5 Notable Data Center Links, Aug 2 2026
AWS CapEx Boost and the Cloud Precedent, DOE Sites as Magnets for MegaCampuses
Each week I curate 5 links from the data center sector that I find particularly interesting, with my commentary on why they merit your attention.
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5 Notable Data Center Links
AWS Boosts CapEx, Citing Cloud Precedent - Big CapEx spending up front, followed by customers, then profitability. It’s a model we’ve seen before with cloud computing, as Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reminded us this week as the company reported strong earnings. Amazon is boosting its 2026 capex by $20 billion to $220 billion, and says it has so much AI business that it expects to be capacity constrained through 2028. AWS is the largest cloud player, building as fast as it can, and it simply cannot keep pace with demand and doesn’t expect to do so anytime soon. Jassy now believes AWS could “very possibly” reach $1 trillion a year in revenue. Wow. I’ve always believed that cloud offers perhaps the best template for how AI may develop as a business, and Jassy drew direct comparisons in the earnings call, expressing high confidence that the capex math on AI is sound. This tracks for me on the demand side … I think most of the risk is in the cost side of the equation and how that evolves. There’s a good summary of Jassy’s cloud commentary in Jamin Ball’s Clouded Judgement here on Substack.
$100 Billion Data Center Planned at DOE Kentucky Site - Will the largest concentrations of AI infrastructure be built on land owned by the Department of Energy? This week a coalition led by Brookfield and NextEra Energy unveiled plans to build a $100 billion, privately funded AI campus at the DOE’s Paducah Site in Western Kentucky, backed by up to 4.6 GW of dedicated new power generation. Brookfield will develop the data center, while NextEra will own and operate the on-site generation. This follows the same model as a 10 gigawatt project being planned at the Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio, where SoftBank and utility AEP Ohio will partner on 10 gigawatts of on-site power to support a data center, with OpenAI rumored to be the likely tenant. One rationale for the interest in these sites is the potential for streamlined permitting and buildout on the DOE sites. The initial RFI seeking bids for these DOE sites was titled “Accelerating Speed to Power / Winning the AI Race.”
Newspaper Printing Plant to Become Data Center - The new economy often rises in the footprint of the old. A good example is the growing number of newspaper printing plants being redeveloped as data centers. The latest project arrived this week, as real estate firm Legacy Investing agreed to purchase the printing facility for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, with plans to develop the building as a data center. Newspaper printing plants are good candidates for data center conversions, as they typically come with heavy floor loading, high ceilings, large open floor plates, abundant electrical service, and loading docks. Previous examples include QTS Chicago (Sun Times printing plant), Iron Mountain New Jersey (former NY Times printing plant), Digital Realty TOR1 (once a Toronto Star printing plant) and Patmos in Kansas City (former KC Star printing facility).
Can Data Centers Build Their Own Transmission Lines? - Amazon recently asked Virginia regulators to allow hyperscale data center operators to voluntarily fund transmission infrastructure serving their campuses. The proposal would be one way to ensure that data centers cover the costs of the transmission infrastructure for large new campuses, rather than ratepayers. Hyperscalers building their own power transmission seems like a big step, but there’s an interesting precedent in subsea fiber, where Google, Meta and Amazon have all built dedicated subsea cables to connect their global data center campuses. One potential motivation might be faster deployment of new transmission lines, which takes 7 to 12 years on average. It is one of the toughest bottlenecks in the ambitious AI buildout, and it will be interesting to see if hyperscalers can navigate the regulatory maze required to make this strategy happen.
350-Megawatt Microgrid for Data Center in Ohio - Microgrids are one of the technologies we’ve been tracking for years that is finally seeing traction as data centers embrace on-site power generation. This week Veolia said it has been selected to build and maintain a 350-megawatt microgrid to power an AI data center campus in New Albany, Ohio, one of the sector’s largest cloud clusters. The installation will combine on-site generation with large-scale battery storage. “Our work on this project shows how Veolia can help developers accelerate speed-to-power while maintaining the reliability required for mission-critical AI operations, all while protecting the community,” said Karin Hamel, CEO of Veolia Energy, North America.
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