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The Data Center Rundown

Jan 22, 2026

 
AI data center market expansion

Projections indicate that the global market for artificial intelligence data centers is on track to exceed a valuation of $1.98 trillion by the year 2034.

Read at Data Center POST→

Joe Reele observes that the proliferation of artificial intelligence is fundamentally transforming data center design requirements, mandating greater agility, scalability, and enhanced sustainability to effectively support evolving computational workloads.

Read at Data Center Knowledge→

DataBank is articulating its long-term vision for establishing the foundational digital infrastructure necessary to support scalable growth driven by the artificial intelligence era.

Read at Data Center POST→

While the rapid expansion of digital infrastructure presents significant opportunities for data center stakeholders, achieving success and resilience is contingent upon the adoption of holistic and integrated risk management strategies.

Read at Data Center Knowledge→

 
AI data center thermal engineering

The next phase of artificial intelligence infrastructure expansion will be constrained not just by power capacity but critically by thermal design, which is now emerging as the decisive factor separating viable, AI-ready facilities from stranded assets in the United States.

Read at Global Data Center Hub→

Sherman Ikemoto from Cadence discussed how applying digital twins, validated system models, and service level agreement driven simulation allows operators to engineer GPU-heavy data centers with greater discipline, replacing speculative methods with predictable outcomes in the artificial intelligence era.

Read at Data Center Frontier  →

 
Sustainable power and cooling solutions

Airsys advocates for an energy-first approach to data center cooling, asserting that power provisioning strategies must be dictated by the requirements of the compute workload.

Read at Data Center POST→

Page Haun of Cologix outlines the company's approach to sustainable data center design for the artificial intelligence age, focusing on balancing speed and scale through initiatives like LEED Gold certification, liquid cooling, fuel cells, and responsible management of power, water, and carbon footprints.

Read at Data Center Frontier  →

FuelCell Energy and SDCL are collaborating on a plan to deploy up to 450 megawatts of behind-the-meter fuel cell power for data centers, intending to alleviate grid pressure while enabling migration toward centralized 800-volt direct current architectures.

Read at Data Center Knowledge→

 
Infrastructure and proptech financing

Developers are actively seeking alternative funding sources to finance the substantial capital requirements driven by the artificial intelligence boom.

Read at Bisnow→

Proptech leader Fifth Wall has implemented staff reductions and suspended fundraising efforts amid challenging market conditions.

Read at Bisnow→

 
AI chip competition and regulation

Following President Trump's decision to approve the sale of Nvidia H200 GPUs to China, House Republicans have introduced legislation that would grant Congress final approval authority over the export of advanced AI chips to China and other nations of concern.

Read at The Register→

AI networking startup Upscale AI secured $200 million in Series A funding to develop its SkyHammer silicon for UALink switches, aiming to directly challenge Nvidia's dominance in providing interconnect solutions for rack-scale AI systems.

Read at The Register→

 
AI governance and systemic risk

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that true AI sovereignty is determined by ownership and control over the models and embedded corporate knowledge, rather than the physical location of the underlying data center infrastructure.

Read at The Register→

UK Members of Parliament have cautioned that financial regulators lack sufficient urgency in stress-testing systems for potential AI-driven market shocks and resolving accountability for automated decision-making.

Read at The Register→

 
Chatter
The view from Reddit
“Struggled and burnout in my company”

A system administrator details a severe spiral into burnout, feeling exploited by colleagues and management, leading to self-sabotage and existential dread over financial stability, stemming from an initial personal breakup.

Read at r/sysadmin→

“Any of you guys manage a shared-customer-cabinet colocation space?”

After being downsized from a large enterprise role, a seasoned engineer is launching a micro-colocation venture in Utah, seeking practical advice on security and client acquisition for filling a newly committed second cabinet space.

Read at r/datacenter→

“"In 6 months everything changes, the next wave of AI won’t just assist, it will execute" says ms executive in charge of copilot....”

A skeptical French administrator expresses profound doubt regarding an executive's aggressive timeline for AI execution capabilities, citing current failures of Copilot to even correctly answer questions about Power Automate.

Read at r/sysadmin→

 

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