Data Center Richness

Demand for data center space is hitting all-time records. That is creating a major boom in data center construction, including more projects and larger campuses. How does the industry keep track of all this construction? For more than 1,000 data center projects, the answer is OpenSpace, a technology company that provides visual intelligence on construction job sites. Its platform uses 360-degree c...

Inside the Future of Data Center Construction Demand for data center capacity has never been higher. But building a data center is a complex undertaking, involving global supply chains and local contractors. As the industry seeks to build super-sized data center campuses, there are reports that a growing number of projects are falling behind schedule.  So what's the state of data center constructi...

The transformer is a key component of power delivery, but its core design dates to the 19th century. A number of startups are working to build a better transformer using software-defined power electronics that are ready for the AI era. One of those companies is DG Matrix. It focuses on solid-state transformers, which are emerging as  as a critical piece of the infrastructure for next-generation AI...

Can electric vehicles, solar panels and smart thermostats in homes help free up more grid power for data centers? This concept that has been turning in recent months as the data center power crunch has become more challenging. The concept known as a virtual power plant or VPP. It's a collection of small energy sources that are brought together to create a large energy asset, which can be managed t...

What's it like to work on the front lines of data center innovation? Google has been a pioneer in the digital economy, and developed many of the innovations that define hyperscale data centers.  Today on Data Center Richness, we discuss what it's like to be building at the leading edge of a massive technology transformation. Our guest is Joe Kava, who led the Google data center team through an ama...

Few people know liquid cooling as well as Rich Whitmore. He is the CEO of Motivair by Schneider Electric, which has cooled the world's most powerful supercomputers. After years of working with the HPC and data center communities, Motivair was acquired last year by global equipment giant Schneider Electric to prepare for surging adoption of liquid cooling for AI workloads.      The rise of AI and e...

There's big change coming to power distribution in data centers. Today on Data Center Center Richness, we look at the planned transition to 800 volt DC power distribution, and a new technology - Solid-State Transformers - could play a key role in these upgrades to AI infrastructure. Our guest is Dafna Granot, the Senior Manager for Strategy & Innovation at SolarEdge, which specializes in DC power...

We've all seen the headlines about AI data centers using up grid capacity and raising power prices. What you may not know is that AI can also find more power and help lower consumer bills. In this video we profile a startup called GridCARE, which is using AI tools and software to unlock more existing electricity for utilities and power grids. CEO Amit Narayan shares how this technology located 400...

These are boom times for conferences about data centers and AI. In a time of Big, Fast, Change, industry events provide essential education and networking for the many folks who are new to the data center sector. One of the largest events on the conference schedule is Data Center World, which gets underway next week in Washington, D.C. We sat down with Bill Kleyman, the Executive Chairman of Data...

Let's talk about solar-powered data centers. A lot of the recent discussion of data center power has focused on strategies supported by natural gas, or perhaps small modular nuclear reactors.  But what about renewable energy?     Today my guest is Nic Bustamante, who has held data center leadership positions at several hyperscale players. Nic is the Chief Data Center Officer at Exowatt, a renewabl...

One of the biggest growth stories of 2026 is the rise of on-site powers for data centers. The AI boom is driving huge growth in demand for electricity to support AI factories, as well as traditional cloud workloads.  But many major markets have limited availability of utility power, as electric grids are struggling to keep pace with the growth of digital infrastructure.  Today on Data Center Richn...

Solving the Speed to Power Problem Speed to power is the hot topic these days, as data center operators race to deploy new capacity for AI services. Many of the leading players in the AI sector say they are capacity constrained - meaning they can't get new compute fast enough.  Meanwhile, many utilities are also constrained, and have limited power availabel for new data center builds. Bridging thi...

There's been a big focus on hyperscale facilities for generative AI. Where does the enterprise customer fit in the current data center landscape? One of the providers focused on the enterprise market is Flexential, a company with a history providing network-focused colocation and wholesale space in second-tier markets. Flexential CEO Ryan Mallory joins us today on Data Center Richness to share his...

The AI boom is creating a massive business opportunity at the intersection of the data center and energy sectors. But these are both complex industries with lots of specialized knowledge. How can these two crucial industries work together effectively to build the future? We explore this questions today with the help of Arushi Sharma Frank, who is an expert in energy market economics, regulation, a...

Why the Future of Data Might Be Off Earth Data centers in space are a hot topic. Hyperscale data center builders like Google and Crusoe are planning space-based facilities, and tech veterans like Eric Schmidt, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk also have ambitions for deploying data centers in space. All these headlines have folks wondering - are data centers in space a pipe dream, or the next phase in digi...

The data center landscape is changing fast, as AI drives innovation in both energy and cooling. In a industry dominated by big companies and big requirements,  it's a tricky time for data center startups.   Yuval Bachar is the founder of ECL, a startup that set out to pioneer hydrogen-powered data centers. With the arrival of ChatGPT and the AI data center boom, ECL has changed along with the indu...

AI is changing the way we design and build data centers. Meanwhile, cloud computing and enterprise companies continue to need lots of IT capacity. This creates a challenge for the teams that design data centers, who must navigate rapid change amid tensions between workloads and technologies. AI or cloud? Air-cooled or liquid-cooled? This is Sara Martin's world. Sara is an Associate Principal at HE...

The Internet is a network of networks. And it's the connections between these networks that can transform a local business into a global enterprise. From the early days of the Internet, Equinix has been one of the primary places where these connections happen. Equinix has made nearly half a million interconnections between the 10,000 companies using its 270 data centers around the world, making it...

One of the big data center stories of 2025 is the big shift of capacity from crypto to AI computing. In recent months, companies that got their start in crypto infrastructure have signed deals with the largest players in hyperscale AI, winning contracts worth billions of dollars. One of those is Applied Digital, which has been one of the busiest players in 2025, singing deals for 600 megawatts of...

There's been Gigawatts of on-site power procured for data centers this year. And there's likely much more to come as the rise of AI boosts demand for data center capacity. Today on Data Center Richness our topic is on-site power and the new energy landscape. Our guest is KC Mares of Megawatt Consulting, who has worked with many of the most consequential companies and projects in the history of the...

Data centers are economic engines of the new economy. Every data center starts as an idea, with a location attached. It takes a lot of funding, planning and execution to create these complex facilities. Today on Data Center Richness, we share a behind-the-scenes look at how investors and developers work together to bring a data center project from concept to reality. Our guests are Sabey Data Cent...

What Data Center Innovation Looks Like in the Age of AI Data center development is moving fast, and so is the computing technology that lives inside them. The AI boom is accelerating just about everything, placing a premium on innovation. So what does data center innovation look like in 2025 and beyond? To explore this question, we turned to Phill Lawson-Shanks, the Chief Innovation Officer at Ali...

Energy is the lifeblood of every data center. As the AI boom has gained velocity, the focus on energy has intensified as power demand has effectively maxed out existing grid capacity in major data center markets. Understanding the finer points of power has never been more important. Dan Crosby has helped explain the complexities of the energy market for the data center sector. Dan is the founder a...

When a data center project comes to town, a question often asked by residents and local officials is "what's in it for us?" What if there was a guide that could help local officials understand the upside of how digital services can transform their work and their community? Today we continue our series on data centers and community controversies. Our guest is Ilissa Miller, the CEO of iMiller Publi...

We've seen a lot of headlines about data centers lately, especially controversies in communities considering large new data center campuses to support AI. Community resistance to data centers is not new, but has escalated rapidly in recent months, with a number of projects being canceled or delayed amid community outcry, including some that represented billions of dollars in local investment. Adam...