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DataCenter Dispatch

Data Center Intelligence - Weekly Roundup (Nov 24-30)

Data Center Intelligence - Weekly Roundup (Nov 24-30)
Photo by Toa Heftiba / Unsplash

December 3, 2025

The data center world did not drift into the holiday week quietly. Capital is still pouring in, campuses are getting larger and more power hungry, and regulators are waking up faster than many developers would like. Below is a curated sweep of what actually mattered last week, with a lens on what it means for strategy and planning.

Capital flows, consolidation, and new service models

Apollo closes Stream Data Centers deal
Apollo funds completed their acquisition of Stream Data Centers, and they are very explicit about the thesis. They see several trillion dollars of digital infrastructure spend over the next decade and want a platform that can move at multi gigawatt scale. Stream now has a private equity owner that expects rapid growth, not steady coupon clipping. Expect more aggressive greenfield and campus expansion out of this platform. Apollo Global Management, Inc.

Blackstone leans into securitization for QTS
Blackstone refinanced ten QTS data centers through a three point five billion dollar commercial mortgage backed security. It is the largest data center securitization of the year, and it signals that public debt markets remain very comfortable with this asset class even as power debate heats up. For operators this is another reminder that scale portfolios with stable leases can still attract cheap capital, even if construction financing is getting harder. CRE Daily

Marvell buys Celestial AI to own more of the AI stack
On the vendor side, Marvell agreed to acquire Celestial AI for about three point two five billion dollars. Celestial brings photonic interconnect technology that targets one of the real pain points in large AI clusters, namely data movement inside and between racks. This is less about one product and more about who will control the connective tissue of AI data center architectures over the next five years. Wall Street Journal

Financial markets reward power as a service for AI
Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Solaris Energy Infrastructure with a bullish view that is almost entirely tied to AI data centers. Solaris is building on site generation for campuses where the grid queue is too slow. They already operate several hundred megawatts and plan to nearly triple that by 2028. The takeaway is simple. Capital markets are now willing to back new power models tied directly to AI campus demand, not just the real estate around it. Investors

Japan sees one of its first hyperscale asset sales
In Japan, a hyperscale asset in Inzai was sold to a Singapore listed data center REIT. The site is fully leased to a global cloud customer and is being treated as a reference transaction for future large single asset sales in the country. This is another step in the maturation of the Japanese market from developer led build to a mix of developers, sovereign capital, and listed yield vehicles. Greenberg Traurig

2. Future expansion

Land, campuses, and where the next wave is going

Amazon adds another anchor in Indiana
Amazon announced plans to invest fifteen billion dollars in new data center campuses in northern Indiana. The project is expected to deliver around two point four gigawatts of capacity and create more than one thousand direct jobs, supported by a long term energy agreement with regional utility NIPSCO that is framed as delivering about one billion dollars in customer savings over fifteen years. For the industry this is another reminder that AI scale projects are now being paired with explicit rate impact narratives. About Amazon

CleanArc commits three billion dollars to Virginia campus
Virginia reinforced its status as a global hub with CleanArc choosing Caroline County for a three billion dollar campus. The governor is calling it the largest investment in the county’s history. The message to competitors is that Virginia still has room outside the most constrained zones, and second ring counties are ready to trade zoning risk for tax base and jobs. Virginia Governor's Office

Amazon plans three billion dollar campus in Mississippi
Amazon also announced at least three billion dollars of investment for a new campus in Warren County Mississippi to support AI and cloud workloads. Along with a couple hundred direct jobs, the company is leaning on broader local employment impact and is clearly trying to position this as part of a more balanced national buildout rather than piling everything into the usual suspects. About Amazon

Gas and nuclear backed growth in Pennsylvania
BloombergNEF data highlighted by Axios shows Pennsylvania added around two point four gigawatts of data center capacity from March 2024 to March 2025, with more on the way. Amazon alone plans about twenty billion dollars of investment across two campuses in Bucks and Luzerne counties, including one near an existing nuclear plant. The state is becoming a case study in how gas, nuclear, and generous policy incentives can combine to create a new corridor for AI capacity outside Virginia. Axios

New Mexico targeted for seven gigawatt AI hub
A feature in High Country News unpacked New Era Energy and Digital, which has an option on roughly three thousand five hundred acres in Lea County New Mexico for a planned seven gigawatt AI hub. The site sits in the middle of the Permian Basin, linking AI demand directly to oil and gas regions. The project is still early, but it shows how far developers are willing to go geographically to find land and power at scale. High Country News

3. Green energy and environmental angle

How power, carbon, and community risk are evolving

Google and TotalEnergies sign long term solar deal in Ohio
Google signed a fifteen year agreement with TotalEnergies for around one point five terawatt hours of renewable power from the Montpelier solar project in Ohio. The output will support Google data center operations on the PJM grid. The structure fits the pattern we are seeing from hyperscalers now, which is long term offtake from very large single projects tied to specific campus clusters rather than smaller scattered contracts. TotalEnergies.com+1

Think tank argues data center load is a solvable challenge
A report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation pushed back on the idea that data centers automatically cause an energy crisis. The author argues that while power demand will increase sharply, policy and grid planning can treat data centers as predictable loads that can actually support better investment in generation and transmission, rather than destabilize it. This framing will likely be used by industry advocates in coming legislative sessions. ITIF

Grid strain is real, but AI can also help run the grid
Utility Dive highlighted the tension many of us are already modeling. AI data centers are driving electricity demand faster than the grid can expand, yet AI tools are also being used by utilities to forecast load, balance supply, and speed restoration after outages. The piece reinforces a core strategic question for operators. Are you only a large customer, or are you a partner that helps utilities operate a more flexible system. Utility Dive

How much of the AI boom will actually be green
TechCrunch drew on new International Energy Agency data that expects about five hundred eighty billion dollars of data center spending this year, which actually exceeds global spending on new oil exploration. The open question is how much of that capacity will be powered by renewables versus gas or coal. For operators, it is a reminder that long term credibility on sustainability will depend on more than glossy targets. Contract structure and location choices will tell the real story. TechCrunch

Investors wrestle with sustainability tradeoffs
Credaily covered concerns from sustainable investors who see data centers as both attractive and problematic. On one hand, the sector is drawing major investors with long term contracted cash flows. On the other, rising energy use and emissions are challenging simple environmental narratives. Limited partners are beginning to ask whether their capital is supporting responsible grid investment or locking in high carbon load. CRE Daily

4. Government policy and community response

Incentives, oversight, and emerging pushback

Virginia watchdog shows tax incentives now dominated by data centers
A report from Virginia’s legislative audit agency and follow on coverage noted that more than half of the state’s economic development incentives over the past decade have gone to data centers. In fiscal 2024, the main data center tax exemption accounted for nearly eighty percent of all incentive spending. The program currently runs until 2035. For anyone planning long term builds in the state, this raises the prospect of future reforms or caps once lawmakers fully absorb the scale of foregone revenue. Axios+1

Most states still fail to disclose which firms get data center subsidies
A Good Jobs First report called out that at least thirty six states now offer data center specific subsidies, but only eleven clearly disclose which companies receive them. The same states are often much more transparent for other industries. This lack of disclosure is turning into a political story, not just a bureaucratic detail, and will feed community skepticism when new projects are announced. Good Jobs First

Policy trackers flag data centers as a top trend for 2026 sessions
MultiState noted that lawmakers across all fifty states considered more than two hundred data center related bills during 2025, with over forty becoming law in twenty one states. Topics range from energy and tax treatment to zoning and connectivity. The signal for operators is clear. The era of low profile by right development is over. Expect more bespoke conditions and reporting obligations tied to approvals. MultiState

Michigan regulators weigh special contract for one point four gigawatt campus
In Michigan, DTE is asking regulators to approve special electric service contracts for a planned one point four gigawatt data center in Saline Township. The deal has triggered public hearings and broader concerns about local water use and rate impacts, and it is now bleeding into the governor race, where at least one candidate has promised to block projects that raise energy costs or rely heavily on local water. Developers should treat this as another example of how quickly individual projects can become statewide political symbols. Planet Detroit+1

National conversation shifts to transparency and rate impact
A Stateline piece stitched together the broader pattern. Many states now have generous data center incentives, but only a minority are clear about which firms benefit, and lawmakers are starting to voice fears that AI focused campuses will push power bills higher for residents. This is pushing regulators to demand more from utilities and cloud companies in terms of cost sharing on grid upgrades and infrastructure. Stateline

Strategic takeaways for the week

If you're involved in planning, financing, or regulating data centers these days, there are a few key trends that stood out from the past week. First off, while there's still plenty of capital available, it’s becoming a bit more conditional. Both debt markets and private equity funds are keen to invest, but the deals that actually get done are often linked to larger platforms and solid plans for multi-site portfolios.

Next, the geography of campuses is expanding. States like Indiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania are getting more involved, each with their own unique blend of resources, policies, and community stories. Sure, tier-one markets are still important, but growth is increasingly happening in areas that can genuinely guarantee power and the necessary permits.

Then there’s the energy discussion, which is shifting from whether to how. With long-term renewable contracts, builds backed by gas and nuclear, and new on-site generation models, the real question for boards isn’t whether they can get through the next connection queue, it’s about what energy narrative they want to embrace over the next decade.

Lastly, policy risk has become a significant concern. The pace of change regarding incentive scrutiny, transparency regulations, and special contracts is picking up. Teams that approach policy as just a checkbox during site selection are likely to fall behind. A more strategic approach would be to view regulators and local communities as long-term partners, ensuring that projects can weather not just the next election cycle but also the next round of media coverage.

Further Reading From Infra Ledger

If you want to explore these themes in more depth, here are several related pieces you may find useful:

“Content is based on public information and personal analysis. Not financial or investment advice.”

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