NJFX Advances High-Density AI Hall Development in New Jersey

NJFX has completed the Basis of Design for a planned 10MW high-density AI data hall at its cable landing station campus in Wall, New Jersey. 

The design phase follows the execution of an electric utility load letter backed by a US$3m deposit, targeting power delivery by the end of 2026.

The hall will deliver an expected PUE of 1.25 and 8MW of usable IT load.

Scott M. Davis, PE, Partner at Bala Consulting Engineers, says: “Bala was retained in 2015 to design and commission a master plan for a Tier III compliant data centre with concurrent maintainability that NJFX needed for future growth. 

“Over the past decade, we've continued to engineer and commission key infrastructure – including dedicated 2N generators, battery systems, and distribution for cable station environments. 

“We are completing the NJFX Master Plan with a dedicated high-density Tier III AI data hall featuring N+1 architecture and UPS-backed mechanical systems capable of supporting dynamic AI server clusters.”

Engineering a liquid-to-the-chip environment

The new build, internally referred to as Project Cool Water, is designed around liquid-cooled high-density compute.

Its N+1 electrical distribution will provide UPS protection for both electrical and mechanical loads, reflecting the power stability required for AI clusters that draw consistent high wattage.

Cooling design incorporates AFC chillers, CDUs, hot-aisle containment and a fan-wall arrangement sized for modern GPU heat profiles. 

The hall will be the first purpose-built AI-ready environment within a North American cable landing station campus to offer liquid-to-the-chip infrastructure as standard.

The development sits within NJFX’s 10-acre campus, which directly hosts four subsea cables with routes to Europe and South America. 

The location, within seven milliseconds of more than 100 million US residents, provides an interconnection point suited to inference workloads and latency-sensitive services. 

More than 35 network operators already interconnect on-site, benefitting from route diversity and terrestrial paths entering through independent Points of Entry.

Supporting AI growth at a subsea gateway

Gil Santaliz, Founder and CEO of NJFX, says: “The vision for NJFX has always been to support US critical infrastructure with purpose-built assets that matter to our global economy. 

“In partnership with Tata Communications, we acquired the property in 2015, and in 2022 we purchased bore pipes from SubCom in Manasquan and Avon to support additional subsea landings in New Jersey. 

“This new design ensures that subsea cables and global network carriers can continue to scale – now with an advanced data hall engineered for the AI era. Our technical and security teams, working with federal, state, and local partners, remain committed to supporting the critical infrastructure of the United States.”

The hall is intended to serve organisations operating AI inference and training systems that require consistent high-density rack power and diverse network ingress and egress. 

Its integration within a landing station setting allows compute workloads to sit close to transatlantic routes, reducing dependence on inland backhaul and simplifying multi-continent traffic flows.

Power upgrades for next-generation capacity

To accommodate the new data hall and further campus expansion, NJFX has secured additional power allocation from the utility substation located directly on its site. 

This includes a new transformer that will supply the 10MW AI hall while improving redundancy for the surrounding county.

Ryan Imkemeier, VP of Operations at NJFX, says: “To support NJFX's next-generation environment, we secured additional power capacity through the utility substation located directly on our campus. 

“The new transformer will not only supply the 10MW AI hall – it will enhance electrical redundancy for Monmouth County as a whole. This investment demonstrates our long-term commitment to reliability, scalability, and regional resiliency.”

A maturing landing station campus

NJFX has spent more than a decade developing its campus into a combined cable landing station and Tier III data centre environment. 

Its mix of subsea systems and diverse terrestrial routes has positioned the site as an interconnection location for carriers, hyperscalers, financial institutions and global enterprises.

As the Basis of Design reaches completion, NJFX prepares to move the data hall into the next stage of development, aiming to bring high-density AI capacity online once utility power delivery is complete in 2026.