage inferencing lineup—targeting AI inference across cloud, data center, and edge deployments.

Main announcement & products: Lenovo launched three inferencing systems: ThinkSystem SR675i (high-end, AMD EPYC CPUs + Nvidia Blackwell GPUs for large language models and simulations), ThinkSystem SR650i (high-density GPU compute for existing data centers), and ThinkEdge SE455i (compact edge unit rated -5°C to 55°C). All systems use Lenovo Neptune air- and liquid-cooling, are available via TruScale pay-as-you-go, and are supported by new services AI Advisory Services with AI Factory Integration and Premier Support Plus.
Background & additional details: The article cites Futurum Group market estimates that AI inference infrastructure will grow from $5.0 billion in 2024 to $48.8 billion by 2030 (CAGR 46.3%); it notes Nvidia dominates training while inferencing remains open. The services provide professional assistance for identifying, deploying, and managing inferencing servers and data center management support to free IT resources.

Rhode Island Data Center Intel

Recent Rhode Island data center news