Virginia Data Center Intel

Recent Virginia data center news

• Jul 8, 2026

  Patented: Topgolf’s Newest Award and More Inventions Across North Texas

  Dallas Invents has reported a weekly roundup of patents granted in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, highlighting Topgolf’s new patent among other local assignees and inventors.

  • Topgolf International, Inc. received U.S. Patent No. 12649095 for a Galton configuration in golf ball receiving apparatus and systems that uses RFID tags and an antenna reader to identify golf balls while avoiding jams.
  • The article is a news roundup/commentary on patent activity, not a first-time corporate announcement; it also lists other grants to entities including Texas Instruments, Toyota, Samsung, Bank of America, Citibank, USAA, Halliburton, and Akamai.
• Jul 8, 2026

  Second Major Virginia Data Center Project Dies, Raising AI Site Selection Stakes

  Prince William County has announced a first-time decision to halt the proposed Dulles South Innovation Center data center campus by voting against initiating the Comprehensive Plan Amendment, stopping the project before rezoning could proceed.

  • The 8–0 Board vote ended CPA2026-00012 for the Dulles South Innovation Center, a proposed 43 million-square-foot campus across 1,940 acres and 252 parcels in the Gainesville District south of Washington Dulles International Airport.
  • County planning staff had recommended denial, the Planning Commission voted 5–1 against it, and the proposal would have included data centers, an electrical substation, and related facilities on land to be redesignated from agricultural to industrial use.
  • The article also references the earlier Digital Gateway case, where QTS withdrew its appeals, ending plans that could have brought up to $30 billion in private investment and up to 27 million square feet of data center development to Prince William County.
• Jul 7, 2026

  How the AI data center boom is fueling a demand for warehouse space

  Bloomberg reports that AI-driven data center growth is increasing demand for nearby warehouse space, with Meta Platforms and Google leasing warehouses for equipment storage and operations support.

  • Data center-related tenants are expected to lease about 4 million square feet of warehouse space in the mid-Atlantic region this year, up from 2.8 million square feet last year, with demand potentially reaching 14 million square feet by 2030.
  • In Washington, D.C. metro area, data center-related tenants accounted for more than 40% of new industrial leasing in 2025; northern Virginia industrial rents have risen 20% over the past three years, while power constraints, zoning issues, and community opposition may slow future projects.
• Jul 6, 2026

  Developer Drops Plans to Build World's Largest Data Center Campus Outside Nation's Capital

  QTS and Compass Datacenters have pulled out of the proposed Digital Gateway data center project in Prince William County.

  • The project covered 2,100 acres and would have placed 37 data centers on land adjacent to Manassas National Battlefield, about 30 miles from Washington, D.C.
  • Each planned facility would have occupied about 150,000 square feet, described as roughly one football field wide and three football fields long; the article frames this as a potential inflection point for Northern Virginia data center development.
• Jul 6, 2026

  What QTS’ Canceled $30B Project Reveals About AI Data Center Development

  QTS has announced that it is ending the long-contested Digital Gateway data center campus in Prince William County, Virginia, after withdrawing its appeals before the Virginia Supreme Court.

  • QTS said it was withdrawing related legal filings and ending the project after careful consideration; the company reaffirmed Virginia as “a core part” of its business.
  • The article says the withdrawal closed out remaining appeals tied to the 2,139-acre corridor, which proponents said could have supported up to 27 million square feet of data center development and nearly $30 billion in private investment.
  • Prince William County launched the corridor in 2022 through a Comprehensive Plan amendment along Pageland Lane; key rezonings were approved in December 2023 before courts later invalidated them for procedural deficiencies.
• Jul 6, 2026 · Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

  The Data Center Water Problem Is Soluble

  ITIF has published a policy report arguing that data center water use can be managed through state-led regulation, standardized disclosure, watershed-based review, and targeted federal support.

  • The report says states should require facility-level water disclosures, use watershed-specific performance standards, and establish joint water-energy review for large data center loads.
  • It also recommends federal action on standardized metrics, procurement, and R&D rather than a national water mandate; examples cited include Nvidia Rubin liquid cooling and Microsoft zero-water cooling designs.
• Jul 3, 2026

  New Jersey lawmakers pass bill to establish large load data center tariff

  New Jersey lawmakers have passed a bill directing the state’s Board of Public Utilities to create a dedicated data center tariff for facilities of 50MW or more. The bill is now headed to Governor Mikie Sherrill for final approval.

  • The bill applies to existing and new facilities, lowers the threshold from 100MW to 50MW, and aggregates sites under common ownership or on contiguous sites as one large data center.
  • It requires projects to show they are not proposed elsewhere, provide financial guarantees covering at least 85% of requested service for 10 years, commit to demand response and flexibility programs, and be curtailed before residential customers during grid emergencies; it also prioritizes interconnection for data centers bringing clean generation or storage.
  • The article also notes related actions in other states, including a new Oregon rate class, and laws or proposals in Oklahoma, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, and Virginia.
• Jul 3, 2026

  Another Electric Super-Highway Proposed to Serve Data Centers

  Piedmont Environmental Council is issuing an alert about a proposed transmission line project and an open house, rather than announcing a new project itself.

  • Valley Link Transmission, a joint venture between Dominion Energy and two other utilities, has sent notices for the Amos-Rocky Point / “Valley North” project and is holding an open house on July 7, 2026 in Berryville, Virginia.
  • The proposed line would run 260 miles at 765 kV from the John Amos coal plant in West Virginia to the Rocky Point substation in Maryland; Valley Link also plans a 2027 SCC filing for a certificate of public convenience and necessity.
  • The article argues the project is driven by Dominion’s growing data center queue, which it says has reached 70 GW, and notes the project could require a 200-foot right-of-way and towers about 160 feet tall.
• Jul 2, 2026

  Data Centers in Loudoun: A Primer

  PEC is calling for reforms to Loudoun County’s data center policy and describing the county’s long-running data center buildout and upcoming 2026 planning decisions.

  • The article urges a statewide moratorium, stronger county oversight, more transparency, and resident protections for data centers, including updated noise rules, screening and setbacks, limits on onsite generation, public inventories, and fair cost allocation for transmission and generation.
  • It says Loudoun County has already begun a two-phase Data Center Standards & Locations process; phase one ended by-right approvals in March 2025, and phase two is ongoing. It also lists upcoming Planning Commission and Board actions in July and October 2026 for specific proposals.
  • The piece provides historical context for Loudoun’s data center growth, citing the 1993 MAE-East hub, 1997 first data center, 2008 sales tax exemption, and county demand reaching 5.33 GW by 2025. It also says data centers generated 38% of General Fund revenue and that the state tax exemption cost $1.9 billion this past year.
• Jul 2, 2026

  Starwood raises $10.2bn for new real estate fund

  Starwood Capital Group has announced the final closing of its latest opportunistic real estate fund, Starwood Distressed Opportunity Fund XIII (SOF XIII), with capital commitments in excess of $10.2 billion.

  • The fund will target real assets globally, with a primary focus on residential, data center, industrial and hospitality assets across the US and Europe.
  • Starwood said SOF XIII has already closed or committed to 20 transactions and deployed more than $3 billion of equity; the firm also noted its assets under management are about $130 billion.
  • Barry Sternlicht, chairman and CEO, said the firm is “excited about the opportunities we have already sourced for this fund” and that Starwood is “well-positioned to execute on opportunities” in the current market.