An excerpt from, "China drafts $295 billion plan to build national AI data center grid running on 80% homemade silicon — projected 2028 timeline could run into limits of local chip production" By Luke James, tom's Hardware, June 10, 2026:
China is drafting a plan to spend roughly 2 trillion yuan ($295 billion) over five years on a nationwide web of AI data centers. The goal is for at least 80% of the underlying technology, AI chips included, to be sourced from domestic suppliers such as Huawei, according to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the discussions.
An excerpt from, "How China is powering new data centers with clean energy" By Adele Peters, Fast Company, July 24, 2026:
Data centers are a key part of China’s broader plan. By one estimate, China will more than double the amount of electricity it uses at data centers by 2030. Another estimate suggests the sector’s energy use could triple to as much as 600 terawatt-hours—more than the whole country of Germany uses now.
Still, it will be a small fraction of China’s overall electricity demand, which is dominated by factories. And because China has been quickly building clean energy for industry for years, it’s in a good position to quickly build more. Compare that to the U.S., where electricity demand has been flat for decades, and the sudden demand from AI is a shock to the grid.
"I do think this is an area where China has an edge,” Chan says. “Not to have too hokey of an analogy here, but on building out new power capacity, China has been working out every year for decades, for reasons not related to AI. The U.S. hasn’t gone to the gym in this space in a while.”
There are still challenges. As in other parts of the world, it’s hard to predict exactly how much demand there will be from data centers, and building new transmission lines and other capacity comes with some risk. New data centers built in more remote areas near wind and solar farms can’t serve all AI workloads; the Chinese government is currently looking at which workloads are less time-sensitive and can be handled farther away from cities. Cities can access offshore wind and some nuclear energy, though the bulk of new clean power is being built farther away from the most populated areas.
An excerpt from, "What is an AI data center?" By Alexandra Jonker and Alice Gomstyn, IBM.com:
Meanwhile, the data center industry has grown to fit demand. Data center infrastructure around the globe is increasingly AI-ready, capable of processing high volumes of complicated computations and requests. Currently, the Asian Pacific and North American regions have the highest proliferation of data centers, particularly in areas such as Beijing, Shanghai, northern Virginia and the San Francisco Bay area.
Substantial investments from big tech have also signaled growth for the AI data center sector. In 2025, Microsoft plans to invest approximately USD 80 billion on data center construction and Meta is investing USD 10 billion in a new, four million-square-foot hyperscale data center development in the US state of Louisiana.
. . .The high computational power, advanced networking and vast storage systems in AI data centers require massive amounts of electrical power and advanced cooling systems to avoid outages, downtime and overload. Goldman Sachs anticipates that AI will drive a 165% increase in data center electricity demand by 2030. And McKinsey’s analysis suggests that the annual global demand for data center capacity might reach 171 to 219 gigawatts (GW). The current demand is 60 GW.
To meet these intense energy consumption and cooling requirements, some AI data centers employ a high-density setup. This strategy maximizes data center square footage with compact server configurations that perform better, are more energy efficient and contain advanced cooling systems.
For example, liquid cooling often uses water rather than air cooling to transfer and dissipate heat. It offers greater efficiency in handling high-density heat and improved power usage effectiveness (PuE)—a metric used to measure data center energy efficiency. Another cooling method, hot and/or cold aisle cooling containment, organizes server racks to optimize airflow and minimize the mixing of hot and cold air.
Given these significant power requirements, today’s organizations often seek a balance between their AI ambitions and sustainability goals. One impressive example comes from Apple, one of the world’s largest owners of hyperscale data centers. Since 2014, all of Apple’s data centers have run completely on renewable energy through various combinations of biogas fuel cells, hydropower, solar power and wind power.
An excerpt from, "Mexico’s data center market: global trends, supercharged" ABB.com, February 23, 2026:
Mexico is becoming one of Latin America's most dynamic data center hubs. What’s happening here is a powerful snapshot of global trends—hyperscaler expansion, skyrocketing cloud adoption, and the relentless rise of AI—all converging in a single market.
With its strategic location bridging North, Central, and South America, Mexico has emerged as a natural digital corridor for the region. The country now ranks second in Latin America for both total data center capacity and square meters of built space, trailing only Brazil.
An excerpt from, "Alberta eyes data centre dominance with five-year investment target" by Peter Mitham, Western Investor, July 24, 2026:
Alberta is the dominant destination for data centre development in Canada, according to figures published in a report earlier this month by researchers Alexander Carlo and Lyndsey Rolheiser of the Schulich School of Business at York University.
While British Columbia leads the West in the number of active data centres at 27, Alberta has 167 data centres proposed versus the 20 active today. Alberta’s outsized share of active and proposed projects is underscored by neighbouring Saskatchewan, where the sum of active and proposed projects is 12, while in Manitoba, the tally is four.
The paper from York University notes that Alberta has succeeded in attracting fresh investment by actively removing the guardrails other jurisdictions have put in place. While the state of New York recently embraced a one-year moratorium on large (hyperscale) data centres and B.C. aims to restrict grid access, Alberta has an active, government-led investment strategy that aims to secure $100 billion in private investment over five years.
