Data Centre Watch

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44 entries matching · showing 1–15

1. 20 Oct 2026 Updated 23 Oct World Umatilla, Oregon, United States Reported

   Umatilla declares an emergency over the data-centre revenue it lost

   The city council in Umatilla, Oregon, voted 5-1 to declare a state of emergency after the governor paused state environmental permits for new data centres, citing about $6m in direct losses and threats to a police station and water infrastructure that data-centre revenue was paying for. Local officials across eastern and central Oregon say they were blindsided by the statewide pause, which followed concern about the industry's water and power demands.

   Why it matters: The mirror image of the industry's pitch for councils to keep data-centre business rates: revenue that arrives with the campus leaves with it, and the services it paid for stay.

   Source: Data Center Dynamics / Oregon Capital Chronicle [V]

2. 23 Oct 2026 World Gorodets, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia Reported

   Ukrainian drones hit Russia's federal tax data centre at Gorodets

   A government data centre operated by Russia's finance ministry and federal tax service in Gorodets, about 425km east of Moscow, was damaged in overnight drone strikes; the regional governor reported three injuries. Open since 2015, the site is one of two centres processing state registry and tax data in a geo-distributed setup, and the monitoring outlet ExileNova+ says damage there 'could potentially affect the operation of state information systems'. It is the latest in a campaign in which both sides have struck data centres: Kyiv's GigaCenter, Datagroup, Vodafone Ukraine and Odesa's Tenet have been hit, and Ukraine has struck Yandex and Sberbank facilities.

   Why it matters: Data centres are now military geography — and the further a site sits from the front, the more the 'critical infrastructure' label reads as a targeting list.

   Source: Data Center Dynamics [V]

3. 21 Oct 2026 World Kyiv, Ukraine Reported

   Russian shelling damages Kyiv's GigaCenter data centre

   Russian shelling has damaged Kyiv's GigaCenter data centre, with service disruptions possible, according to Ukrainian reporting. It follows the pattern of the past month: Russia hit or disrupted 14 named Ukrainian operators from mid-September, and Ukraine struck three Yandex data centres in response.

   Why it matters: Data centres are now targets on both sides of the war — the argument Scotland's security debate is only beginning to absorb.

   Source: UA.NEWS / Interfax-Ukraine [C]

4. 21 Oct 2026 World United States Reported

   A data centre that makes its own water from the air

   Austin-based Aquaria has opened applications for a 2027 pilot of 'Hydrogrid' — modular atmospheric water generators for data centres. Each 40-foot container produces up to 5,300 gallons a day and can be stacked; a 50-unit deployment could yield up to 265,000 gallons a day on under four acres, bolted onto existing storage and treatment without changing the cooling system. First units ship in Q3 2027. 'Water is now a schedule risk and an approval risk,' its chief executive says.

   Why it matters: The 'bring your own water' counterpart to on-site generation — a sign that water, like power, is becoming a supply the developer must secure before consent.

   Source: DCD / Aquaria [C]

5. 21 Oct 2026 World Australia Reported

   NEXTDC cuts guidance after Melbourne power delay

   Australian operator NEXTDC has cut its FY27 guidance after a power delay at its M3 data centre in Melbourne. A listed developer revising earnings because the grid did not arrive on time — the same failure mode as Nscale, now with a hard financial number attached.

   Why it matters: Power-delay risk is now showing up in guidance, not just project timelines.

   Source: Fool AU / ASX announcement [C]

6. 18 Oct 2026 Updated 21 Oct World Essex, UK 90 MW Reported

   Microsoft pulls out of Nscale's Essex data-centre deal

   Microsoft has withdrawn from a deal at Nscale's flagship Loughton, Essex data centre — a setback for the British AI firm's multibillion-pound UK plans. Grid officials reportedly do not expect a power supply to the site until the 2030s, and Microsoft — about 40% of Nscale's contract revenue — was to rent 23,040 of Nvidia's GB300 GPUs from Q1 2027. Loughton formed part of the £22bn of investment pledged during Donald Trump's 2025 state visit and was billed as the UK's largest sovereign AI data centre. Nscale says it remains committed to the site and is exploring alternative power; it lands days after reports that its Norwegian flagship is six months late, ahead of a $35bn IPO. Microsoft has since said its £22bn UK investment plan is unchanged.

   Why it matters: The flagship UK AI site loses its anchor customer — the power problem and the money problem arriving together.

   Source: The Telegraph [C]

   Changes (3)

   1. 21 Oct 2026 — Added Microsoft's statement that its £22bn UK investment plan is unchanged despite the Loughton exit.
   2. 18 Oct 2026 — Added confirmed detail: power not expected until the 2030s; Microsoft was ~40% of Nscale revenue and was to rent 23,040 GB300 GPUs; Loughton was part of the £22bn Trump state-visit pledge.
   3. 18 Oct 2026 — First filed.
7. 9 Oct 2026 Updated 21 Oct World Australia Reported

   Nvidia-backed Firmus scraps its IPO over AI valuation doubts

   Firmus — which builds liquid-cooled 'AI factories' for OpenAI and Meta — pulled what would have been one of Australia's biggest-ever listings (a ~$30bn valuation), citing market volatility. A major pension fund declined to take part over valuation and debt concerns. The Tasmanian government has since given it a December deadline for its AUD 2bn Wesley Vale 'AI factory', which is still not fully funded, and the corporate regulator is making 'routine inquiries' after the float collapsed; the state premier continues to back the project.

   Why it matters: The money behind the build-out is wobbling — the financing side of the data-centre boom, not just the planning or the power.

   Source: BBC News [C]

   Changes (2)

   1. 21 Oct 2026 — Added the Tasmanian government's December deadline for the AUD 2bn Wesley Vale project, confirmation it is not yet fully funded, and the regulator's 'routine inquiries' after the float collapsed.
   2. 9 Oct 2026 — First filed.
8. 20 Oct 2026 World South Korea Reported

   South Korea's Elice plunges on debut, dragging data-centre stocks

   South Korean AI data-centre firm Elice fell by roughly 30–40% on its trading debut, pulling other data-centre stocks lower as investors reassessed the build-out's valuations. It comes in the same week that Nscale's $35bn US listing was knocked by the loss of its Microsoft anchor tenant.

   Why it matters: The market is now pricing the build-out's risk — the third signal this month (Firmus, Nscale, Elice) that the money side is cracking.

   Source: CNBC / FT / Telegraph [C]

9. 19 Oct 2026 World Portugal Reported

   Portugal's health service lost prescriptions after a data-centre power failure

   Two successive power failures at SPMS’s data centre in northern Portugal took the National User Registry, the electronic prescription system (PEM) and access to health records offline nationwide from about 10am on 19 October. Staff could not see patient records or issue prescriptions; services were largely restored by 3pm. The doctors’ union FNAM is demanding an explanation, and SPMS says recovery-plan-funded infrastructure giving real-time redundancy will arrive by the end of 2026.

   Why it matters: The other half of the argument: the facilities being approved at gigawatt scale are single points of failure for public services, and here the fix was known — and unfunded until it broke.

   Source: Data Center Dynamics [V]

10. 19 Oct 2026 World United States Reported

    300 local bans, only three projects delayed — a counterpoint

    SemiAnalysis finds that more than 300 local data-centre bans across the US have delayed only three projects — a counterpoint to the wave of 'backlash is stopping the build-out' coverage. It sits alongside the FT's reporting that funding strains and construction delays are testing America's roughly $10trn AI build-out: the constraints that bite hardest may be money and power, not planning.

    Why it matters: Worth recording because it cuts against the story we mostly chart — local opposition is loud, but the binding constraints may be finance and energisation.

    Source: SemiAnalysis via Slicast [C]

11. 19 Oct 2026 World Pennsylvania, US Reported

    'I call it a bribe': residents spurn $10,000 data-centre cheques

    In Hazle Township, eastern Pennsylvania, a developer is offering $10,000 to every household once its data centre is operating — and residents are refusing it, one calling it 'a bribe'. Part of their land is also the target of an eminent-domain proceeding for a large transmission tower. It is a vivid local case of a backlash that, per Data Center Watch, blocked or delayed at least 75 projects worth around $130bn in the first quarter of 2026, and which now crosses party lines even as President Trump champions the build-out.

    Why it matters: The answer to 'we'll pay you' is sometimes no — and the offer itself shows what developers now think community consent costs.

    Source: AFP via eNCA [C]

12. 18 Oct 2026 World New York, US 360 MW Reported

    Google backstops TeraWulf's Lake Mariner leases

    Google has guaranteed roughly $3.2bn of Fluidstack's long-term lease obligations at TeraWulf's Lake Mariner campus in Somerset, New York, and taken warrants worth about 14% of the company. Fluidstack is contracting ~360MW of critical IT load across three buildings on 10-year terms, with phased energisation from the second half of 2026 into 2027. The former coal site already has dual 345kV connections; the campus runs at 102MW now and is planned to reach 500MW (up to 750MW).

    Why it matters: The buyer stands behind the tenant: a hyperscaler guaranteeing rent to make a data-centre lease financeable.

    Source: Crypto Briefing [C]

13. 18 Oct 2026 World India 1570 MW Reported

    India's data-centre capacity hits 1.57GW, targeting 8GW by 2030

    India's installed data-centre capacity has grown from about 375MW in 2020 to 1.57GW as of August 2026, with the government targeting 8GW by 2030; roughly $70bn of investment is under way and another $90bn announced. The Central Electricity Authority projects data-centre electricity demand reaching 17GW by 2031-32, and Crisil flags grid connectivity, land and water as the main hurdles, alongside a 2026-27 tax holiday for foreign cloud providers.

    Why it matters: The fastest-scaling market outside the US — and the same three constraints (grid, land, water) turning up again.

    Source: PIB / DD News (via Economic Times) [C]

14. 16 Oct 2026 Updated 17 Oct World Nova Scotia, Canada 420 MW Reported

    Anthropic signs its first Canadian data-centre deal

    Anthropic has agreed its first Canadian data-centre deal, with renewable-energy developer EverWind, which will build and lease a large AI facility at its Point Tupper site in Nova Scotia. EverWind plans more than $10bn of private investment — about $8bn for the campus plus $2bn for onshore wind — with 420MW at full build (an initial 95MW phase in late 2027, a 325MW expansion in 2028), roughly 2,000 construction and 215 permanent roles. It is billed as the largest privately funded investment in the province's history.

    Why it matters: AI compute keeps looking for clean power and space — this time to Canada's Atlantic coast.

    Source: Bloomberg / CBC [C]

    Changes (2)

    1. 17 Oct 2026 — Added EverWind's own figures: >$10bn ($8bn campus + $2bn wind), 420MW at full build (95MW late 2027, +325MW 2028), ~2,000 construction and 215 permanent roles.
    2. 16 Oct 2026 — First filed.
15. 15 Oct 2026 Updated 17 Oct World United States Reported

    Data centres become a US midterm 'sleeper issue'

    The BBC reports that data centres have become an election issue in the US: about 3,000 operate today and that could double within years, while anti-data-centre community groups more than doubled to 833 in early 2026, according to Data Center Watch. Politicians in both parties are reacting — Arizona paused data-centre tax breaks, and the Senate Republican campaign arm told candidates to reframe the debate — as President Trump calls the backlash a 'sick conspiracy'. A UMass poll finds 65% of Americans oppose an AI data centre in their community, and ballot measures on restricting or banning them go to voters next month. In Ohio alone, at least 18 municipalities and townships vote on data-centre measures on 3 November: Grove City, where 1,500+ signatures forced a 12-month moratorium and a resident-veto ballot measure; Granville, Pataskala and Sunbury, weighing charter bans on sites over 25MW; Urbana, a 7.5MW cap; and Ashville (pop. 5,000), a referendum to halt EdgeConneX's proposed 800MW campus on 195 acres. The backlash has entered Ohio's Senate race, with Democrat Sherrod Brown branding Republican Jon Husted 'the face of datacenters'.

    Why it matters: The local revolt has gone national — and, in the US, straight onto the ballot.

    Source: BBC News [C]

    Changes (3)

    1. 17 Oct 2026 — Added the Ohio ballot specifics (18 municipalities on 3 Nov; Grove City veto measure; 25MW/7.5MW caps; Ashville vs EdgeConneX) and the Brown/Husted Senate framing.
    2. 16 Oct 2026 — Added the UMass poll (65% oppose a local AI data centre) and the ballot measures going to voters next month.
    3. 15 Oct 2026 — First filed.