Glossary
Data center
A building or campus housing servers, storage, and networking equipment, along with the power and cooling they need.
A data center is a facility full of computers. AI data centers contain dense racks of GPUs or other AI chips, which use far more electricity and produce far more heat per rack than traditional servers, so they need large power connections and advanced cooling.
Data center projects are often announced by their planned power capacity, in megawatts or gigawatts, and their cost. Those numbers usually describe a full build-out that may take years and depend on permits, equipment, and a grid connection.
An announced campus is not an operating one. Look for whether construction has started, whether power has been secured, and when the first phase is due.
Read more: our explainer
See also
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