Data Centre Build News & Insights

Digital Realty adopts PPC’s energy matching programme

Digital Realty, a provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data centre, colocation, and interconnection systems, today announced that it has adopted PPC’s 24/7 hourly renewable energy matching programme to power its three highly-connected data centres in Athens, Greece, with clear, real-time matched clean electricity. The initiative builds on the company’s existing 24/7 energy matching programmes in France and Sweden and supports improved transparency and reporting of renewable energy use. The programme, provided by PPC, Southeast Europe’s largest electric utility group, has been designed to help large corporate customers accurately trace and report their clean energy usage. Leveraging PPC’s renewable energy assets and digital tracking tools, the programme seeks to enable businesses to verify both the source and the time of clean electricity consumption on an hourly basis. The service includes the full management of Guarantees of Origin (GOs) and uses software from Granular Energy to enable real-time tracking of renewable energy generation and associated carbon emissions. It aims to "empower customers to credibly report Scope 2 emissions and progress towards net zero targets." Digital Realty’s participation represents a sizeable deployment of hourly energy matching in the region, helping to support the development of a more resilient and decarbonised power grid. By matching renewable energy generation and consumption in real time, the programme aims to create clearer signals for investment in clean energy technologies and infrastructure. “This programme with PPC strengthens our commitment to transparent and data-driven energy sourcing,” comments Alexandros Bechrakis, Managing Director, Digital Realty in Greece. “It helps us support our customers’ renewable energy goals with credible, hourly-matched clean electricity – delivering greater visibility into how and when clean energy is being used across their digital infrastructure.” “At PPC, we are shaping the future of energy by enabling our clients to lead with credibility in a carbon-free economy,” claims Angelos Spanos, Chief Marketing & Products Officer at PPC. “Through 24/7 carbon-free energy hourly matching, we provide our corporate customers with verified, real-time insights into their renewable energy consumption. "This collaboration with Digital Realty demonstrates how forward-looking energy solutions can accelerate the clean energy transition for entire industries.” The programme, according to Digital Realty, supports the company’s science-based targets for carbon emissions reduction and aligns with its broader sustainability strategy, which includes a commitment to carbon neutrality across its data centre operations and value chain. As part of this strategy, Digital Realty already matches 100% of the electricity used across its entire European portfolio with renewable energy. For more from Digital Realty, click here.

XDS to host 10MW of AI workloads in Saudi's 'Desert Dragons'

UK & Dubai-based XDS Datacentres (XDS), a developer of liquid immersion digital infrastructure, has signed a major agreement with ICS Arabia for the construction and delivery of Riyadh & Jeddah's first 10 MW immersion-cooled data centre. This collaboration, developed within ICS Arabia's Desert Dragon technology ecosystem, aims to bring advanced computing capacity, sustainability, and scalability to support Saudi Arabia's digital transformation. Under the terms of the 15-year agreement, ICS Arabia will design, construct, and hand over two 10MW facilities to XDS by Q4 2026. The project will utilise Desert Dragon's Tier III-certified infrastructure and immersion cooling technology to support high-density workloads such as AI, machine learning, blockchain, and other GPU-intensive applications, while the facility will seek to set new benchmarks for energy-efficient, high-performance computing in the region. The signing ceremony was held on 8 July at Desert Dragon’s headquarters in Riyadh, with key executives from both organisations in attendance. Ghufran Hamid, CEO of XDS, states, "We are pleased to partner with ICS Arabia on this landmark deployment. The Kingdom represents a key growth market for XDS, and the initial 10MW facilities will showcase the potential of immersion-cooled infrastructure to deliver both performance and sustainability. XDS would like to contribute to Vision 2030 by supplying sustainable infrastructure meeting global ESG standards. "This isn't just another facility, it's the beginning of a new era. No other data centre company is providing the services XDS will provide, with the switch from air-cooled to liquid immersion. As demand for high-density AI workloads, sovereign compute, and climate-resilient digital infrastructure continues to rise, traditional air-cooled data centres are already struggling to cope. Immersion cooling isn't a niche but an inevitability." Abdullah Ayed Al Mazny, General Manager at Desert Dragon (ICS Arabia), adds, "Our partnership with XDS reflects our shared vision to deliver cutting-edge data centre capabilities in the Kingdom. Together, we are enabling sovereign digital infrastructure aligned with the ambitions of Saudi Vision 2030." Immersion cooling at scale Both Riyadh & Jeddah facilities will feature full immersion cooling with rack densities up to 368kW. This would make them appropriate for services such as AI, GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS), cloud-native compute, and hyperscale edge deployment. The design includes redundant N+N power and cooling systems, Tier III certification (TCCF and TCDD), and high-capacity network interconnectivity. Service and SLAs Clients of XDS in Saudi Arabia will, according to the company, "benefit from 99.982% uptime guarantees, fully managed colocation services and smart hands, flexible power allocations, GPU-as-a-Service, private cloud, server conversion, customer rack migration and engineering support, Infrastructure-as-a-Service & Software-as-a-Service." Supporting Saudi Arabia's digital future The project represents a milestone for both XDS and ICS Arabia as they contribute to building the Kingdom's digital infrastructure and sovereign data capabilities. The XDS data centre will support national cloud initiatives, artificial intelligence growth, and enterprise workloads that require scalable, low-latency compute infrastructure. Following the announcement of XDS's successful immersion cooled facility in Dubai, this expansion into the Kingdom seeks to position the company as a key operator deploying immersion cooling at scale for high-density compute across the GCC.

DigiCert opens registration for World Quantum Readiness Day

DigiCert, a US-based digital security company, today announced open registration for its annual World Quantum Readiness Day virtual event, which takes place on Wednesday, 10 September 2025. The company is also accepting submissions for its Quantum Readiness Awards. Both initiatives intend to spotlight the critical need for current security infrastructures to adapt to the imminent reality of quantum computing. World Quantum Readiness Day is, according to DigiCert, a "catalyst for action, urging enterprises and governments worldwide to evaluate their preparedness for the emerging quantum era." It seeks to highlight the growing urgency to adopt post-quantum cryptography (PQC) standards and provide a "playbook" to help organisations defend against future quantum-enabled threats. “Quantum computing has the potential to unlock transformative advancements across industries, but it also requires a fundamental rethink of our cybersecurity foundations,” argues Deepika Chauhan, Chief Product Officer at DigiCert. “World Quantum Readiness Day isn’t just a date on the calendar, it’s a starting point for a global conversation about the urgent need for collective action to secure our quantum future.” The Quantum Readiness Awards were created to celebrate organisations that are leading the charge in quantum preparedness. Judges for the Quantum Readiness Awards include: · Bill Newhouse, Cybersecurity Engineer & Project Lead, National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, NIST· Dr Ali El Kaafarani, CEO, PQShield· Alan Shimel, CEO, TechStrong Group· Blair Canavan, Director, Alliances PQC Portfolio, Thales· Tim Hollebeek, Industry Technology Strategist, DigiCert For more from DigiCert, click here.

Aligned’s Phoenix data centre earns Three Green Globes

Aligned Data Centers, a technology infrastructure company, has announced its latest Phoenix data centre to receive the Green Globes for New Construction certification from the Green Building Initiative (GBI). Aligned’s PHX-06 data centre received a rating of Three Green Globes for its success in resource efficiency, environmental impact reduction, and improvements in occupant wellness. “As the global demand for AI and high-performance computing continues to accelerate, we’re continuously looking for new ways to increase the efficiency and sustainability of our data centres, even as we keep pace with and anticipate the growth of that demand,” states Andrew Schaap, CEO of Aligned. “GBI's third-party review of PHX-06 resulted in an award of [the] Three Green Globes certification, which is a testament to our relentless pursuit of sustainable excellence. "This recognition not only validates the exceptionally high standards we set for environmentally responsible design and construction, but also underscores our unmatched speed of delivery, which enables massive, future-proof scalability across the Americas. Despite continuous innovation and ever-higher standards, Aligned remains the highest certifying data centre in the programme.” Aligned's Three Green Globes achievement for PHX-06 was driven by factors like reduced water usage, efficient cooling, and 100% renewable power. Another contributing factor to its certification is the company’s Adaptive Modular Infrastructure (AMI), which uses standardised, prefabricated modules for various building components. AMI seeks to sustainably accelerate deployment timelines and minimise waste by relying on repeatable manufacturing processes that produce fewer components and cut down on Scope 3 emissions through reduced onsite construction. “Achieving this level of sustainability is an outstanding accomplishment and Aligned should be proud of the strategies applied to the design and construction of this facility,” comments Vicki Worden, GBI CEO. “We look to data centre owner-operators to be responsible stewards of the planet’s resources, and Aligned continues to demonstrate its leadership in sustainability with its exceptional outcomes in energy efficiency, water conservation, carbon emissions reduction, and occupant health.” Founded in 2004, GBI is an international nonprofit organisation and American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Accredited Standards Developer dedicated to improving the built environment’s impact on climate and society. GBI’s Green Globes third-party certification process involves a design and onsite assessment, evaluating environmental assessment areas including project management, site, energy, water, resources, emissions, and indoor environment. For more from Aligned, click here.

EfficiencyIT announces partnership with MSSL

EfficiencyIT, a technology and data centre company providing consultancy, design and build services, and maintenance support, has today announced a formal partnership with Michael Smith Switchgear (MSSL), a UK-based manufacturer of sustainable electrical control and distribution equipment. With the intention to meet soaring demand for secure, scalable, and eco-conscious modular AI infrastructure in the UK and Europe, the alliance unites EfficiencyIT’s data centre engineering experience with MSSL’s switchgear manufacturing and installation capabilities. Building on EfficiencyIT’s ModularDC solutions and aligning with the UK Government’s recently published AI Opportunities Action Plan, the partnership seeks to help organisations across the governmental, enterprise, and life sciences sectors deploy resilient, scalable AI compute environments while achieving increases in sustainability. By collaborating from concept to delivery, EfficiencyIT and MSSL aim to reduce the time-to-deployment, cost, and environmental impact typically associated with accelerated computing infrastructure for HPC (high-performance computing) and artificial intelligence (AI) workloads. A partnership founded on sustainability Both EfficiencyIT and MSSL place an emphasis on sustainable innovation. EfficiencyIT holds PlanetMark accreditation and was recently recognised by its partner, Schneider Electric, as one of 16 EcoXpert partners globally for its sustainability impact. In recognition of its ongoing engagement in sustainable critical infrastructure operations, the company was also awarded a Royal Warrant of Appointment into the Place and Quality of Supplier of IT Infrastructure Services by His Majesty King Charles III, recognising the company's delivery of sustainable IT infrastructure to the British Royal Household. MSSL, meanwhile, is also a Schneider Electric Sustainability Impact Award winner and has spearheaded multiple sustainability initiatives in recent years, halving its carbon footprint, introducing renewable energy programs, and achieving carbon-neutral status for the first time in 2022. This track record has resulted in the company’s recognition through accolades and government case studies, most notably during COP26. Most recently, MSSL was honoured with The King’s Award for Enterprise for Sustainable Development, highlighting its long-term commitment to sustainability in manufacturing. The new channel partnership aims to give customers access to prefabricated data centre systems manufactured and integrated in the UK, including next-generation UPS, low-voltage (LV) switchgear, and power equipment. Additionally, by sourcing and manufacturing ModularDC systems in the UK, both companies aim to help customers decarbonise the supply chain by reducing Scope 3 emissions, strengthening local supply networks, and aligning with the UK government’s call for “sufficient, secure and sustainable infrastructure foundations for AI.” A shared commitment to decarbonisation “As demand for AI infrastructure intensifies, the data centre industry cannot afford to compromise on security, sustainability, or resilience,” argues Nick Ewing, Managing Director at EfficiencyIT. “By formalising our partnership with Michael Smith Switchgear, we’re ensuring that organisations across the public and private sectors can rapidly scale their data centre and AI compute environments without compromising on environmental commitments, supply chain security, or regulatory compliance.” Sean Smith, Managing Director at MSSL, comments, “EfficiencyIT shares our passion for environmental stewardship and supporting UK-based manufacturing with the highest standards of sustainability. Our combined experience provides a powerful proposition for customers looking to accelerate their AI and high-powered data centre, energy, or electrical projects, and we look forward to collaborating to help meet and exceed these ambitions.” For more from EfficiencyIT, click here.

Datum launches second Manchester data centre, MCR2

UK data centre provider Datum Datacentres has officially launched MCR2, its newest data centre in Manchester, marking a milestone for both the company and the region’s £500 million regeneration initiative. The well-attended opening ceremony took place on Thursday, 26 June and celebrated the completion of the almost two-year construction project, signalling a boost for Manchester’s position as a UK tech hub. The ribbon was cut by Emma Taylor, Labour Councillor for the Sharston Ward, and the event was attended by distinguished guests including members of Manchester City Council, who collaborated closely with Datum throughout the project. Their joint efforts sought to ensure the facility aligns with the goals of Wythenshawe's ongoing regeneration, creating a resource to support the community's sustainable growth and innovation. Commenting on the launch, Matt Edgley, COO at Datum Datacentres, says, “We are thrilled to have officially opened MCR2. From the outset, our vision for MCR2 was to set new standards in operational resilience and reliability while embedding sustainability at its core. This facility stands as a testament to our commitment to fostering positive social and environmental change, supporting the local economy and playing an active role in the regeneration of Wythenshawe.” MCR2 was built in response to Manchester’s rapidly growing demand for data centre infrastructure. The new facility provides capacity for up to 1,200 racks, each capable of up to 30kW power delivery on dual circuits, supported by 2N level resilience. MCR2 offers a design PUE of 1.25, a 100% power availability SLA, and a focus on sustainability, security, and "operational excellence." Security is further bolstered by the inclusion of an on-site police-linked Alarm Receiving Centre and the site’s NSI Gold certification (BS5979 SOC). Emma Taylor, Labour Councillor for the Sharston Ward, comments, “Data centres are a critical part of our data infrastructure in Manchester and, as anchors for investment, play a really important part in supporting local growth. This multimillion pound investment by Datum really demonstrates the confidence in the region and I’m really excited for what the future holds. As someone who grew up just metres from the site of what is now MCR2, I’d like to thank the team at Datum for bringing a bit of life back into the fringes of Wythenshawe town centre.” Datum’s design and construction partner Keysource delivered the facility. Jon Healy, Managing Director at Keysource, a Salute company, adds, “It’s been great to deliver on another successful project with Datum Datacentres. We set out to challenge the status quo and drive the highest possible standards across the project design, construction, and sustainability. Collaboration between Datum and Keysource has been at the fore to deliver on key business drivers and is testament to our talented people involved. We look forward to the next project.” For more from Datum Datacentres, click here.

Puglia 'Data Center Valley' set to become biggest AI hub in Europe

Puglia, a region of southern Italy located at the 'heel' of the peninsula, is seeking to redefine the digital landscape of the Mediterranean with the creation of the Puglia Data Center Valley, a development program that brings together three AI hyperscale data centre projects totalling more than 2 GW of power capacity. Data centre company Adriatic DC’s plans include the redevelopment of Bari’s former Manifattura Tabacchi industrial area into a 200 MW data centre, the development of a second 500 MW greenfield facility in Brindisi’s industrial area, and the Adriatic DC Hub, a 1.5 GW greenfield campus spanning 2,000 acres. Said hub is set to become the largest data centre complex currently under development in Europe and among the largest in the world, on par with the Stargate campus in the United States. This initiative arises from an unprecedented global demand for computing power - driven by the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) - and aims to position Southern Italy at the heart of this epochal transformation. The overall strategy rests on solid infrastructural foundations. Puglia is the leading Italian region for electricity production from renewable sources, boasts operational international submarine digital backbones, and will soon be connected to the new Italy–Albania energy cable, designed to further strengthen the flow of renewable energy along the Adriatic corridor. In this context, the Regional Government of Puglia has established an interdepartmental working group on data centres, tasked with effectively coordinating permitting processes, defining technical guidelines, and facilitating dialogue with local authorities, thereby offering operators guidance and a dedicated institutional channel. "The Puglia Data Center Valley was created to place Southern Italy and Southern Europe at the centre of the new geopolitics of artificial intelligence," states Lorenzo Avello, CEO of Adriatic DC. "Global demand for computing power is growing at record rates. Our goal is to build an industrial platform capable of attracting strategic investment to projects with reliable execution timelines, generating skilled employment, and strengthening both European digital sovereignty and national data security. "Puglia offers industrial land availability, energy networks targeted for major future development by the TSO, global submarine digital links, and a favourable institutional environment - a rare and unique mix in Europe. We are firmly convinced that the south can position itself in the new global chessboard of artificial intelligence.” The first construction sites are scheduled to break ground by the end of 2026, with an initial investment phase of approximately €2 billion (£1.72 billion) for the first project. However, estimates suggest that, once fully operational, the total investment across the three projects - including direct, indirect, and infrastructure-related components - could exceed €100 billion (£85.88 billion) - an unprecedented level of capital for Southern Italy. The anticipated impacts include thousands of direct and indirect jobs, as well as the creation of new industrial supply chains in the ICT sector, such as AI-as-a-Service and cybersecurity. In a Europe that must accelerate toward strategic autonomy, digital resilience, and decarbonisation, the Puglia Data Center Valley seeks to position itself as an active platform, ready to engage with stakeholders in the global technological transformation.

Data centre district heating project delivered at QMUL

Schneider Electric, a player in energy management and automation, and its EcoXpert Partner, Advanced Power Technology (APT), have delivered a data centre modernisation project at the Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). Together, the companies have created a platform for heat recovery at the University’s data centre, enabling waste heat from the facility to be connected to a campus-wide district heating network, providing heating and hot water for the buildings and student accommodation nearby. The project both reduces the campus' scope one CO2 emissions - in line with Queen Mary’s sustainability goals - and has also allowed it to reduce the costs of its energy bills. Furthermore, the new energy-efficient data centre has provided the university with increased resiliency and processing power for its on-premises, large-scale research and intensive computing applications, helping it to provision for future expansion. Queen Mary University of London is ranked 94th in the world in the 2025-26 edition of the US News and World Report Best Global Universities rankings, and today has over 32,000 students from more than 170  nationalities and 5,700 staff - with nine Nobel Prize winners among its former staff and students. It says it is committed to conducting "world-leading research" and adheres to the principles of sustainable development across all areas of its operational and academic activities. Its vision is to create and oversee the evolution of a large-scale distributed computing infrastructure needed to maintain the UK’s position as a world leader in particle physics. As such, the university is a participant in the Grid for Particle Physics (GridPP) project, a collaborative effort among particle physicists, computer scientists, and engineers to analyse data generated by high-energy physics experiments, such as those conducted at the world-famous Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland. The size, scale, and importance of this work means that the university must operate and maintain a highly-efficient, on-premises data centre - ensuring it meets the technical requirements of existing and future research developments, especially those requiring High Throughput Computing (HTC) applications. Prior to the modernisation project, Queen Mary’s data centre was experiencing reliability, scalability, and availability issues which required manual, on-site interventions to fix. It was also becoming outdated and its operations were, at times, impacted due to a build-up of heat in its server racks from its inefficient cooling systems. Future research computing may also have been hindered due to the data centre’s hosting limitations. The refresh was, therefore, vital to improve and stabilise day-to-day operations. In addition, its proximity to the campus’ district heating network presented an opportunity for a new solution be designed and implemented to bring the data centre in line with the university’s sustainability goals. Schneider Electric’s data centre, power, and cooling solutions were already installed across Queen Mary’s estate, so when it came to the plans to upgrade its operations, the university directly sought help from Schneider Electric’s partner ecosystem. Schneider Electric’s long-standing EcoXpert Partners, Advanced Power Technology (APT), an independent supplier of critical power and cooling systems, was selected to help Queen Mary meet its modernisation and sustainability goals. Key to the strategy was the integration of components including Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Row Data Centre system. It also incorporated APC NetShelter Racks, APC NetBotz environmental monitoring equipment, InRow cooling, and EcoStruxure Data Centre Expert software. The new configuration provided by APT, according to Schneider Electric, delivered a more energy-efficient cooling solution and enabled the heat recovery to support the university’s sustainability strategy – allowing Queen Mary to transfer waste heat and reuse it directly for heating and hot water across various buildings, including student accommodation, via a district heating system. Professor Jonathan Hays, Queen Mary University of London, comments, “The support we've had from APT and Schneider Electric has been unparalleled. Both companies came together to help us develop an exciting and innovative project which would enable us to provision for the future. The biggest impact is that we were able to deliver on what we promised while improving our sustainability. The new data centre is more reliable and efficient than ever and, through the heat recovery, we have significantly reduced our spending on heating and hot water while gaining enhanced reputational benefits from taking a lead on sustainability within our data centre operations.” “The project at Queen Mary demonstrates how digital infrastructure can be a catalyst for net zero, allowing today’s organisations to benefit from the power of advanced computing,” adds Mark Yeeles, Vice President, Secure Power division, Schneider Electric UK & Ireland. “By combining innovative engineering with sustainable data centre solutions, the university has developed an enhanced infrastructure platform that will meet its research computing requirements while supporting its sustainability strategy.” “Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Data Centre solutions were essential to help Queen Mary bring together its power, cooling, racks, and management systems, and support the deployment of its high-density IT equipment needed for its research,” claims John Andrew, Technical Sales Manager, APT. “This approach also created a platform to support its sustainability objectives via heat reuse, while enabling the University to act proactively and preventatively to intercept and remediate potential future issues.” For more from Schneider Electric, click here.

Bitrise first mobile DevOps platform to launch data centre in EU

Bitrise, a mobile DevOps platform, today announced plans to launch a data centre in the Netherlands in a response to increased demand for data residency in the European Union (EU). The new data centre will be the first in the EU operated by a DevOps platform, aiming to provide businesses with a fully-hosted and managed solution to meet the stringent data security and compliance requirements of the region. Bitrise will invest $3 million (£2.2 million) in the project, supporting the anticipated 22% year-on-year growth in European data centre capacity in 2025 as the continent focuses on operational resilience and data sovereignty. “In an era of geopolitical volatility and increasing regulatory complexity, mobile innovation in Europe demands sovereignty, speed, and security,” announces Barnabás Birmacher, CEO and Co-founder of Bitrise. “By launching the first EU-hosted DevOps platform, Bitrise is giving customers total control over their data, ensuring compliance and empowering them to scale development faster and more securely.” This investment in an Amsterdam-based data centre marks a step forwards in enhancing support for EU customers. By replicating the data centre model used in the US, Bitrise intends to deploy the same high-performance Apple M4 and Linux-based infrastructure in Europe, allowing businesses to choose their data residency and meet risk and compliance requirements. This expansion is a direct response to the growing demand from EU-based companies and global brands operating in the region. By strengthening data security and sovereignty, customers should have access to the tools they need to scale development securely and stay competitive in a rapidly changing market. “With data sovereignty becoming a critical priority for European businesses, Bitrise’s move to launch an EU-based data centre couldn’t be more timely," comments Reza Malekzadeh, General Partner at Partech and Bitrise board member. "Bitrise is setting a new standard for DevOps in Europe by giving companies the ability to meet stringent regulatory requirements without compromising on speed or innovation.” Recent regulatory changes and international data transfer challenges have created a complex environment for companies operating across borders. The data centre market in Europe is estimated to grow by $291.7 billion (£214.3 billion) from 2024 to 2028, driven by demand for local data processing and storage solutions. European companies in security-sensitive and regulated industries often rely on cloud providers in the US or spend millions to build their own local infrastructure. This has created a major gap in the market for compliant, hosted solutions. “We recognise the critical need for sovereign hosting solutions for mobile CI/CD infrastructure in the EU,” Barnabás says. “This move not only strengthens our presence in Europe, but underscores our commitment to solving the complex challenges our partners face, allowing them to innovate and scale without compromise.” Bitrise’s Amsterdam data centre will, according to the company, emulate Bitrise’s existing infrastructure model, providing:• Access to the fastest Apple Silicon and Linux machines for iOS and Android.• Advanced physical and network security measures.• Full compliance with EU data protection standards.• High-speed connectivity to ensure rapid build times. The data centre will support all Bitrise products and services, aiming to allow customers to build, test, and automate their applications without source code ever leaving the EU. In contrast to the majority of DevOps providers with US-only hosting capabilities, Bitrise’s expansion, the company claims, creates a DevOps platform that caters to data residency and digital operational resilience requirements. “By filling this gap in the market, we’re addressing a critical need for businesses throughout the EU,” Barnabás continues. “Our ability to quickly deploy and scale infrastructure based on our successful US model allows us to move fast and establish a strong presence in this underserved market.”

InfraPartners launches Advanced Research and Engineering

InfraPartners, a designer and builder of prefabricated AI data centres, today announced the launch of a new research function, InfraPartners Advanced Research and Engineering. Led by recent hire Bal Aujla, previously the Global Head of Innovation Labs at BlackRock, InfraPartners has assembled a team of experts based in Europe and the US to act as a resource for AI innovation in the data centre industry. The function seeks to foster industry collaboration to provide forward-looking insights and thought leadership. AI demand is driving a surge in new global data centre builds, which are projected to triple by 2030. AI-specific infrastructure is expected to drive approximately 70% of this growth. Additionally, regulation, regionalisation, and geopolitical shifts are reshaping infrastructure needs. As a result, operators are looking at new ways to meet these changes with solutions that deliver scale, schedule certainty, and accelerated time-to-value while improving sustainability and avoiding technology obsolescence. InfraPartners Advanced Research and Engineering intends to accelerate data centre innovation by identifying and focusing on the biggest opportunities and challenges of this next wave of AI-driven growth. With plans for Gigawatts (GWs) of data centre builds globally and projected investments reaching nearly $7 trillion (£5.15 trillion), the impact of new innovation will be significant. Through partnerships with industry experts, regulators, and disruptive newcomers, the InfraPartners Advanced Research and Engineering team aims to foster a community where ideas and research can be shared to grow data centre knowledge, capabilities, and opportunities. These efforts will aim to advance the digital infrastructure sector as a whole. “At InfraPartners, our new research function represents the deliberate convergence of expertise from across the AI and data centre ecosystem. We’re bringing together professionals with diverse perspectives and backgrounds in artificial intelligence, data centre architecture, power infrastructure, and capital allocation to address the evolving needs of AI and the significant value it can bring to the world,” says Bal Aujla, Director, Head of Advanced Research and Engineering at InfraPartners. “This integrated team approach enables us to look at opportunities and challenges from end-to-end and across every layer of the stack. We’re no longer approaching digital infrastructure as a siloed engineering challenge. Instead, the new team will focus on the initiatives that have the most impact on transforming data centre architecture and creating business value.” InfraPartners Advanced Research and Engineering says it has developed a new design philosophy that prioritises flexibility, upgradeability, and rapid refresh cycles. Called the 'Upgradeable Data Center,' this design, it claims, future-proofs data centre investments and enables greater resilience and sustainability in a fast-changing digital landscape. “The Upgradeable Data Center reflects the fact data centres must now be built to evolve. In a world where GPU generations shift every 12–18 months and designs change significantly each time, it is no longer viable to build static infrastructure which has decades-long refresh cycles. Our design approach enables operators to deploy the latest GPUs and upgrade data centre infrastructure in a seamless way,” notes Harqs Singh, Chief Technology Officer at InfraPartners. In its first white paper, Data Centers Transforming at the pace of Technology change, the team explores the rapid growth of AI workloads and its impact on digital infrastructure, including the GPU technology roadmap, increasing rack densities, and the implications for the modern data centre. It highlights the economic risks and commercial opportunities emerging from these trends and introduces how the Upgradeable Data Center is seeking to enable new data centres to transform at the pace of technology change. InfraPartners' model is to build 80% of the data centre offsite and 20% onsite, helping address key industry challenges like skilled labour shortages and power constraints, whilst aligning infrastructure investment with business agility and long-term growth.