Topic

Water & cooling

Liquid cooling, water use, waste heat reuse, and siting.

Servers submerged in an immersion cooling tank — Rolf Brink / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Headlines

Oct 9

ThisWay Global plans 73MW AI and HPC data center at Texas A&M-Rellis campus in Bryan

ThisWay Global plans a 73MW data center, the Research and AI Compute Center (RACC), on a 25-acre site at the Texas A&M-Rellis campus in Bryan, Texas. The project is planned in phases and is subject to approvals. It will use closed-loop, direct-to-chip liquid cooling and offer compute to eligible researchers, public sector, and industry users.

Why it matters: A university-hosted, phased 73MW project with liquid cooling shows one route for AI infrastructure teams to secure research-linked capacity, though approvals, power supply, and financing details have not been announced.

Source: Data Center Dynamics

Oct 8

Sesterce plans $10bn, 200MW AI data center campus in Jämsä, Finland, rising to 600MW

French AI infrastructure company Sesterce announced a $10 billion campus on the former Kaipola paper mill site in Jämsä, Finland, with work to begin this year. Phase one is 200MW, with an expected increase to 600MW in phase two, and Sesterce aims for more than 1GW in Finland long term. The company says it has secured an anchor customer, and has committed to a $10 million community fund and a closed-loop liquid cooling system supplemented with harvested rainwater and recycled water.

Why it matters: Sesterce's pledge to enable one MW of new Finnish renewable generation per MW consumed within 10 years of operation, alongside reuse of existing grid and water infrastructure at a former industrial site, shows one approach to pairing large AI capacity with local power additions.

Source: Data Center Dynamics

Oct 7

CoreWeave plans 240MW lease at AdaniConneX Navi Mumbai campus, first phase due mid-2028

CoreWeave said on October 6 that it will lease 240MW of capacity at AdaniConneX's Taloja campus in Navi Mumbai, across three 80MW buildings, as sole tenant. The first phase is expected mid-2028, with more capacity coming online in phases, and CoreWeave plans to deploy Nvidia Vera Rubin systems. CoreWeave has an option to double its capacity, for a potential total of 580MW, and had 4.2GW of contracted power as of August 2026.

Why it matters: A single AI tenant is pre-leasing high-density capacity with direct liquid cooling and a non-evaporative chilled water system roughly two years before the first phase is due, a sign of how early AI capacity in India is being committed.

Source: Data Center Dynamics

Oct 2

Xeal plans 100,000 Nvidia GPUs at EV charging sites it says hold 200 MW of permitted capacity

Xeal has launched Laitent, a network of Edge data centers that it says can tap more than 200MW of permitted and installed electrical infrastructure across 1,600 locations. The company intends to deploy 100,000 Nvidia GPUs for AI inference, in pods about the size of one parking space that hold up to 48 Hopper or Blackwell GPUs and need no water connection. Xeal claims its EV charging sites typically run at less than 10 percent of permitted capacity, and expects a first deployment before the end of 2026.

Why it matters: For builders and AI strategy leads, Laitent points to a possible route to inference capacity in months rather than years, though the capacity figures are company claims and no site is yet live.

Source: Data Center Dynamics

Sep 25

Vertiv to acquire King Environmental Services to expand liquid cooling services

Vertiv is buying the Dublin-based firm, which handles fluid management and commissioning for liquid-cooled facilities. Terms were not disclosed and the deal is expected to close by year end.

Why it matters: Liquid cooling is now standard for AI halls, and the service layer around it is consolidating.

Source: Data Center Dynamics

Sep 24

Microsoft commits more than $10B to Gulf cloud and AI infrastructure by 2030

The pledge covers the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait, plus $400M for connectivity, and builds on an earlier $7.9B UAE commitment. It includes a new Kuwait cloud region using zero-water cooling, with G42, Humain, and Qai as partners.

Why it matters: The Gulf is becoming a major AI capacity region, and water-free cooling is now part of the pitch.

Source: Data Center Dynamics

Sep 24

Victoria, Australia proposes requiring data centers to bring their own renewable supply

Proposed rules would require new data centers to match new demand with new renewable generation, cool with recycled or non-drinking water, and keep 150-meter buffers from homes.

Why it matters: Additionality requirements are moving from voluntary corporate goals into siting rules.

Source: Data Center Dynamics

Sep 21

California signs seven data center bills covering grid costs, energy reporting, and water

New laws make data centers pay for transmission and distribution upgrades and more wildfire mitigation costs, and require environmental review (SB 1168, SB 886, SB 887). AB 1577 requires monthly energy reporting to the California Energy Commission, while AB 2469 and AB 2619 add water supply assessments and statewide water-use reporting. AB 2383 creates incentives for onsite clean energy.

Why it matters: Ongoing energy and water disclosure is now a condition of operating in California, and other states are likely to copy the template.

Source: Utility Dive

Sep 21

European Commission adopts an EU-wide sustainability rating scheme for data centers

The delegated regulation covers data centers above 500 kW and rates energy and water performance, waste heat reuse, onsite clean generation, and grid flexibility. It now faces a two-month scrutiny period in Parliament and Council, with the first labels expected in 2027. The Commission projects EU data center electricity use rising from 68 TWh in 2024 to 114 TWh by 2030.

Why it matters: EU operators move from disclosing data to being publicly graded, and customers will start using those grades in procurement.

Source: European Commission

Headlines

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