Rhode Island Data Center Intel

Recent Rhode Island data center news

• Mar 11, 2026

  Datalec targets rapid infrastructure deployment with new modular data centers

  Datalec Precision Installations has launched a next-generation Data Centre Modularization Solution to enable faster, more flexible deployment of data centre capacity for colocation providers, hyperscale and AI infrastructure teams.

  • Main announcement: Datalec launched a next-generation Data Centre Modularization Solution that shortens typical deployment timelines (company states a full build can fall from about 16 months to 10 months, and the design phase from 6 months to 2 months). Modules are engineered and manufactured through Datatec’s integrated production process, with a larger share of work done offsite to reduce onsite construction time and disruption.
  • Background and details: The solution targets standard server to AI/high-density compute use cases and offers bolt-on services including a digital wrapper (digital twinning, lifecycle and global support). Datalec manufactures specialized elements (cabinets, ceilings), provides design development and consulting, and competes with vendors such as Schneider Electric, Vertiv, and Flex.
• Mar 11, 2026

  Study finds significant savings from direct current power for AI workloads

  Enteligent published a study promoting 800V DC for AI data centers and said it is conducting NDA-level tests and pilots of an 800V-to-50V converter with a formal product announcement planned within the next few weeks.

  • Study findings and claimed savings:50%–80% reduction in copper usage, 8%–12% reduction in annual energy-related OpEx, and $4 million–$8 million CapEx savings per 10 MW build for AI-first facilities; Enteligent positions 800VDC as enabling fewer conductors, lower current/heat, and simpler distribution.
  • Product and deployment details / timeline: CEO Sean Burke says Enteligent’s unreleased converter will partition 800V DC to 50V for servers; the company is at NDA testing and pilot programs now and plans a formal announcement within the next few weeks; Burke recommends greenfield all-DC builds and selective all-DC retrofits for high-power GPU deployments. Competitors noted include Vertiv, Rutherford, Siemens, and Eaton.
• Feb 11, 2026

  Climate Change Solutions - February 10, 2026

  The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) published a newsletter highlighting climate risks to winter sports, related policy updates, and upcoming briefings and events.

  • Main announcement: EESI released coverage on climate impacts to winter sports at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina D’Ampezzo, citing over $1 billion in losses in the United States and the closure of 265 ski resorts in Italy; the newsletter links to a feature article, a 30-minute podcast with sport ecologist Madeleine Orr, and an archival piece on ice rink refrigerant emissions (mitigation strategies and policy). It also promotes EESI articles on data center water use and a recorded briefing on grid optimization and energy efficiency.

  • Legislative and events details: The newsletter summarizes congressional activity and announces upcoming briefings and dates:

    • Legislation: reintroduction/advancement of H.R.1355 (Weatherization Enhancement and Readiness Act), H.R.3474 (Federal Mechanical Insulation Act) reported to the House floor, S.688 (FISH Act of 2025) advanced in Senate, companion H.R.3756, and introduction of H.R.7257 (SECURE Grid Act).
    • Events (dates/times/locations/subject):
      • Feb 20, 12:00 p.m. - 12:30 p.m. (online): “Frozen Infrastructure: Winter Storm Impacts on Communities and the Power Grid” — rapid readout on Winter Storm Fern impacts and recovery pathways.
      • Feb 26, 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., Rayburn House Office Building Gold Room (Room 2168) & online: “Understanding Load Growth and Energy Affordability” — factbook findings in partnership with BCSE (data center energy demand discussed).
      • Mar 3, 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., Russell Senate Office Building Room 385 & online (reception to follow): “Igniting Innovation: Progress and a Path Forward for Wildfire Policy” — solutions and federal policy strategies (costs cited: up to $424 billion annually to the U.S.).
      • Mar 12, 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., Rayburn House Office Building Gold Room (Room 2168) & online: “Strategies to Lower Utility Bills Now for Households and Small Businesses.”
• 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.