DCD Magazine #62 - The coming wave
Will compute at sea sink or swim?
News - Grid Level, Sebastian Moss, DatacenterDynamics
The latest news from the AI, data center, telco, chip, and cloud sector
DCD Magazine #62 out now
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OpenAI president Greg Brockman owns stakes in Cerebras, CoreWeave, Stripe, and Helion
All companies with which OpenAI has entered into business deals
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Google's $4.75bn acquisition of Intersect Power closes
As hyperscaler pushes further into the power chain
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Trump admin and governors call on PJM to "require data centers to pay for the new generation built on their behalf"
But it's not clear if any of the demands will be enforced
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Google's Maud Texier joins Octopus Energy as global VP of data centers
Hyperscaler's EMEA energy head makes shift to utility
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Trump says US data centers will pay their fair share for electricity, starting with Microsoft
To avoid impact on local communities, Microsoft will pay for electricity upgrades and not accept tax breaks
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DCD Magazine out now: Atoms for Data
We profile the small nuclear revolution, coming to a data center near you?
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Three Senate Democrats send hyperscalers letters as they investigate data centers’ impact on US electricity prices
CoreWeave, Digital Realty, and Equinix also sent questions as electricity bills rise
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US Department of Energy drops loan assistance for Grain Belt Express HVDC transmission line
Former DOE Loan Office head calls move illegal
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Oracle to deploy Bloom Energy fuel cells at "select" US data centers
Will be delivered within 90 days
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White House publishes AI Action Plan, calls for streamlined data center permitting
Trump admin finally publishes the list... of data center changes
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Anthropic: US AI needs 50GW of power by 2028, frontier models will require 5GW data centers
As Amazon builds out huge clusters for the company
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UK grid operator: "High uncertainty" on data center growth makes forecasting hard, could range from 30-71TWh by 2050
NESO warns of challenges, as the government pushes to go large on data centers
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Sam Altman: ChatGPT queries consume 0.34 watt-hours of electricity and 0.000085 gallons of water
Small amounts on an individual basis, but something that adds up at scale
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EIA projects record US data center power use amid AI and crypto boom
US commercial electricity sector consumption is expected to grow by three percent in 2025 and by five in 2026
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Google hires Microsoft nuclear exec for advanced energy technology team
Patrick Taylor joins as hyperscalers look for new ways to beat grid crunch
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Blackstone Infrastructure to acquire utility TXNM, including TNMP and PNM, for $11.5bn
Picks Texas and New Mexico company, as Blackstone bets on continued energy demand surge
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Commonwealth Fusion Systems raises more than $1bn, backed by unnamed hyperscale data center developer - report
Fusion power or quantum computing - which will reach scale first?
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Zendo raises $2.2m to build 'Energy OS' for data centers, overhaul energy procurement
Hopes to create more bespoke procurement strategies for the data center market
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Silicon Valley Power stockpiles discontinued GE Vernova JMUX, expects substation costs to go up with tariffs
As it ramps up substation buildout to meet data center demand
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Thousands more leave US Department of Energy, despite Trump declaring "national energy emergency"
As many as 2,600 depart, more at risk
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Clean Energy Capital plans solar farm directly connected to IBM data center in Hursley, UK
An IBM R&D center with a Grade II* listed building and a museum
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Researchers say behind-the-meter geothermal could power US AI data center demands
"Geothermal can meet 100 percent of anticipated data center demand growth in 13 of the 15 largest markets using the most promising cooling approach"
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Probationary employees fired across Department of Energy, impacting grid improvement work
Thousands thought to be laid off during an ongoing energy emergency
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Altman-backed Helion raises $425m for fusion reactors
Already has a PPA with Microsoft
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Microsoft to build energy infrastructure technologies team, hiring for transmission tech director
Along with an energy tech researcher to develop "precommercial energy technologies"
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DOE: Data centers consumed 4.4% of US power in 2023, could hit 12% by 2028
"Electricity consumption of US data centers is currently growing at an accelerating rate," blockbuster LBNL report states
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AWS says power outage in nearby Swedish town was unrelated to its data center work
After local reports blamed the company for three outages
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Commonwealth Fusion Systems hopes to build first grid-scale fusion power plant in Virginia by early 2030s
But first it needs to prove that fusion power plants can be built