5 Notable Data Center Links, Sept. 27
Stargate win for STACK, the microfluidics startup working with Microsoft
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 Links
STACK Infrastructure to Deliver Stargate Campus - This week’s announcement of new sites for the Stargate project will mean huge business for data center operators. On Friday, STACK Infrastructure confirmed that it will deliver the digital infrastructure for the planned Stargate campus in Dona Ana County, New Mexico. STACK will partner with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, with investment support from Blue Owl Capital. Expect more announcements shortly about Stargate campuses and prominent operators. Note: In our 5 Links on Aug. 30 I noted that “you’ll hear more about this project in coming weeks.”
Justifying the Explosive Growth in Hyperscale CAPEX - The huge AI investments in recent weeks have some analysts wary of a frothy market. But not Synergy Research Group, which closely tracks the hyperscale sector, and put out a bullish note. “The companies making those investments are titanic in nature and they are focused on markets that will continue to grow rapidly over the coming years, as shown by our forecasts,” said John Dinsdale, a Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group. “In 2021 hyperscale company CAPEX was running at under 9% of revenues, a metric that has grown to over 16% in the first half of this year. That represents a huge growth in investments, but it isn’t out of the ordinary for infrastructure–heavy industries. For example, telcos around the world are struggling to generate revenue growth, and yet they typically have CAPEX intensity levels in the 16-18% range. That suggests hyperscalers can comfortably accommodate the increased spending on AI infrastructure.”
Microfluidics Startup Corintis Raises $24 Million - Here’s an interesting follow-up to Microsoft’s news that it’s developing microfluidics cooling technology. Swiss startup Corintis, which is working with Microsoft on the project, announced Series A funding. The company, which emerged from a research center in Lausanne, also added two interesting new board members - Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan and CoolIT founder Geoff Lyons. This is a technology to watch.
Don’t Blame Data Centers for Rising Electric Bills - This analysis of power cost trends is from Andrew Fanara, who many of you may know from his time as the Environmental Protection Agency’s primary liaison to the data center industry. “The rush to falsely blame data centers as the single greatest contributing factor to rising electric bills is not benign,” Andrew writes, noting that it could lead to “poorly crafted public policy that hamstrings the tech sector and our economy but fails to help the American people cope with rising electricity costs.”
Interconnection Hubs in Space? Interconnection specialist DE-CIX has unveiled plans for a Space-IX program to support data flows from satellite constellations in low-earth orbit (LEO). There’s many petabytes of data being created by satellite imaging providers, as well as satellite Internet services. DE-CIX says its hopes to enable intelligent interconnection between LEO satellites and integration with terrestrial infrastructure, cloud platforms, and content providers.
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