Washington Data Center Intel

Recent Washington data center news

• Jan 20, 2026

  Switched Source Expands Grid-Enhancing Technology Deployments by 60%

  Switched Source reported a 60% increase in deployments of its Phase-EQ grid-enhancing technology over the past year, with units now operating across more than 10 utility service areas from Alaska to Florida.

  • Deployment growth & scope: Switched Source reports a 60% increase in deployments year-over-year, with Phase-EQ units operating in more than 10 utility service areas including New York, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Texas, and Washington state; field data from operational sites shows 10% to 25% increase in load-serving capacity on active distribution circuits.
  • Device function & program support: Phase-EQ is described as the first distribution automation device that balances power flow between the three phases by exchanging real and reactive power; the company was founded in 2016 and the project is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARPA-E SCALEUP program. A recent Georgia Power deployment is designed to reduce load imbalance by half and voltage imbalance by more than 30%, with the utility supplying substation-level data to track performance.
• Jan 16, 2026

  Washington Court Dismisses Antitrust Claims Against Cloud Computing Company

  The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington dismissed, without prejudice, antitrust claims brought by the plaintiff (Subspace) against a major cloud computing company (AWS) on December 22, 2025.

  • Dismissal and procedural outcome: The Court (Judge Tana Lin) dismissed the plaintiff’s antitrust counts for failure to plead a relevant market and a “dangerous probability” of monopolization, but dismissed without prejudice and granted leave to amend remaining claims by January 21, 2026.
  • Background and legal findings: Plaintiff alleged the Company excluded it from interconnection services, harming its network optimization business (including a Platform Access Agreement with Epic Games, Inc.); the Court found plaintiff adequately alleged switching costs but failed to plead the Epic v. Apple single-brand aftermarket elements (e.g., “not generally known”, “significant” information costs, and cross-elasticity), and rejected that a 40% market share alone showed a dangerous probability of monopolization.
• Jan 16, 2026

  Shared Infrastructure Provider Boldyn Partners With SEA-TAC

  Boldyn Networks announced a partnership with Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to develop a 5G Distributed Antenna System (DAS).

  • Deployment details:Boldyn Networks will deploy a 5G Distributed Antenna System (DAS) at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) to provide broader connectivity across the terminal, garages, rental car facilities, ticketing, check-in, baggage claim and tarmac. SEA handled 52.6 million passengers in 2024.
  • Context and selection:SEA Airport Director Rick Duncan said the search for an internet service provider was competitive; Boldyn, a smaller ISP, has prior public-private partnerships with military bases and urban centers and has announced recent partnerships with Nashville International Airport and Asheville Regional Airport.
• Jan 16, 2026

  US ROUNDUP: Duke Energy, Elevate, Fluence with BrightNight and Cordelio progress BESS projects

  Duke Energy has brought online a 50MW/200MWh BESS at the former Allen coal plant in North Carolina.

  • Main announcement: Duke Energy commissioned a 50MW/200MWh battery energy storage system at the former Allen coal plant on Lake Wylie, North Carolina, costing around US$100 million, finished under budget and ahead of schedule, began serving customers in November with final testing ongoing; construction of a second 167MW/668MWh BESS will start in May on a 10-acre site, and both systems are eligible for federal ITCs covering 40% (including an additional 10% for reinvestment into an energy community).
  • Additional project actions and timelines: Fluence Energy will supply its Gridstack Pro BESS (US-made cells/modules/enclosures/thermal systems) for BrightNight and Cordelio Power’s 300MW/1,200MWh Pioneer Clean Energy Centre in Yuma County, Arizona (PPA with APS; commercial operations expected April 2027); Elevate Renewables has acquired the 150MW/600MWh Prospect Power BESS in Virginia (scheduled operations mid-2026).
    • Energy Storage Summit USA: 24-25 March 2026, Dallas, TX; agenda includes FEOC challenges, power demand forecasting, and BESS supply chain management.
• Jan 16, 2026

  Data Center Builder/Operator Applied Digital Names Co‑Founder as President

  Applied Digital has named co-founder and chief strategy officer Jason Zhang as president.

  • Appointment details:Jason Zhang appointed President of Applied Digital, will continue to partner with co-founder Wes Cummins (who remains chairman and CEO); Zhang served as Chief Strategy Officer since August 2025 and will help lead the company through the next phase of AI infrastructure growth.
  • Background and related actions: Last month Applied Digital was the lead investor in a $25 million funding round for Switzerland-based Corintis (which plans to open an office in Bellevue, Washington) to develop advanced chip-cooling solutions for data centers; Zhang previously founded Valuefinder in 2019 and worked on investment teams at Sequoia Capital and MSD Capital.
• Jan 15, 2026

  Microsoft Shifts to Community-First Model for Scaling AI Infrastructure

  Microsoft has published a new Community-First Infrastructure framework for how it will build and run AI data centers in the United States, and said it will begin applying the framework in new and expanding US markets in the first half of 2026.

  • Main announcement: Microsoft published the Community-First Infrastructure playbook authored by Vice Chair and President Brad Smith, committing to apply the framework in new and expanding US markets in H1 2026, pay full local property taxes on data center developments, contract for new generation and fund grid upgrades (including 7.9 GW contracted in the MISO market), and set a data center water-use intensity reduction target of 40% by 2030.
  • Background and concrete details: The framework pledges tariffs that reflect full cost of serving large data center loads (supporting rate models that charge “very large customers” for infrastructure), funding transmission and substation upgrades, adoption of closed-loop cooling and funding local water system upgrades where needed (example: work with the Quincy Water Reuse Utility), expanded workforce pipelines with North America’s Building Trades Unions and Microsoft Data Center Academy, and community AI literacy and small-business training programs.
• Jan 15, 2026

  Hiding in plain sight: The underestimated size of the semiconductor industry

  McKinsey & Company has announced revised market-size estimates: the semiconductor market was worth about $775 billion in 2024 and could reach $1.6 trillion (base case; range $1.5–$1.8 trillion) by 2030.

  • Main finding and baseline: McKinsey reports a 2024 market value of $775 billion (about 14–23% higher than common $630–$680 billion estimates) and a 2030 base-case of $1.6 trillion (low-to-high scenario $1.1 trillion to $1.8 trillion); the firm attributes upward revision to inclusion of captive chip designers, OEMs with in-house design, and undercounted Chinese capacity.
  • Methodology and breakdown: The analysis replaces sales-based sizing with company-specific valuation approaches (COGS + estimated internal gross margins for OEMs, full CoWoS package value for fabless, internal R&D/COGS/G&A for captive designers), and provides a 2024 breakdown: $604 billion (all players outside China), $93 billion (companies headquartered in China), $52 billion (OEMs with in-house design), $25 billion (captive chip designers).
• 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 14, 2026

  Microsoft tells communities it will ‘pay its way’ as AI data center resource usage sparks backlash

  Microsoft announced a new Community-First AI Infrastructure strategy in a blog post, committing to avoid increasing local residential power or water bills and to strengthen local water systems rather than burden them.

  • Main announcement: Microsoft will not pass increased electricity costs to residential customers, saying “We’ll pay our way,” and backing this with actions including support for new utility rate structures (example: Wisconsin) to charge data centers the true cost, contracting with MISO to add 7.9GW of new generation, pledging to reduce data center water use by 40% by 2030, and to replenish more water than it uses in the same districts (examples: water reuse in Quincy, WA; leak detection partnerships in Nevada and Phoenix). It also pledged to publish regional water-use data and fully fund required utility infrastructure.
  • Background and details: The announcement was published as a company blog post and references sector context such as the IEA projection that US data center electricity demand could more than triple by 2035; analysts Matt Kimball and Yaz Palanichamy are cited as framing these as established design principles and urging measurable, realistic sustainability metrics. Microsoft says it will collaborate early with utilities, pursue efficiency gains (including AI and new technologies like nuclear), and advocate for state and federal policies to make reclaimed/recycled industrial water a default data center supply.
• Jan 13, 2026

  Six Stony Brook University Faculty Mentor Regeneron STS Scholars

  Stony Brook University announced that ten high school students mentored by six Stony Brook faculty were named among the top 300 semifinalists in the 2026 Regeneron Science Talent Search (Regeneron STS).

  • Main announcement: Ten Simons Summer Research Program fellows, mentored by six Stony Brook faculty, were named among the top 300 Regeneron STS semifinalists; each semifinalist and their high school will receive $2,000. The article lists faculty mentors (Benjamin Hsiao, Mohammad Javad Amiri, Yuefan Deng, Zhenhua Liu, Howard Sirotkin, Nengkun Yu) and student projects such as stormwater remediation of 6PPD, AI-enabled drug discovery for oncogenic eIF4E, and Carbon-Aware Reserve Allocation and Checkpoint Scheduling for GPU Sustainability.
  • Background and details: The semifinalists were selected from >2,600 applicants representing 46 states, Washington, D.C., Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and 16 countries; 40 finalists will be announced on January 21 to compete for over $3.1 million in awards during a week-long event in Washington, D.C., March 5–11. The piece references the Society for Science administration of Regeneron STS and notes that since 1997 about 600 semifinalists have been mentored by Stony Brook faculty.