Weekly Data Centre News - 05/06/2026
Weekly Update! This week’s update comes after a busy few days at Datacloud Cannes, where it felt like the entire data centre industry had descended on the French Riviera for a week of meetings, networking, deal-making, and discussion. I made it back to the UK last night, and while I’m still catching up on sleep, the overwhelming feeling from the event was one of optimism. The scale of ambition across the sector is remarkable right now, and everywhere you turned there were conversations about AI, power, investment, new developments, and the opportunities ahead.
Personally, it was a packed week of recording podcasts, speaking on panels, walking countless miles up and down La Croisette, attending more networking events than I can remember, and having conversations with people from every corner of the industry. One of the highlights was meeting so many readers of this newsletter. It’s always great to hear that people find it valuable, and I received some excellent feedback and ideas on how we can make it even better.
A huge congratulations to the Datacloud - a techoraco brand team for delivering another fantastic event. Bringing together so many people from across the industry is no easy task, but once again they knocked it out of the park. Now, after a week of sunshine (and some rain), networking, and data centre discussions, it’s back to reality, and catching up on everything that happened while we were all in Cannes....
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Reports
Google’s water stewardship commitments for local communities. Read here.
Europe
Polar Announces Landmark €800 Million Nordic Bond Issue to Accelerate European AI Infrastructure Expansion. Read here.
Submer launches Rubix Data Centers, claims platform has 8GW powered land portfolio. Read here.
Blue, yellow and green: Google invests in its new data center in Sweden. Read here.
atNorth expands to Norway with new mega site in Haugaland. Read here.
BW Group signs deal to build 250MW data center in Telemark County, Norway. Read here.
SoftBank Group to Build 5 GW of AI Data Center Capacity in France. Read here.
Brookfield ups French data center investment by €10 billion. Read here.
Ardian and Verne announce digital infrastructure hub in Île-de-France to support European industrial capabilities at Choose France. Read here.
Pure DC completes Europe’s first large-scale cross-border biomethane purchase for a data centre. Read here.
Joint venture launched in Italy to invest €1bn in renewable data centers. Read here.
Arcem buys land in Joroinen, Finland, for 500MW data center campus. Read here.
UK data center developer Era4 is planning to deploy capacity at a landfill site in Canterbury. Read here.
McLaren wins £1bn Corscale data centre campus near M25. Read here.
ILI files to develop 600MW Stoic data center in Fife, Scotland. Read here.
New £2bn Borders data centre aims to harness wasted wind power. Read here.
Campaigners oppose £2bn rural data centre ‘monster’ (Scotland). Read here.
AI data centre plans on outskirts of Canterbury would be powered by landfill site and solar panels and use ‘minimal water’. Read here.
New 12MW data centre to be built near M4. Read here.
Giga-scale Swiss data centre project will be ‘world-first’ in carving out niche for flow batteries, Invinity says. Read here.
Middle East & Africa
Damac Digital plans 6GW data center expansion across four continents. Read here.
Asprofin Bank unveils $12bn proposal for data centers in UAE. Read here.
APAC
Billionaire Robin Khuda’s AirTrunk To Invest $21 Billion In Data Center Project Near Mumbai. Read here.
Iren targets Australia for 800MW data center campus. Read here.
Stockland files to develop another data center in Melbourne, Australia. Read here.
Samsung to develop floating data centers with international partners. Read here.
BDx Data Centers secures 1.2GW power commitment in Indonesia. Read here.
Chinese Firm Seeks $2.6 Billion Loan for Hong Kong Data Center. Read here.
North America
Microsoft, Meta signal new priorities as AI buildout accelerates beyond historic growth levels. Read here.
Google’s parent company Alphabet seeks $80 billion for AI build out. Read here.
Data Center Developer Switch in Talks to Raise Billions at $50 Billion-Plus Valuation. Read here.
Google and Intersect are announcing construction of the Meitner Energy Center, which includes a new data center co-located with new energy generation in Gray and Roberts Counties, Texas. Read here.
Yondr secures dual financings to accelerate hyperscale expansion across Europe and North America. Read here.
Bergen Engines signs approximately 750MW U.S. power agreement with Crusoe for AI data centres. Read here.
Amazon plans nine-building data center campus in Wheatfield, Indiana. Read here.
America’s Data-Center Build-Out Is Falling Way Behind Schedule. Read here.
$670bn of planned US data centres face major storm risk. Read here.
Microsoft files to expand data center campus in Mecklenburg County, Virginia. Read here.
Duke starts construction on data center near Central Campus. Read here.
EdgeConneX files to build two 730,000 sq ft data centers in Bastrop County, Texas. Read here.
Kevin O’Leary agrees to downsize massive Utah data center. Read here.
Property developer Eagle Rock has proposed the construction of a 1GW data center in Christian County, Illinois. Read here.
2,000-acre land parcel rezoned for data center use in Mason County, Kentucky. Read here.
Tract’s 430-acre data center rejected by local officials in Hanover County, Virginia. Read here.
Core42 expands AI cluster by 42MW in Buffalo, New York. Read here.
Other interesting articles
Microsoft CEO says new AI data centers use as little water annually as a restaurant. Read here.
Inside the AI Boom’s Arctic Outpost. Read here.
AI to double data centre power and water consumption by 2030, UN researchers say. Read here.
Why the CEO of this $15 billion data center builder wants his data centers to look like museums. Read here.
France’s €110bn AI boom tests Emmanuel Macron’s tech ambitions. Read here.
Factors shaping data centre development in Asia Pacific. Read here.
Nvidia takes AI battle from the data centre to the laptop. Read here.
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Have a great week.