Bell Canada and Saskatchewan sign an MOU for up to 900 MW more at the Regina campus, with a path to 1.2 GW

Bell Canada and the Government of Saskatchewan announced a non-binding memorandum of understanding to expand Bell AI Fabric in the province through the phased development of up to 900 megawatts of additional capacity, DCD reported on September 15. Bell said the site has a path to 1.2 gigawatts and represents the largest capital investment in Saskatchewan's history, with total capital investment at full buildout, including data center infrastructure, tenant compute and related power generation, potentially exceeding 50 billion dollars. The additional capacity will rely on partner-developed natural gas power generation, and the proposed facilities will use closed-loop cooling technology that requires no municipal water. Timelines have not been shared and will be phased as customer commitments are secured. "Canada's next generation of economic growth will be built on Canadian infrastructure," said Mirko Bibic, president and CEO of BCE and Bell Canada. Premier Scott Moe added that the investment "will also strengthen Canadian data sovereignty by keeping Canadian data here at home, stored by a Canadian company and protected under Canadian rules." The project first surfaced in February as a 160-acre site outside Regina in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood. Bell then announced a 300 megawatt campus with CoreWeave and Cerebras as customers, first stage expected online in the first half of 2027 and full build-out by the end of that year. The campus sits inside a broader Canadian program: six data centers in British Columbia supported by 500 megawatts of hydroelectric power, a 7 megawatt Kamloops facility with Groq followed by two 26 megawatt facilities in the area, a 7 megawatt facility in Merritt, a 5 megawatt Nvidia GPU cluster in Manitoba with Hive's AI cloud unit Buzz, and a planned facility with Ontario's Queen's University. Bell sold a portfolio of Canadian data centers to Equinix in 2020, retaining a handful of key networking facilities, and has since built out through Bell AI Fabric. Two cautions for vendors. This is an MOU, not a signed construction contract, and the capacity is explicitly gated on customer commitments. Treat it as a pipeline signal with real weight behind it rather than a scheduled build.

Source: Data Center Dynamics (September 15, 2026)

Microsoft files for a two building data center campus in Prince William County, Virginia

Microsoft has filed an application with the US Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District, for the MNZ07 Wellington Data Center at 13490 University Boulevard outside Gainesville in Prince William County, Virginia, DCD reported on September 16. The plan covers two one-story data center buildings plus an on-site substation across 123 acres on the east side of University Boulevard, south of Interstate 66 and north of Wellington Road. The application states the project is "needed to address expanding customer demand for cloud platform services in the region." The work would affect 955 linear feet of stream channels and 1.95 acres of wetlands. An application was also filed with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality in July. Microsoft acquired the site in 2024 from local landowner Chuck Kuhn, paying 465.5 million dollars for 124 acres. The parcel borders a 117-acre site owned by Amazon, where Amazon is planning a 2.3 million sq ft campus under the Gainesville West and Gainesville East names, and Google-linked Sharpless Enterprises is planning a large campus nearby. Much of the surrounding area was formerly a military facility operated by Atlantic Research Corporation. No megawatt figure, construction timeline or project cost was disclosed. Two things are worth noting. The first is that Northern Virginia is still absorbing new hyperscale filings despite the power constraints and the political noise, and the second is the land basis. Paying 465.5 million dollars for 124 acres works out to roughly 3.75 million dollars per acre, which is what land inside the Prince William corridor was fetching in 2024. That number sets the floor under everything built on top of it, and it is a useful benchmark when a customer tells you their site economics are tight.

Source: Data Center Dynamics (September 16, 2026)

Vantage raises $2 billion for early-stage North American development, with more than $40 billion secured this year

Vantage Data Centers has raised 2 billion dollars in financing to support development of its North American portfolio, DCD reported on September 15. The facility specifically supports early-stage development, which Vantage said strengthens its ability to fund projects and deliver capacity at pace while advancing a strategy to build a more "durable and flexible capital platform." It is structured as a five-year revolving credit facility with an initial collateral pool of three development assets, and Vantage will be able to add more assets over time. The company said the financing expands its options in funding development and also serves as a warehouse facility for growth in customer demand. "The newly established development facility is a strategic addition to Vantage's capital platform, providing committed development-stage financing backed by a broader and more diverse investor base," said Scott Beasley, global CFO at Vantage. "It reflects the scale of our platform, the quality of our development pipeline and the strength of our institutional relationships." The raise sits on top of a busy year: 254 million pounds, about 343.3 million dollars, in asset-backed securities for facilities in Wales, a 300 million dollar investment from Australian pension fund Aware Super for the Asia Pacific business, and a 2.4 billion dollar debt facility arranged by Ares Management for the North America portfolio. Vantage said it has secured more than 40 billion dollars this year alone to support its global growth plan. The structural detail matters more than the headline number. Early-stage development capital is the hardest money to raise in this sector because there is no signed lease behind it, and a revolving facility with an expandable collateral pool means Vantage can move on land and power before a tenant is committed. Operators with that kind of facility can say yes to a site faster than operators without one, which changes who shows up on your bid list.

Source: Data Center Dynamics (September 15, 2026)

Positron AI raises $875 million at a $5 billion valuation and plans a 2 MW-plus engineering data center

AI chip startup Positron AI has raised 875 million dollars in a Series C at a 5 billion dollar post-money valuation, DCD reported on September 14. The round was co-led by NEA, Atreides Management, Valor Equity Partners, Andra Capital, SemiAnalysis Capital and Jim Clark, founder of Silicon Graphics and Netscape, and was raised across two tranches. The original Series C raised 375 million dollars, and the Series C-1 raised up to 500 million dollars led by NEA and Jim Clark. Four new board directors join: Forest Baskett of NEA, Gavin Baker of Atreides Management, Thomas Jermoluk from Jim Clark Office, and Dylan Patel of SemiAnalysis Capital. Positron said the funding supports the tapeout of Asimov, its second-generation chip, the bring-up of a 2 megawatt-plus engineering data center and emulation platform, and the production ramp of Titan, its forthcoming inference system. Asimov is designed for memory-intensive AI workloads and supports 2TB of memory per accelerator and 8TB per Titan system, which the company says translates to more than 100TB of memory capacity at rack scale. Tapeout is on track for October 2026, sixteen months after the design process started, with production slated for the second half of 2027. Founded in 2023 and based in Reno, Nevada, Positron builds energy-efficient hardware purpose-built for inference. Its first-generation chip, Atlas, was fabricated by Intel in the US and is shipping to customers, and the company claims Atlas achieves three times the compute per watt of Nvidia's H100. "Speed matters in this market, both in how quickly we ship new generations of silicon and in how quickly they reach customers," said Mitesh Agrawal, CEO of Positron AI. The line worth underlining for vendors is the 2 megawatt-plus engineering data center. Every serious silicon startup now needs its own hall to bring up and emulate hardware, and those are small, high-specification, fast-moving projects that rarely go to bid through the usual hyperscale channels.

Source: Data Center Dynamics (September 14, 2026)

Five operators file to build in Texas on the same day, for a combined $1.6 billion

Digital Realty, CoreSite, DataBank, Colovore and Hut 8 have all filed to develop new data centers in Texas, DCD reported on September 15. Digital Realty filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation for DFW45 at its Digital Garland campus, a 300 million dollar, 672,000 sq ft building at 1602 Ferris Road in Garland, Dallas County, with ten 8 megawatt suites totaling 80 megawatts and construction running June 2026 to January 2029. CoreSite, owned by American Tower, filed its first Texas facility, DA1, a 230,000 sq ft two-story building at 2701 E. Grauwyler in Irving, a 200 million dollar project with construction from April 2027 to December 2028 on a 50-acre site acquired by CanTex Capital and Nicola Wealth Real Estate in 2023. DataBank filed DFW15, a 443,680 sq ft two-story building on Batchler Road in Red Oak, Ellis County, at 425 million dollars, running February 2027 to August 2029, part of a 292-acre campus that will eventually hold eight two-story data centers. Colovore filed Colovore Hutto at 2401 Innovation Boulevard in Hutto, Williamson County, a 280 million dollar, 192,695 sq ft single-story greenfield build from December 2026 to December 2028; the company's website lists the 40 megawatt AUS01 as offering densities of more than 600kW per rack across five 8 megawatt halls. Hut 8, through Beacon Point DC LLC, filed the 657,130 sq ft Beacon Point Data Center Project at 4650 FM 1694 in Robstown, Nueces County, outside Corpus Christi, at 399 million dollars with construction from September 2026 to November 2027. Two observations. Five filings in one day in a state where power availability is the binding constraint tells you operators are securing shells and permits ahead of power rather than waiting for it. And the Colovore number, more than 600kW per rack, is the density figure to keep in front of any cooling or power distribution customer who still thinks 100kW is the ceiling.

Source: Data Center Dynamics (September 15, 2026)

Meta announces a fourth expansion at Eagle Mountain, Utah, taking its state investment past $3 billion

Meta is expanding its data center campus in Eagle Mountain, Utah, DCD reported on September 15. Full details have not been shared, but the company said the new buildings will use closed-loop liquid cooling systems with dry cooling. "With this expansion, we are increasing our investment in Utah to more than $3 billion and will support more than 1,200 construction workers at the peak of construction, as well as more than 300 jobs at the data center once completed," Meta said. The company broke ground on the campus outside Salt Lake City in 2018 and the site went live in 2021, starting with a 750 million dollar, 1,000,000 sq ft development. Meta added a 500,000 sq ft expansion in 2019, a further 900,000 sq ft in 2021, and two buildings totaling 2 million sq ft in 2022, making this the fourth announced expansion at the campus. Meta has more than 30 self-built data center campuses in operation and development globally and is targeting tens of gigawatts of compute within the decade, alongside significant third-party leasing. No megawatt figure, square footage, acreage or construction timeline was disclosed for the new phase. The detail to track is the cooling specification. Meta is now describing closed-loop liquid cooling with dry coolers as the default for new buildings at an established campus, which means the expansion market is being standardized around water-free heat rejection. If your product line still assumes evaporative make-up water, Eagle Mountain is another data point that the spec has moved.

Source: Data Center Dynamics (September 15, 2026)

Edged tops out two buildings at its 200 MW Council Bluffs, Iowa campus

Edged has topped out OMA01-1 and OMA01-2 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, DCD reported on September 14. The company is working with Turner Construction and Jacobs on the two facilities, each spanning around 285,445 sq ft, at College Rd and E Kanesville Blvd in Pottawattamie County. The campus will reportedly total around 200 megawatts. Edged broke ground in October 2025 and topped out the first building in July, so the second followed roughly two months later. The site, known as Project Lola, was approved for a logistics park in 2021 but never developed. "Reaching this milestone reflects our continued commitment to investing in communities that are positioned for long-term growth," said Bryant Farland, CEO of Edged US. "Council Bluffs offers the infrastructure, workforce, and business environment needed to support large-scale digital infrastructure development, and we're proud to be expanding our presence in the region." Edged was founded by Aligned founder Jakob Carnemark, and Edged US is a portfolio company of Koch Real Estate Investments. The company has facilities operating or in development across Missouri, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois, plus a second Iowa campus outside Des Moines. For vendors, topping out is the trigger event. Structure complete means mechanical, electrical and plumbing rough-in is the next eighteen months of work on that site, and Council Bluffs already has significant hyperscale capacity nearby competing for the same trade labor.

Source: Data Center Dynamics (September 14, 2026)

Thor Equities files for a 150 MW, $1 billion data center in Bartow County, Georgia

Real estate investment firm Thor Equities has submitted plans for a 150 megawatt data center in Bartow County, Georgia, DCD reported on September 14. The filing was made through an acquisition entity, Thor Acquisitions WC LLC, and the project would be located in Kingston. It is estimated to cost 1 billion dollars with completion targeted for 2030. Dubbed the Kingston Technology Hub, Thor says the project will generate around 2 million dollars annually in tax revenue for the local area and around 50 full-time jobs, on a proposed footprint of 350,000 sq ft. The firm estimated water usage at 50,000 gallons per day. Founded in 1986, Thor has traditionally focused on retail, residential and industrial buildings and owns property across the US, Canada, Europe, Russia, India and Latin America. It manages data center developments through its Form8tion unit, founded in 2023. In June, Thor filed a lawsuit against the city of Urbana in western Ohio after the city imposed a moratorium on data centers, saying it had already announced plans for a facility and invested millions of dollars. The filing was submitted through Georgia's Development of Regional Impact review process. Two things stand out. Fifty full-time jobs against a 1 billion dollar investment is the ratio that is driving local opposition across the country, and Thor has already demonstrated it will litigate when a municipality moves against it. Expect both the jobs number and the willingness to sue to feature in the Bartow County hearings.

Source: Data Center Dynamics (September 14, 2026)

Brookfield takes a minority stake in American Real Estate Partners, parent of PowerHouse Data Centers

Brookfield Asset Management has agreed to acquire a minority interest in American Real Estate Partners, the institutional fund manager and real estate developer whose investments include PowerHouse Data Centers, DCD reported on September 14. Terms were not disclosed and the transaction is set to close in the fourth quarter of this year. AREP was founded in 2003. PowerHouse, founded in 2022, has a pipeline reportedly totaling more than 8 gigawatts with projects in operation and development across Virginia, Texas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Nevada and Pennsylvania. "Over the past several years, we have built AREP into a differentiated real estate investment and data center development platform, and we are excited to welcome Brookfield as a partner," said Brian Katz, co-founder and president of American Real Estate Partners. Ben Brown, co-president of Brookfield's Real Estate Group, framed the timing: "We are in the early stages of a multi-decade buildout of physical infrastructure required for AI. AREP is a strong, synergistic partner with institutional-quality data center development capabilities and similar goals across the digital and power sectors, all of which aligns with our disciplined approach to integrated data center development." Brookfield has more than 1 trillion dollars in assets under management and already holds stakes in Csquare, Compass and 5C in the US, Data4 in Europe, Ascenty in Latin America, Digital Connexion in India and DCI in Australia, and it recently formed AI cloud provider Radiant. Rothschild & Co was exclusive financial advisor to AREP. The pattern here is the same one we flagged two weeks ago with T5 and Salute. Independent developers with good land and good power are being absorbed into platforms with balance sheets, and vendor relationships built at the developer level increasingly need a second relationship at the platform level to survive the transition.

Source: Data Center Dynamics (September 14, 2026)

Exa plans a New Jersey to UK subsea cable, its ninth transatlantic system

Exa Infrastructure is planning a new transatlantic subsea cable connecting the United States and the United Kingdom, DCD reported on September 16. Exa Meridian will run 6,552 km between New Jersey and Brean in Somerset, England, and is scheduled to be ready for service by the fourth quarter of 2029, delivering more than 500Tbps of capacity across 24 fiber pairs. Meridian will be Exa's ninth transatlantic cable, and the company claims it will be the first transatlantic cable built by a single operator in a decade. Brean is currently the landing point for Exa's Express cable, which runs to Halifax, Nova Scotia. "Demand across the Atlantic is changing quickly. The largest customers are increasingly planning in spectrum and fiber pairs, and the capacity they will need towards the end of the decade has to be built now," said Jim Fagan, CEO at Exa Infrastructure. "With a Ready For Service date set for 2029, Exa Meridian will be the only cable with sufficient capacity to satisfy these large-scale demands." No capex figure, financing detail, cable-laying contractor or anchor customer was disclosed. We are including this despite the transatlantic scope because the US landing is the part that matters locally. A new 500Tbps cable terminating in New Jersey means a new landing station, new backhaul into the Northern New Jersey and New York interconnection campuses, and power and cooling requirements at the cable landing point. Those are small projects with long lead times and very specific requirements, and the procurement for a 2029 ready-for-service date starts well before 2029.

Source: Data Center Dynamics (September 16, 2026)

Diamond on the die: Akash Systems is selling thermal headroom to air-cooled data centers that cannot be rebuilt

DCD published a long read on September 15 on Akash Systems, a company applying gallium nitride-on-diamond technology to data center servers. The premise is a materials one. Diamond is one of the world's most thermally conductive materials, roughly five times more thermally conductive than copper, its closest rival. Akash bonds synthetic diamond to gallium nitride to pull heat away from the chip at the source, either pre-installed at manufacture or retrofitted into servers already in the field, a process the company says takes two to three weeks.

The performance claims are specific. Akash says its servers can operate in an environment up to 120°F, about 48.8°C, without thermal throttling. The cooling technology is projected to reduce data center energy consumption and increase FLOPs per watt by up to 15 percent per server in facilities running at temperatures up to 50°C, compared with the common standard of 24 to 29°C. Separately, co-founder and CCO Pamit Surana refers to gains "at the server level" of 70 percent and claims "70 percent more tokens out of the same megawatt." DCD does not reconcile the 15 percent and 70 percent figures, and neither do we. Treat the lower number as the defensible one until Akash publishes the methodology behind the higher one.

The company history is worth knowing because it explains the credibility. Founder Felix Ejeckam, a materials scientist with a doctorate from Cornell, sold the gallium nitride-on-diamond patents to Element Six, the synthetic diamond company founded by De Beers, in 2013, then bought them back with his co-founders in 2016 when De Beers shifted strategy. Khosla Ventures put in 3.1 million dollars in 2018. Akash first commercialized the technology in space-qualified satellite radios, shipping from 2023, and pivoted toward AI after ChatGPT's debut. In 2024 it secured a 68 million dollar CHIPS Act grant, launched its first diamond-cooled servers and signed a 27 million dollar contract with Indian operator NxtGen, delivering in February 2026. In March 2026 it launched AMD-powered diamond-cooled AI servers built around eight AMD Instinct MI350X GPUs and two AMD Epyc 9005 CPUs, and announced a 300 million dollar initial order in the United States. An Nvidia Vera Rubin cooling option is due in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Why it matters for North American builds: the go-to-market is aimed squarely at the existing air-cooled installed base rather than at new liquid-cooled construction, and that is the interesting strategic choice. "Everyone's building liquid-cooled data centers," Surana told DCD, "but I would have to wait till 2027 or 2028 for that revenue. It's not that we're avoiding liquid, I'd rather take revenue today because 90 percent of installed bases are air-cooled." The pitch to an operator is that raising allowable ambient temperature improves PUE, which frees up power inside a building that already exists. As Surana put it, "you don't have to build another data center. You don't have to wait for approvals. You get that today, no permit needed." In a market where local moratoriums keep multiplying and interconnection queues are measured in years, the ability to add usable capacity without a permit is a genuinely differentiated value proposition. Two cautions. Akash will not disclose pricing, saying only that it takes "a percentage of the additional cash value," which makes the economics hard to underwrite. And gallium nitride-on-diamond is not new technology; Fujitsu Laboratories described using it for radar heat dissipation in December 2019 and Qorvo markets the wafers for military amplifiers. Akash appears to be first to apply it to data centers, which is a commercial claim rather than a scientific one. For vendors serving legacy colocation and enterprise halls, this is worth understanding now, because if even the conservative 15 percent figure holds up in the field, every conversation you have about a hot-aisle retrofit changes.

Source: Data Center Dynamics (September 15, 2026)