Data Center News Roundup: Global Investments Top $22B, New Hardware Releases

With data center news moving faster than ever, we want to make it easy for industry professionals to cut through the noise and find the most important stories of the week.

The Data Center Knowledge News Roundup brings you the latest news and developments across the data center industry – from investments and mergers to security threats and industry trends.

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Industry Investment 

A new report reveals that the US and Europe have witnessed a “notable surge” in data center investment activity in the first five months of 2024. 

According to data analysis from Linklaters, $22 billion was invested globally in data centers from January to May, with the US and Europe emerging as the dominant jurisdictions.

“There is currently a real clamor for involvement in the data center market, which is brought about by the sheer demand for data center capacity,” said Rich Jones, TMT partner at Linklaters.

“Increasingly complex structures are now being used on data center transactions, to open up the market as widely as possible and attract even investors who have not historically invested in digital infrastructure.” 

The data follows recent insight from real estate services firm CBRE highlighting a data center construction boom in smaller secondary markets across Europe. A record 273 MW of new capacity is expected this year, including 56 MW of capacity already delivered in the first quarter and exceeding the previous record of 228 MW set in 2022.

Related:New Data Center Developments: June 2024

Hardware Updates 

This past week has seen a raft of data center hardware announcements, with Nvidia unveiling its next-generation Rubin AI platform at the Computex show in Taiwan. 

During the event, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company plans to upgrade its AI accelerators each year, announcing a Blackwell Ultra chip for 2025 and Rubin in 2026. 

Nvidia sees the rise of generative AI as a new industrial revolution and expects to play a major role as the technology shifts to personal computers, the CEO said. 

Intel, meanwhile, has begun shipping the first of its next-generation server processors: a 144-core Intel Xeon 6 processor with Efficient cores (E-cores) that is designed for public and private clouds in situations where power efficiency and performance are critical. 

The Intel Xeon 6700E chip, previously code-named Sierra Forest, is said to deliver 4.2 times improved performance and 2.6 times performance-per-watt improvements compared to data centers running on 2nd generation Intel Xeon processors.  

Related:E-Waste 101: How to Recycle IT Equipment & Reduce Impact

In other news, Cisco has launched an all-in-one AI data center solution that provides enterprises the server, storage, networking equipment, and AI software they need to deploy generative AI and other AI applications on-premises. 

New Developments 

In data center design and construction news this week, Microsoft plans to invest $3.2 billion in artificial intelligence and cloud facilities in Sweden, its largest-ever infrastructure bet in the Nordic country drawing on the region’s rich supply of green energy. 

The move cements the tech-giant’s footprint in the nation by adding 20,000 GPUs, or graphics processing units, at its three data centers. The company is also committing to training 250,000 in “essential AI skills,” according to a statement on Monday. 

The news came as CoreWeave announced it would invest $2.2 billion to expand and open three new data centers in continental Europe before the end of 2024. 

"Europe represents the next frontier for the AI industry and is an important milestone in the next phase of CoreWeave's growth," said CEO Mike Intrator. 

In the US, DataNovaX has announced the opening of the $1 billion Pioneer Park data center campus in Wichita Falls, Texas, while Cologix has acquired two data centers in Iowa from Connect Des Moines. 

Elsewhere, a consortium of Singtel and US-based investment firm KKR is reportedly the leading bidder looking to acquire a 20% minority stake in ST Telemedia Global Centres in a deal worth $1 billion. Citing anonymous sources, Reuters said that a deal could be sealed or announced in early June. 

For more of the latest data center developments, check out our June 2024 roundup. 

Power Play 

Surging electricity demand for artificial intelligence and data centers means next-generation nuclear power “can’t fail,” according to a top US Energy Department official.  

At the American Council on Renewable Energy Finance Forum event in New York this week, David Crane, undersecretary for infrastructure at the department, said he’s now “very bullish” on emerging designs for small modular reactors. 

Crane’s comments came as a PGIM report warned that the share of global electricity consumption used by data centers could soar from 2% today to more than 20% by 2030. 

According to the report, factors increasing data center energy demands include intensive workloads for training large language models. 

Other Great Reads on DCK This Week 

Incident Response: Lessons Learned from a Data Center Fire. Industry expert James Monek explains how well-prepared teams can minimize operational disruption even in the face of major disasters. 

DCIM Market to Reach $6.3B by 2030 – Omdia. The sector’s growth is driven by the need to optimize data center efficiency as the GenAI wave continues. 

A History of Microsoft Azure Outages. Explore a decade of Microsoft Azure outages and their impact on businesses relying on Azure for vital applications. 

Microsoft, Meta, Google Launch New AI Connectivity Standard for Data Centers. The Ultra Accelerator Link standard is designed to improve performance when interconnecting GPUs running AI workloads. 

New Data Center Developments: June 2024. We look at some of the latest data center developments that have been announced over the past month.