Top 10: Innovative Data Centre Build Projects of the Year

The world’s most innovative data centre builds of the year showcase more than scale and speed – they demonstrate vision. 

Pioneering sustainability, energy reuse and AI-centric design, these projects show how global operators are reimagining the foundations of digital infrastructure. 

From Europe’s timber-powered expansions to hyperscale campuses driving multi-gigawatt capacity, each development signals an evolution toward greener, smarter and more adaptable facilities. 

Tapping into local energy sources, advanced thermal management and circular construction methods, these builds echo a wider industry shift – where efficiency, resilience and responsibility are as vital as raw power.

10: Naver Cloud Ring Data Centres

• Location: South Korea
• Company/Companies involved: Naver Corporation
• Standout components: Fully circular data ring design, AI-driven cooling optimisation, modular scalability

South Korea’s Naver Cloud Ring redefines architectural efficiency with a circular design that enhances airflow and scales effortlessly. AI technologies adapt cooling to server load in real-time, while modular build phases ensure rapid capacity growth. 

The facility leverages the natural landscape for synergy from the surrounding nature, striving for increased efficiency and sustainability. This reinforces Naver’s strategy as a technological innovator in Asia’s hyperscale scene.

9: HiCloud

• Location: China
• Company/Companies involved: HiCloud
• Standout components: Immersion liquid cooling, edge integration, renewable power mix

HiCloud, a data centre project in China, is a next-generation wind-powered underwater data centre which connects servers directly to an offshore wind farm with plans to grow subsea deployments to 500MW. HiCloud will offer 2.3MW of data centre space off the cost of Shanghai. The underwater data centre is the first stage of the firm's plan to power the innovative data centres with offshore wind.

8: Equinix Deep Lake-Cooled DC

• Location: Ontario, Canada
• Company/Companies involved: Equinix
• Standout components: Deep lake cooling system, carbon-neutral operation, scalable regional hubs

Equinix’s Canadian Deep Lake-Cooled Data Centre harnesses cold water from nearby lakes to regulate temperatures with minimal energy input. This natural-cooling model supports regional sustainability initiatives to help support the companies ‘Green by Design’ goal to meet climate neutrality by 2030. As demand for greener colocation facilities grows, this project demonstrates how natural resources can become integral to data centre innovation and environmental strategy.

7: Yajiang-1

• Location: Tibet Autonomous Region, China
• Company/Companies involved: Tibet Cloud Computing Centre & partners
• Standout components: High-altitude efficiency, hydroelectric energy sourcing, resilient cooling design

Sitting at 3,600 metres, Yajiang-1 thrives in Tibet’s cold, dry air which is the perfect condition for natural cooling. Powered predominantly by a combination of solar energy and hydropower, the project exemplifies how geography can drive sustainability and reliability in infrastructure. Designed for cloud AI and big data analytics, Yajiang-1 balances remote deployment with world-class performance efficiency.

6: Sines Campus Portugal

• Location: Sines, Portugal
• Company/Companies involved: Start Campus
• Standout components: 495MW hyperscale capacity, 100% renewable energy, sustainable sea-air cooling

The Sines Start Campus stands as one of Europe’s most ambitious digital infrastructure builds, bringing hyperscale innovation to Portugal’s coastal region. As a sustainable 1.2GW hyperscale site, Sines is powered by 100% renewable energy and combines an efficient sea-air cooling system while leveraging strategic subsea cable access. 

Once complete, the campus will anchor Portugal as a critical European data hub with the first site currently in operation and further campuses planned up to 2030.

5: EcoDataCenter Timber Expansion

• Location: Falun, Sweden
• Company/Companies involved: EcoDataCenter, Falu Energi & Vatten
• Standout components: Timber-built superstructure, renewable district heating reuse, low-carbon materials

EcoDataCenter’s timber expansion is a unique development of architecture and sustainability – constructed primarily from locally sourced wood and is powered by 100% renewable energy, making it one of the lowest-carbon builds in Scandinavia. 

Waste heat warms surrounding residential areas, while lifecycle emissions are significantly reduced. The project underscores EcoDataCenter’s commitment to redefining the environmental standard for high-capacity computing.

4: atNorth’s Heat Reuse Projects

• Location: Nordic region (Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark)
• Company/Companies involved: atNorth
• Standout components: Large-scale heat recovery infrastructure, renewable power integration, urban energy circularity

atNorth’s innovative heat reuse projects capture and redirect waste heat into district heating networks of local communities, greenhouses and commercial buildings. 

Leveraging fully renewable power across Iceland and northern Europe, the system demonstrates how data calculations can fuel sustainable energy loops. These developments transform data centres from pure consumers into contributors to community energy ecosystems – showcasing the next phase of circular digital infrastructure.

3: Meta’s 2GW Campus

• Location: Richland Parish, Louisiana
• Company/Companies involved: Meta
• Standout components: 2GW renewable capacity, liquid-cooled AI infrastructure, carbon-positive operations

Meta’s Louisiana campus pushes the limits of hyperscale design, powered entirely by renewable sources. Supporting its AI-driven platforms, the 2GW capacity underlines Meta’s data resilience ambitions across global operations. 

Utility company Entergy Louisiana will support the campus by providing the energy, including building three new combined-cycle combustion turbines and transmission infrastructure once approved. This campus marks one of many large-scale AI data centres being developed by Meta.

2: Microsoft Fairwater AI Data Centre

• Location: Atlanta, Georgia
• Company/Companies involved: Microsoft, Nvidia
• Standout components: AI-optimised campus, substation-scale grid integration, advanced water stewardship systems

Microsoft’s Fairwater facility began operation in October 2025 and stands at the front of the green digital infrastructure wave. Built for AI training, Fairwater sites located across different states are able to work together as a super AI factory. The Atlanta facility has 140kW racks – with rows consuming 1,360kW –  liquid cooling and a two-storey design to reduce latency for Nvidia GP.

The new campus has been developed as a home for many Nvidia GB200 and GB300 graphics processing units in a single flat network architecture. As part of Microsoft’s wider AI infrastructure investment, this signals a strategic and sustainable US expansion in AI compute capacity.

1: OpenAI & Oracle’s Stargate

• Location: Global
• Company/Companies involved: OpenAI, Oracle
• Standout components: 4.5GW AI supercluster, Nvidia GPU integration, integrated green energy microgrids

Dubbed Stargate, the OpenAI-led partnership with Oracle, SoftBank and MGX represents one of the most ambitious AI infrastructure buildouts in history. Oracle is developing approximately 4.5GW of data centre capacity across multiple U.S. sites – including Texas, New Mexico and Ohio – designed to host massive Nvidia GPU arrays already coming online. 

The distributed network will eventually incorporate solar installations, battery storage and planned small modular nuclear reactors, though near-term operations rely substantially on conventional power sources. The project marks a pivotal moment in hyperscale computing, reshaping the infrastructure backbone of advanced AI systems.