Utah Data Center News

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 30, 2025

Scorecard: Looking Back at Data Center Frontier’s 2025 Industry Predictions

Data Center Frontier published a 2025 scorecard grading eight data center industry trends and issued verdicts on each, emphasizing that power, cooling, and utility coordination dominated what shaped the industry in 2025.

Main announcement: Data Center Frontier released a year-end scorecard evaluating eight core trends with graded verdicts (e.g., “VERDICT: MASSIVE HIT” for power constraints and hyperscale megacampuses; “VERDICT: STRONG HIT” for natural gas bridging supply). The article cites specific figures and deals including estimates that U.S. data center energy use could reach up to 12% of U.S. electricity by 2028 (Congressional Research Service), a reported $120+ billion of AI data center spending shifted off balance sheets (Financial Times), and Alphabet’s $4.75 billion acquisition of Intersect Power to align energy and compute deployment timelines.
Background and details: The piece documents operational shifts in 2025—liquid direct-to-chip cooling moved to baseline design assumptions (TrendForce: DLC adoption ~33% in 2025), natural gas and behind-the-meter generation emerged as fast-to-deploy reliability options (ExxonMobil’s 1.5-GW plant plans and CCS pairing), and quantum and immersion cooling progressed technically but remained “Too Early” for broad adoption. It also notes concrete geographic and market examples (record-low primary market vacancy at 1.6% per CBRE; secondary market growth in Central Ohio, Indiana, Louisiana, Utah, Colorado, North Carolina, Tennessee).

Dec 29, 2025

Golden State Fiber Poised to Connect 31,000 Locations in Rural California

The Golden State Connect Authority announced it has secured $110.9 million in revenue bond financing to advance construction of an open-access public fiber network serving rural California.

Main announcement: The GSCA (representing 40 California counties) issued $110.9 million in revenue bonds (approved by the GSCA executive committee in October, priced in late November, closed Dec. 16, 2025) to fund fiber construction not covered by grants; the bonds will be repaid from system revenues once the network is operational and included participation from seven private investment firms.
Background and project details: The bond financing complements $185.4 million in Federal Funding Account grants from the California Public Utilities Commission (covering roughly 70% of total construction costs), will deploy fiber across Alpine, Amador, Glenn, Imperial, Mono, Tehama counties and the Town of Mammoth Lakes, is expected to reach over 31,000 locations, and will operate under an open-access municipal model with operational support from UTOPIA Fiber.

Dec 27, 2025

How AI can help cut global emissions even as its power demands continue to impact the environment

The Associated Press reports that AI applications can reduce greenhouse-gas emissions even as AI computing and data centre energy use rises.

Main announcement/action: The article documents multiple real-world AI applications that reduce emissions or improve energy efficiency, including building automation, EV charging scheduling, oil-and-gas methane flaring reduction, geothermal site discovery, and traffic-light optimization; key stats include data centres ≈1.5% of global electricity use (last year) and an IEA projection that that consumption could more than double by 2030. Names and concrete results cited: building automation can cut energy use 10–30%; Google’s Project Green Light can reduce stop‑and‑go traffic up to 30% and cut emissions ~10%; Geminus AI’s simulations run in seconds versus traditional ~36 hours; Zanskar purchased an underperforming geothermal plant in New Mexico last year and announced a second geothermal discovery in Nevada in September.
Background and implementation details: The story cites experts and companies — Alexis Abramson (Columbia University Climate School), Bob French (75F), Zoltan Nagy (Eindhoven University of Technology), Greg Fallon (Geminus AI), Carl Hoiland and Joel Edwards (Zanskar), and Juliet Rothenberg (Google) — and describes a California pilot program that shifted EV charging to times with greater renewable supply and customer savings; IEA projections and UNEP findings on methane’s climate impact are used as factual context.

Dec 27, 2025

Anonymous money fuels $5 million in attacks on Georgia’s Lt. Gov. Burt Jones

Georgians for Integrity has spent around $5 million on television ads, mailers and texts attacking Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, alleging self-dealing tied to a major data center project.

Main action: The group “Georgians for Integrity” (incorporated in Delaware on Nov. 24) has dumped around $5 million into TV ads, mailers and texts since Thanksgiving; the ads accuse Lt. Gov. Burt Jones of enabling eminent domain to benefit his family’s interest linked to a $10 billion, 11 million sq ft data center development (per DCA filings). The Jones campaign has threatened legal action and calls the ads “fabricated trash.”
Background & details: The entity is registered as a nonprofit social welfare organization (can hide donors); paperwork lists an Atlanta mailbox, media buyer Alex Roberts (Park City, Utah) and lawyer Kimberly Land (Columbus, Ohio). The Georgia Republican Party filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission alleging violations of Georgia campaign finance law; legal context references the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United precedent and commentary from the Campaign Legal Center.

Dec 18, 2025

How Geothermal Energy Is Gaining Ground in AI Data Center Power Strategies

Fervo Energy announced the close of a $462 million oversubscribed Series E financing round to accelerate development of its Cape Station geothermal project in Beaver County, Utah.

Project execution & timelines: The financing will fund continued construction of Cape Station, which is expected to deliver 100 MW in 2026 and an additional 400 MW by 2028 (total 500 MW) and is positioned as a foundational asset in a “clean, firm power fleet” aimed at meeting AI-driven load growth. The Series E was led by B Capital and attracted a mix of energy, infrastructure, and technology-aligned investors.
Modeling, costs, and policy enablers: Project InnerSpace’s technoeconomic study (“From Core to Code”) estimates delivered energy costs of ~$88 per MWh today with federal tax credits, falling to $50–$60 per MWh by 2035 with learning and supply-chain improvements; it also models $3.2 billion in 30-year cooling savings from direct geothermal thermal use, cites ~3,400 GW of U.S. potential, and shows an $11 billion investment tax credit could drive a 61% reduction in delivered energy costs for a 1 GW first-of-a-kind project. Policy supports cited include DOE research, federal tax credits, and pending EU and national measures (e.g., Germany) to streamline geothermal deployment.

Dec 17, 2025

Texas Instruments Starts Production at New Semiconductor ‘Fab’ in North Texas

Texas Instruments has started production at its new SM1 300mm semiconductor fabrication plant in Sherman, Texas, marking the first production step of a planned multi-fab site representing up to $40 billion in investments.

Main announcement: Texas Instruments opened production at the SM1 300mm wafer fab in Sherman with an official ribbon-cutting attended by Governor Greg Abbott, local officials, and TI leadership; the site represents up to $40 billion in planned investments and will ultimately produce “tens of millions of chips daily” for smartphones, automotive systems, medical devices, industrial robots, smart home appliances, and data centers. The Sherman mega-site is planned for up to four connected wafer fabs and is expected to support as many as 3,000 direct jobs (plus additional support-industry jobs).
Background and additional details: TI says it will ramp production to customer demand and owns manufacturing, process technology, and packaging to control supply; in June the company announced plans to invest more than $60 billion across seven U.S. fabs in Texas and Utah. The article also notes a separate strategic agreement between Texas Pacific Land Corporation and Bolt Data & Energy to develop large-scale data center campuses on TPL land (no timeline provided).

Dec 15, 2025

Oracle Database@Google Cloud is Now Available in India

Oracle has announced the availability of Oracle Database@Google Cloud in India, enabling access to Oracle AI Database services on OCI within the Asia-South 1 (Mumbai) Google Cloud region and launching an industry-first partner reseller program.

Service launch in India: Oracle Database@Google Cloud now runs on OCI in Google Cloud’s Asia-South 1 (Mumbai) region, offering Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure, Oracle Autonomous AI Database, Oracle Autonomous AI Lakehouse, Oracle AI Database 26ai, and Zero Data Loss Autonomous Recovery Service, with in-region data residency, low-latency connectivity to Google Cloud applications, and integrations with BigQuery, Vertex AI, and Gemini models.
Partner and regional expansion details: An industry-first partner program lets partners in both Google Cloud Partner Advantage and Oracle PartnerNetwork resell Oracle Database@Google Cloud via Google Cloud Marketplace; the Mumbai region joins 11 existing Google Cloud regions (Tokyo, Sydney, Melbourne, Frankfurt, Montreal, Toronto, São Paulo, London, Iowa, Ashburn, Salt Lake City), with additional regions planned within 12 months including Seoul, Osaka, Delhi, Madrid, Paris, Milan, Turin, Dammam, Mexico, and Santiago to support multicloud and IT modernization demand.

Dec 11, 2025

Dual Feed: NextEra Energy, TotalEnergies, ENGIE, NIPSCO, ProPetro, Claibrant Energy, DTE Energy, Redwood Materials, KULR, Honeywell

NextEra Energy is repositioning as a bespoke energy-infrastructure partner for AI-scale data centers, announcing large partnerships (notably with Google Cloud) and plans including a restart of the 615 MW Duane Arnold nuclear plant under a 25-year PPA targeted to return to service by 2029.

Main announcement & actions: NextEra is sharpening focus on data-center customers with a backlog ~6 GW earmarked for technology/data centers and an operating+backlog >10.5 GW; it is pursuing a diversified portfolio (renewables, nuclear restart at Duane Arnold 615 MW targeted 2029 under a 25-year PPA, long-duration storage, gas) and announced a landmark partnership with Google Cloud to build multiple gigawatt-scale campuses with dedicated generation and capacity infrastructure.
Background & other concrete details: Other 2025 industry moves include TotalEnergies–Google 15-year PPA for 1.5 TWh (Montpelier, Ohio); ENGIE–Meta 600 MW Swenson Ranch Solar (Texas), online 2027; NIPSCO/GenCo plan up to 3 GW dispatchable for Amazon including two 1.3 GW gas units + 400 MW / 1,600 MWh BESS with ~$7 billion estimated capex; PROPWR (ProPetro) 60 MW hybrid BESS + reciprocating engines for a Midwest hyperscaler; Aligned + Calibrant 31 MW / 62 MWh on-site BESS coming online 2026; DTE Energy seeking approval to serve a proposed 1.4 GW AI data center in Michigan (linked to Oracle/OpenAI); vendor announcements include Redwood Energy (battery repurposing), KULR‘s AI Datacenter BESS platform, and Honeywell + LS Electric integrated microgrid solutions.

Dec 11, 2025

Think Like a Mountaineer: Lessons in Speed, Safety and Scaling with Crusoe

Crusoe has announced rapid expansion as a sustainable AI infrastructure provider, including building a 1.2 GW data center campus for OpenAI and Oracle and deploying a large microgrid using solar and second-life EV batteries.

Crusoe has raised over $1 billion, is building a 1.2 GW Abilene data center campus for OpenAI and Oracle, delivered its first 200 MW building in 11 months, and unveiled North America’s largest microgrid powered by large-scale solar and second-life EV batteries as part of its vertically integrated, sustainable AI infrastructure strategy.
CEO Chase Lochmiller applies a “mountaineer mindset”—deep preparation, moving light and fast but safely, strong safety culture, and curiosity-driven design—which underpins Crusoe’s shift from flared-gas bitcoin mining to GW-scale AI data centers, supported by institutional partners like Brookfield and Blue Owl and highlighted across MCJ’s podcasts, videos, and community content.

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