Demand for data center construction remains strong, with new projects announced every week. To help readers track the latest developments in data center design, construction and related fields, this article compiles the most important updates from the past month.

North America

Reports this month said Texas has overtaken Northern Virginia to become the world’s largest primary data center market. The top market continues to draw attention, with major developments spanning AI infrastructure expansion, grid challenges and strategic partnerships.

NVIDIA and IREN reached a partnership to deploy up to 5 GW of AI infrastructure globally, with Sweetwater, Texas, positioned as the core flagship site for its DSX AI factory architecture. At the same time, Texas’ Competitive Renewable Energy Zones, or CREZ, are emerging as a key enabler for scaling AI infrastructure in areas with expandable transmission capacity.

Even as the AI boom drives huge demand, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, has warned that projected power demand in the state may not fully materialize on schedule. The agency voiced concerns about reliability assessments and forecast adjustments, underscoring the challenge of balancing rapid AI infrastructure growth with real-world grid planning.

Several major regulatory moves also emerged this month as states respond to the rapid growth of AI infrastructure. In Virginia, revised permitting guidance questioned the assumption that hyperscale backup generators are used only rarely, reflecting growing community concern over emissions as AI-driven load growth strains the grid.

Oklahoma enacted the Data Center Consumer Rate Protection Act, requiring large AI projects to cover their own infrastructure costs so residential customers are shielded from higher electricity bills.

A committee in the North Carolina House advanced a broad bill aimed at preventing utilities and power users from bearing financial risk if AI-related infrastructure expands sharply but expected data center demand fails to materialize.

On the construction front, Utah’s Stratos project drew attention. The proposed 9 GW AI and data center campus, backed by investors including Kevin O’Leary, has become one of the most ambitious and controversial infrastructure projects in the AI boom.

Prime Data Centers has broken ground on SMF02, its second data center on the Sacramento campus. The facility will span 150,000 square feet and deliver 18 MW of critical IT load.

CloudBurst Data Centers has started work on its 1.2 GW flagship data center campus in the San Marcos and New Braunfels area of central Texas.

Local reports said Applied Digital Corporation plans to invest $3.6 billion in Boyce, Louisiana, to develop a 300-acre AI campus called Delta Forge 1.

In Canada, Buzz HPC, a subsidiary of Hive Digital Technologies, is pushing ahead with a major infrastructure investment in Ontario, planning a new industrial-scale AI infrastructure facility in the Greater Toronto Area with about 320 MW of capacity.

More North America data center updates below:

Data Center Knowledge visited TeraWulf’s campus with Schneider Electric in Buffalo, New York, for a closer look at future power and cooling options for data centers.

Powerhouse Data Centers is reportedly planning to develop a roughly 500-acre data center project near Uland, Texas.

Soluna Holdings has completed its purchase of the remaining equity in the Project Dorothy 1B data center campus in Texas from Navitas Global, in a deal worth about $8.8 million.

Europe

In Europe, we spoke with the EU body that manages critical IT systems about the outlook for AI in government data center operations.

AtlasEdge announced the closing of its sale of nine sites to Templus, covering facilities in Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Zurich, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Leeds and Copenhagen.

In the UK, Kao Data acquired a new plot at the former Frogmore Industrial Estate in Park Royal, West London. The 4.7-acre brownfield site will be redeveloped into a new data center.

In France, SoftBank said it plans to invest up to 75 billion euros, or about $85 billion, to develop 5 GW of data center capacity across the country. The first phase will start with sites in Dunkirk, Boscail and Buchan, with a target of deploying 3.1 GW by 2031.

Meanwhile, Ardian and Verne unveiled plans for a next-generation digital infrastructure campus in Île-de-France, backed by low-carbon, high-performance computing resources to support Europe’s AI sovereignty. The project calls for a total investment of 5 billion euros and 500 MW of capacity, with more than 200 MW expected in the first phase by 2030.

TotalEnergies will also work with Dell Technologies and NVIDIA to deploy the next-generation high-performance supercomputer Pangea 5, increasing its computing power to six times its current level. The 100 million euro investment will boost seismic imaging, speed up exploration and use AI-driven R&D to improve production and modeling efficiency in the energy sector.

In Northern Europe, power and data center development is facing several headwinds. Denmark’s grid operator, Energinet, has suspended new grid connection requests from large power users because applications from data centers, battery storage systems and power-to-gas projects have exceeded the grid’s capacity.

In Finland, Arcem secured a campus-scale data center site in Joroinen with future power potential above 500 MW. It plans to deliver 60 MW in 2027, expand to 100 MW in 2029 and continue scaling after that. Finland’s efficient, collaborative industrial development model is proving to be an important support for large-scale digital infrastructure projects.

EdgeConneX is also reportedly planning to invest about 3 billion euros, or roughly $3.5 billion, to build three data centers in Italy. Equinix has officially opened its MD5 data center in Alcobendas, Spain.

Asia Pacific

The Asia Pacific data center sector is undergoing major change, with a string of developments reshaping the region’s digital infrastructure landscape.

In Malaysia, NextDC celebrated the structural topping out of KL1, its first international Tier IV data center, in Kuala Lumpur. The 65 MW facility is designed to support AI and hyperscale growth, has received Uptime Institute Tier IV design certification, and earned a Green Building Index Platinum rating.

Equinix announced a $190 million investment in a new data center, KL2, in Cyberjaya. The facility will run on renewable energy from day one, sit less than 1 kilometer from KL1, and deliver more than 2,200 cabinets when fully built.

In Thailand, TikTok’s $29 billion investment plan was approved by the Board of Investment, or BOI, reinforcing the country’s position as a regional hub for data centers, cloud services and AI infrastructure.

Gorilla Technology Group also said it plans to build a 200 MW AI data center campus in Nakhon Ratchasima province, with six data halls supporting 150 MW of IT load and about 76,000 GPUs at full deployment.

In Australia, CDC Data Centres won the country’s largest data center contract on record, signing a 555 MW agreement with an unnamed U.S. investment client. The capacity equals 40% of Australia’s total operational data center capacity in 2025 and will be delivered in stages across CDC’s campuses under construction, with operations set to begin in fiscal 2028 and fiscal 2029.

Middle East and Africa

This month, Data Center Knowledge published an in-depth report on how escalating tensions in Iran are affecting manufacturing and logistics networks, adding pressure to supply chains already strained by strong demand for AI servers, networking hardware and power infrastructure. The impact goes beyond GPUs to include printed circuit boards, optical interconnects, voltage regulation systems and the control electronics used in AI servers, racks and cooling systems. These challenges are reshaping the global supply chain and the outlook for AI infrastructure.

DPI, a global data center delivery solutions provider, has formally registered a new entity in Saudi Arabia, marking an important step in its Middle East strategy. The company said the new Saudi entity will expand DPI’s ability to provide end-to-end data center design, construction and assembly services in one of the world’s fastest-growing digital infrastructure markets.

Kasi Cloud Datacenters officially opened its data center campus in Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria, positioning it as West Africa’s first AI-ready carrier-neutral data center platform with hyperscale capacity. The company said the opening moves Kasi LOS1 from construction into operational readiness, giving Nigerian enterprises, financial institutions and government agencies access to world-class sovereign cloud and AI infrastructure options for the first time.

Kenya has reportedly paused Microsoft’s $1 billion data center plan because the country lacks enough existing power capacity.

In South Africa, Cape Town’s municipal planning department received formal objections arguing that Equinix should not be allowed to proceed with two planned data centers without fully disclosing water use, electricity demand and environmental impact. Reuters reported that a social movement group representing more than 20 local communities said the applications should not be approved until officials have the key information needed to assess the projects.

Q&A

Q1: How did Texas become the world’s largest data center market?

A: Reports this month showed Texas overtaking Northern Virginia as the world’s largest primary data center market. The drivers include NVIDIA and IREN’s partnership to deploy up to 5 GW of AI infrastructure, with Sweetwater designated as the flagship site; CREZ providing ample transmission capacity for AI infrastructure expansion; and companies such as CloudBurst and Powerhouse breaking ground on large campuses in Texas. But ERCOT has also warned that actual power demand may come in below expectations, adding pressure to grid planning.

Q2: What are the main challenges facing data center construction in Europe?

A: Data center construction in Europe is facing several challenges. First is grid pressure: Denmark’s Energinet has suspended new grid connection requests from large power users because applications from data centers, battery storage and power-to-gas projects have exceeded the grid’s load capacity. Second is tighter environmental and community scrutiny, with formal objections in the UK and South Africa over insufficient disclosure of water use, electricity demand and environmental impact. At the same time, countries are also accelerating large-scale investment, such as SoftBank’s planned 75 billion euro deployment of 5 GW in France.

Q3: What are the latest developments in data center markets in the Middle East and Africa?

A: The Middle East and Africa are seeing several important moves: DPI registered a new entity in Saudi Arabia to build out local end-to-end data center delivery services; Kasi Cloud Datacenters opened West Africa’s first hyperscale AI-ready carrier-neutral data center in Lagos, Nigeria; Kenya paused Microsoft’s $1 billion data center plan because of insufficient power capacity; and in Cape Town, South African community groups formally objected to Equinix’s two planned data centers, demanding full disclosure of water, electricity and environmental data.