Guides and analysis

Guides, market news and analysis on the data center industry — with real numbers.

Colocation · 2026-08-02

Colocation Pricing in 2026: Complete Guide

Colocation costs $500-1,500/month per retail rack in 2026. Wholesale averages $196/kW monthly in North America; Singapore runs $330-475 per kW per month.

2026-09-22 · Development & investment

Data Center Construction: Phases, Timeline, and Where Projects Stall

Data center construction runs 24-48 months from site selection to commissioning. Transformers now take 128 weeks and over half of 2025 projects slipped 3+ months.

2026-09-22 · Power & energy

New Era Energy Locks 207 MW Gas PPA With Vistra for Its Texas AI Campus

New Era Energy & Digital signed a 20-year, up-to-207 MW power purchase agreement with Vistra's Luminant for Phase 1 of its 1.4 GW Texas Critical Data Center project in the Permian Basin.

2026-09-21 · Power & energy

Data Center Market Update: Week of September 14, 2026

Loudoun County advances a 12-month application pause, Data Center Watch tallies $68B in disrupted US projects, Amazon locks Generac into an $8B generator deal, and NVIDIA and Google launch a grid-flexibility alliance.

2026-09-20 · Hyperscale

CleanSpark Prices First Junk Bond Backed by a Meta Data Center Lease

CleanSpark's CSDC Finance priced $2.276B of senior secured notes at 7.875% on 18 September 2026 to fund a 175MW Georgia campus leased to Meta subsidiary Anviran for $6.6B over 20 years.

2026-09-20 · Colocation

Enterprise Data Center vs Colocation vs Cloud: Total Cost and Control

Own data centers now hold just 32% of worldwide IT capacity, down from 56% in 2018. Compare build cost, colocation rate, and cloud pricing to decide.

2026-09-19 · Colocation

Data Center Physical Security: Layers, Standards, Audit Questions

Data center physical security spans perimeter fencing to mantraps, badge-plus-biometric access, and camera retention — what stops breaches, what auditors check.

2026-09-18 · Power & energy

Data Center Cooling Systems: From CRAC Units to Immersion

Cooling drives 30-40% of data center energy use. Compare CRAC, CRAH, free cooling, and liquid systems by cost, PUE impact, and where each one fits.

2026-09-18 · Development & investment

Goodman Raises $455M to Fit Out HKG10, a Warehouse-to-Data-Centre Conversion in Hong Kong

Goodman Group's Hong Kong Data Centre Partnership raised US$455M in equity to fund HKG10, a Tsuen Wan warehouse conversion due for first capacity in early 2028.

2026-09-17 · Hyperscale

CoreWeave Signs 15-Year Anchor Lease at Blockfusion's Niagara Falls AI Campus

Blockfusion's North East Data signed a definitive 15-year anchor lease with CoreWeave on 16 September 2026 for its hydro-powered Niagara Falls campus, converting a June LOI worth up to 300 MW.

2026-09-17 · Development & investment

Data Center Stocks and ETFs 2026: REITs, Builders, Suppliers

The 2026 data center investing universe: REITs (EQIX, DLR), power/cooling builders (VRT, ETN), chip suppliers (NVDA, ANET), and ETFs (DTCR, SRVR) compared.

2026-09-16 · Power & energy

Texas Orders Penalties for Data Centers That Skip Water-Use Reporting

Gov. Abbott directed Texas's water board to penalize data centers over water-survey non-compliance on September 14 — only ~30% have reported in the past three years.

2026-09-16 · Colocation

What Is a Data Center? Types, Components, and How They Work

A data center is a facility housing servers, power, and cooling infrastructure. Five main types exist: enterprise, colocation, hyperscale, edge, and cloud.

2026-09-14 · Hyperscale

Data Center Market Update: Week of September 7, 2026

Anthropic discloses $517B in compute contracts across 11 months, NextDC raises its third capital round in four months, Zankore closes $3.1B for Indonesia, and Google signs a €13B Finland nuclear PPA.

2026-09-13 · Development & investment

NEXTDC Raises A$1.1B in Convertible Notes — Its Third Capital Raise in Four Months

NEXTDC priced A$1.1 billion in convertible notes on 9 September 2026 to fund a FY2027 capex plan of A$5.25-5.75B, up 55-70% year on year, for AI-ready capacity in Australia and Southeast Asia.

2026-09-11 · AI data centers

Zankore Secures $3.1 Billion Loan to Build Nvidia AI Cloud Capacity in Indonesia

Ooredoo-backed neocloud Zankore closed a $3.1B senior term loan on September 9, 2026 to fund 100MW of Nvidia AI infrastructure in Indonesia, scaling toward 1GW within three years.

2026-09-10 · Power & energy

Google Backs €13 Billion Finland Buildout With First European Nuclear PPA

Google will invest at least €13B in Finnish data centers through 2028, financed in part by a 22-year nuclear PPA with Fortum's Loviisa plant — its first outside the US.

2026-09-09 · Colocation

Singapore's Digital Infrastructure Bill Clears First Reading, Sets 10MW Licensing Bar

Singapore tabled a bill on 8 September 2026 requiring IMDA licenses for data centers at or above 10MW and major cloud providers, plus a 3MW energy-efficiency tier.

2026-09-08 · Power & energy

Thailand Pauses 166 Data Center Projects to Rewrite the Rulebook

Thailand's new data centre policy board halted 49 projects under construction and 117 pending approvals on September 4, giving four subcommittees one month to draft national standards.

2026-09-07 · Hyperscale

Data Center Market Update: Week of August 31, 2026

Anthropic books $35B with Nvidia-backed Lambda and Crusoe signs $13B with Jane Street, Flex buys EPC Power for $4.4B, Bangkok lands a hyperscaler, and California sends ratepayer bills to Newsom.

2026-09-06 · Hyperscale

Meta's $1.2B Kuna, Idaho Data Center Goes Live With Closed-Loop Cooling

Meta activated its Kuna, Idaho campus on 3 September 2026 — a $1.2B, 750,000 sq ft facility using a sealed water-cooling loop and 645 MW of new solar to meet its load.

2026-09-05 · Power & energy

Flex to Acquire Power-Conversion Maker EPC Power for $4.4 Billion

Flex will buy EPC Power, a maker of 800V DC power-conversion systems for AI data centers, for $4.4B in cash and debt, folding it into a unit it plans to spin off in 2027.

2026-09-05 · AI data centers

Neoclouds vs Hyperscalers: GPU Cloud Business Models Compared

Neoclouds rent GPUs 40-85% cheaper than AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, financed by debt and take-or-pay deals instead of cloud diversification.

2026-09-04 · Colocation

Data Center Vacancy Rates: What They Mean for Pricing

North American primary-market data center vacancy hit a record-low 1.4% in H1 2026. Here is how vacancy by market drives colocation pricing and lease terms.

2026-09-04 · Power & energy

Vertiv Buys Microgrid Firm UIG for Up to $2.6B to Speed AI Data Center Power

Vertiv agreed to acquire UtilityInnovation Group for $1.45B cash plus a $1.15B earnout, pushing further into behind-the-meter power as grid access becomes the binding constraint on AI campuses.

2026-09-03 · Hyperscale

AWS Backs New Transpacific Cable Sta'O'Nuk, Landing Station Breaks Ground in Washington

AWS unveiled the 420 Tbps Sta'O'Nuk subsea cable to Japan on 2 September 2026, the same day partner Toptana broke ground on a new landing station in Ocean Shores, Washington — the state's first in nearly 30 years.

2026-09-03 · Colocation

Data Center Certifications Explained: Uptime Tier, ISO, SOC 2

Uptime Tier and TIA-942 rate infrastructure redundancy; ISO 27001, SOC 2 and PCI DSS audit security and operations — what each certification actually proves.

2026-09-02 · Power & energy

DayOne and TNB Sign MOU to Explore Up to 1.5GW of On-Site Power for New Selangor Campus

DayOne and TNB Power Generation signed an MOU on August 7, 2026 to explore up to 1.5GW of dedicated on-site generation for DayOne's planned Sepang, Selangor data center — a follow-up to its August land purchase from Mah Sing.

2026-09-02 · Hyperscale

Philippines Data Center Market: Manila and Cebu Guide

The Philippines has ~630-850MW of data center capacity, but Manila's colocation vacancy hit 43.6% in H1 2026 — the highest in Asia-Pacific — despite an 18GW government target.

2026-09-01 · Development & investment

How AI Data Centers Get Financed: Debt, Equity, and Neoclouds

AI data centers now raise capital via GPU-backed loans, off-balance-sheet SPVs, and record bond sales. How debt, equity, and neocloud financing work in 2026.

2026-09-01 · Hyperscale

Keppel DC REIT to Acquire Two Tokyo Data Centres for JPY 190B ($1.19B)

Keppel DC REIT and Keppel Ltd. agreed on 1 September 2026 to buy 90% interests in Tokyo Data Centre 4 and 5 for JPY 190 billion, lifting Japan's share of portfolio rental income from 9% to 23%.

2026-08-29 · Power & energy

Backup Power in Data Centers: Generators, UPS, and Runtime

Data centers pair UPS batteries (5-15 min bridge) with diesel generators (12-96 hours onsite fuel by Tier) — here is how redundancy, fuel and 2026 lead times actually work.

2026-08-28 · Colocation

Interconnection and Peering: Why Physical Location Still Matters

Interconnection density — cross-connects, IX ports, and network counts — sets colocation value beyond power price. Equinix FR5 hosts 546 networks; see why.

2026-08-28 · Hyperscale

SK Telecom Spins Off SK Horizon With $2.2B From KKR and IMM to Fund Korea's AI Data Center Buildout

SK Telecom announced on 27 August 2026 it will split off its data center and submarine cable operations into SK Horizon, backed by a KRW 3.08 trillion (~$2.2B) investment from KKR and an IMM-Stonebridge consortium.

2026-08-27 · Power & energy

Georgia Regulators Approve 3.2GW Power Deal for OpenAI's Effingham County Campus

Georgia's PSC approved a 25-year contract letting Georgia Power supply up to 3,200MW to an OpenAI data center in Effingham County, with OpenAI covering full infrastructure cost.

2026-08-27 · Hyperscale

Hyperscale vs Colocation: How Big Tech Builds Data Centers

Hyperscalers build their own campuses at $11-20M per MW when scale and control justify a 24-36 month timeline; they lease colocation when speed and capital discipline matter more.

2026-08-26 · AI data centers

AI Inference vs Training: Different Infrastructure Needs

Training clusters need 40-160+ kW racks, liquid cooling and InfiniBand; inference needs lower density, cheaper chips and sites near users. Full comparison.

2026-08-25 · Development & investment

Powered Shell vs Turnkey: Data Center Development Models Compared

Powered shell delivers a building with power and fiber for $10-25/sq ft; turnkey adds full IT infrastructure for $150-200+/sq ft. Compare cost, speed, and control.

2026-08-25 · AI data centers

RUM Group Signs $13.7B GPU Services Deal, Grants Buyer Warrant for 51M Shares

RUM Group Inc. (Rumble/Quake AI) disclosed a $13.7 billion, six-year GPU services agreement with an unnamed cloud customer on August 23, 2026 — paid for partly in equity.

2026-08-24 · Power & energy

Data Center Market Update: Week of August 17, 2026

FERC's large-load deadline passes, Dell'Oro pegs data center capex above $3T by 2030, Texas ERCOT sets a December audit date, and Johor adds another 1.3-1.5GW campus.

2026-08-23 · Power & energy

Grid Connection Queues: Why Power Is the Data Center Bottleneck

US interconnection queues now run 4-7 years for large loads — longer than it takes to build a data center. Here's what drives the wait and how operators route around it.

2026-08-23 · Power & energy

Singapore Allocates 200MW of New Data Center Capacity to Four Operators

EDB and IMDA provisionally awarded 200MW under DC-CFA2 to Digital Realty, Equinix, Keppel, and ST Telemedia, 50MW each, gated on 50%+ green power at a new Jurong Island park.

2026-08-22 · Power & energy

Data Center Water Usage: WUE Benchmarks and Cooling Trade-offs

Data centers average 1.8-1.9 liters of water per kWh with evaporative cooling; best-in-class facilities hit 0.2-0.3 L/kWh. Full WUE benchmarks by cooling type.

2026-08-22 · Development & investment

Vietnam's Data Center Market Splits: STT GDC Exits a Ho Chi Minh City Project as Evolution DC Signs a $508M Lease

Singapore's STT GDC is selling its stake back to VNG and walking away from a Ho Chi Minh City data center site, days after Ho Chi Minh City granted Evolution DC a 50-year lease for a $508M, 52MW campus nearby.

2026-08-21 · Edge

Edge Computing Use Cases That Justify the Cost in 2026

Edge computing pays off when latency, bandwidth, or resilience requirements make centralized cloud infeasible. Six use cases with 2026 cost and ROI data.

2026-08-21 · Development & investment

Mah Sing Sells 78.8 Acres in Selangor to DayOne for RM617.9M — Malaysia's AI Build-Out Moves Past Johor

Malaysian developer Mah Sing sold 78.8 acres in Sepang, Selangor to a DayOne subsidiary for RM617.9M ($152.8M), a Bursa Malaysia filing shows — opening a new AI data center node outside Johor and Cyberjaya.

2026-08-20 · AI data centers

Nebius Prices Upsized $5 Billion Convertible Notes to Fund AI Data Centers and GPU Buys

Nebius Group priced a $5 billion convertible senior notes offering on August 19, 2026 — its third such raise in a year — earmarking proceeds for data center construction and GPU procurement.

2026-08-20 · Hyperscale

UAE Data Centers: Dubai and Abu Dhabi Market Guide

UAE data center capacity spans 562MW across 16 tracked facilities. Stargate UAE lands 200MW in Q3 2026, and power stays near $0.11/kWh despite desert heat.

2026-08-19 · Hyperscale

India Data Center Market: Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad

India's colocation market hits $7.31B in 2026 (+25.5% YoY), Mumbai holds a 54% capacity share, and gigawatt AI campuses are landing in Vizag, Jamnagar, and Hyderabad.

2026-08-18 · Hyperscale

Johor Data Centers: The Complete 2026 Guide

Johor runs 1,110MW live IT capacity, 602MW under construction, and $110-150/kW/month wholesale rates — half Singapore's price, 1-2ms away across the causeway.

2026-08-18 · Hyperscale

Nvidia Puts $1.5B and a Financing Guarantee Behind OpenAI's 8 GW Ohio Campus

Nvidia will invest in SB Energy and guarantee AI compute infrastructure for an 8 GW single-tenant campus leased to OpenAI in Pike County, Ohio — announced August 17, 2026.

2026-08-17 · Power & energy

Data Center Market Update: Week of August 10, 2026

Record 25GW H1 absorption, AWS pulls out of Calvert Cliffs, PJM weighs ride-through rules after a 3.8GW trip, and Thailand's PPA pilot moves to implementation.

2026-08-16 · Colocation

CVC DIF Buys Majority Stake in Frankfurt Colocation Operator firstcolo

CVC DIF acquired a majority stake in firstcolo on August 14, 2026, backing a planned 24 MW AI-ready expansion (FRA7) in Frankfurt's supply-constrained colocation market.

2026-08-16 · Hyperscale

Singapore Data Center Market: Prices, Moratorium, Alternatives

Singapore colocation runs $330-475/kW/month, the highest in APAC, on ~1.4% vacancy. DC-CFA2 adds 200MW+ from 2026-2028 — still tight versus demand.

2026-08-15 · Colocation

Bare Metal vs Colocation: Which Fits Your Workload

Bare metal rents a dedicated server by the month; colocation rents rack space for hardware you own. Compare 2026 pricing, control, and break-even points.

2026-08-14 · Development & investment

Data Center REITs Compared: Equinix, Digital Realty, Iron Mountain, American Tower

Data center REITs in 2026: EQIX, DLR, IRM and AMT compared on dividend yield, FFO growth, P/FFO multiples, and tenant-concentration risk for investors.

2026-08-13 · Colocation

Colocation Contract Escalators: 2-5% & 3 vs 5 Years

Typical annual colocation price escalators run 2-5%. Compare three- vs five-year terms, termination liability, SLA credits and the clauses to negotiate.

2026-08-12 · Power & energy

SMRs and Nuclear Power for Data Centers: 2026 Status

Hyperscalers have committed close to 10 GW of nuclear capacity for data centers, but the first SMR-powered facility won't run before 2029-2030. Here's the real timeline.

2026-08-11 · Development & investment

Data Center Due Diligence Checklist for Buyers

A data center due diligence checklist covering power contracts, redundancy, compliance, and financials — what to verify before signing a colocation deal or acquisition.

2026-08-10 · Hyperscale

Data Center Market Update: Week of August 3, 2026

Nvidia's $500B SK Group deal, CoreWeave's Indonesia debut, AirTrunk's $2.3B Johor loan, and where B200 GPU rental prices stand this week.

2026-08-09 · AI data centers

GPU Cloud Comparison 2026: 15 Providers Ranked

15 GPU clouds ranked for 2026: CoreWeave, Lambda, Nebius, RunPod, AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI and more, compared on H100/H200/B200 pricing, scale, and SLAs.

2026-08-08 · AI data centers

Power Density: From 5 kW to 130 kW per Rack

Rack power density rose from 5 kW in 2015 to 130+ kW for GB200 NVL72 racks in 2026 — what drives it and what it means for cooling, power, and colocation cost.

2026-08-07 · Colocation

Cross-Connect Pricing: What Operators Actually Charge in 2026

Cross-connects cost $100-450/month plus $500-1,500 setup, against a true operator cost near $10-40/month — the industry's highest-margin line item.

2026-08-06 · AI data centers

Liquid Cooling for AI Data Centers: DTC vs Immersion

Direct-to-chip cooling handles 40-120 kW per rack at $28,000-42,000 per rack; immersion scales past 150 kW but costs more to retrofit. Full comparison.

2026-08-05 · Colocation

Data Center Tiers Explained: Tier I, II, III, IV

Tier I-IV rate data center redundancy, from single power path (Tier I, 99.671% uptime) to fault-tolerant 2N (Tier IV, 99.995%). Here is what each level actually guarantees.

2026-08-04 · Colocation

Colocation vs Cloud: The Real TCO Comparison

Colocation runs 40-60% cheaper than public cloud for steady-state workloads once egress, reserved-instance premiums, and hidden fees enter the model.

2026-08-02 · Hyperscale

Bangkok vs Johor vs Singapore: Where to Place Data Center Capacity in 2026

Bangkok vs Johor vs Singapore for data center capacity in 2026: pipelines, power costs, Malaysia's non-AI freeze, Singapore's $330-475/kW rents, incentives.

2026-08-02 · Development & investment

How to Build a Data Center: The 2026 Development Playbook

Building a data center takes 24-48 months and $8-13M per MW. Site selection starts with power, not land. Step-by-step playbook incl. Thailand BOI incentives.

2026-08-02 · Development & investment

Data Center Investment Guide 2026: REITs, Funds, and Direct Ownership

Four ways to invest in data centers: REITs (Equinix, Digital Realty), infrastructure funds, direct development, and stabilized assets at 6-7% cap rates.

2026-08-02 · Edge

Edge Data Centers Explained: Economics, Use Cases, and Deployment Models

Edge data centers are small facilities (0.1-5 MW) placed near end users to cut latency. The market hits $16.9B in 2026, growing 17.5% annually to 2035.

2026-08-02 · Colocation

Equinix vs Digital Realty: Which Colocation Giant Fits Your Workload in 2026?

Equinix vs Digital Realty in 2026: 270+ vs 300+ data centers, interconnection vs scale models, cross-connect costs, financials, and which fits your workload.

2026-08-02 · AI data centers

GPU Futures Arrive: CME and ICE Make Compute a Tradable Commodity

CME (with Silicon Data) and ICE (with Ornn) launched GPU compute futures in 2026. A public H100 forward curve changes how AI compute is bought and hedged.

2026-08-02 · AI data centers

H100 Rental Prices in 2026: History, Benchmarks, Outlook

H100 rental costs $1.40-2.60/hr on neoclouds and $6-12/hr on hyperscalers in 2026. Prices fell from $8/hr in 2023, bottomed in 2025, then rose 40%.

2026-08-02 · Development & investment

How Much Does a Data Center Cost to Build in 2026?

Building a data center costs $9-13M per MW in the US in 2026, $8-12M in Southeast Asia, and $6-9M in Vietnam. AI-ready facilities exceed $15-20M/MW.

2026-08-02 · Power & energy

Malaysia Restricts Non-AI Data Centers: What the Two-Year Freeze Means for Southeast Asia

Malaysia confirmed in February 2026 it will reject new non-AI data center approvals for ~2 years, citing grid and water strain. Thailand and Vietnam benefit.

2026-08-02 · AI data centers

RunPod vs Lambda vs Vast.ai: Which GPU Cloud to Rent From in 2026

RunPod vs Lambda vs Vast.ai in 2026: H100 from $1.53-3.99/hr, H200 and B200 pricing, marketplace vs managed cloud, SLAs, and which provider fits your workload.

2026-08-02 · Hyperscale

Thailand's Data Center Boom: THB 746 Billion Approved, and a Grid Racing to Keep Up

Thailand's BOI approved THB 746B in data center investment in 2025, led by TikTok's THB 842B program. The pipeline hit 2.87 GW — transmission is the risk.