Schneider’s Motivair launches new CDUs

Schneider Electric’s Motivair unit has launched a new range of cooling distribution units (CDUs) for liquid cooling.

The company said the two new models are the company’s first purpose-built CDUs for optimized installation in utility corridors, offering data center operators “enhanced flexibility, performance, and integration across a wider range of deployments.”

The new CDUs, the MCDU-45 and MCDU-55, are now available globally, with production ramping up in early 2026. The MCDU-55 offers 2.7MW of cooling capacity.

The MCDU-45 and MCDU-55 are the first new products Motivair has launched since the firm was acquired by Schneider in February 2025. First announced in October 2024, Schneider acquired 75 percent of the firm for a reported $850 million, with the option to buy the remainder by 2028.

“Motivair is a trusted partner for advanced liquid cooling solutions, and our new range of technologies enables data center operators to navigate the AI era with confidence,” said Rich Whitmore, CEO of Motivair. “Together with Schneider Electric, our goal is to deliver next-generation cooling solutions that adapt to any HPC, AI, or advanced data center deployment to deliver seamless scalability, performance, and reliability when it matters most.”

Motivair is based in Buffalo, New York, and produces units that pump coolant at a high pressure close to chips to cool the servers efficiently. Its products include cold plates, chillers, in-rack manifolds, hoses and cooling loops, and heat exchangers and dissipation units.

CloudCIX and AlloComp deploy Nvidia supercomputer in Cork, Ireland

Cloud computing provider CloudCIX and AI infrastructure company AlloComp have deployed a liquid-cooled Nvidia cluster in Cork, Ireland.

Housed at CloudCIX's data center in Cork, the supercomputer is Nvidia HGX-based with Nvidia Blackwell chips.

The system has already been deployed, and is expected to go live in the coming weeks.

The HGX offering integrates eight B200 chips with high-speed interconnects. According to AlloComp, the system stands around 2.5m tall and weighs almost a ton.

The cluster is an upgrade to the previous Boole supercomputer, and according to the companies, it is the first liquid-cooled Blackwell cluster in Europe.

AlloCloud is CloudCIX's infrastructure partner, and assisted with the system selection, supply coordination, and technical deployment.

CloudCIX - also known as the Cork Internet Exchange - launched its Cork data center in 2011. The company describes itself as a public cloud based on the OpenStack cloud computing platform.

Itochu and Castrol sign MoU for liquid cooling in Japan

Japanese conglomerate Itochu has signed a memorandum of understanding with Castrol around liquid cooling.

Itochu Corporation – one of Japan’s largest trading powerhouses – and its system integrator subsidiary Itochu Techno-Solutions (CTC) have signed an MoU with Castrol to accelerate the adoption of liquid cooling for data centers in Japan.

Under the MoU, Castrol will provide data center cooling fluids and related technical services, Itochu will support market development, commercial pathways, and supply from an energy-centered standpoint, and Itochu Techno-Solutions Corporation will deliver end-to-end solutions spanning design, implementation, and operations.

Originally founded in 1858 as a textiles company, the modern Itochu was formed in 1946 and today operates in textiles, machinery, metals, chemicals, foodstuffs, and IT.

Itochu Techno-Solutions was founded in 1979 as Hamilton/Avnet Electronics Japan Limited, Itochu took over the company in 1985 and took the firm fully private in 2023. Today Techno-Solutions offers network, software, and data center services, and is the main IT partner for the Itochu parent and its other subsidiaries.

On its website, Techno-Solutions has previously said it operates six data centers across Japan in Yokohama (x3), Kobe, Shibuya, and Mejirozaka. It is likely leasing space in most of these after selling five data centers to Stonepeak’s Digital Edge in 2021.

Itochu and Castrol sign MoU for liquid cooling in Japan

Japanese conglomerate Itochu has signed a memorandum of understanding with Castrol around liquid cooling.

Itochu Corporation – one of Japan’s largest trading powerhouses – and its system integrator subsidiary Itochu Techno-Solutions (CTC) have signed an MoU with Castrol to accelerate the adoption of liquid cooling for data centers in Japan.

Under the MoU, Castrol will provide data center cooling fluids and related technical services, Itochu will support market development, commercial pathways, and supply from an energy-centered standpoint, and Itochu Techno-Solutions Corporation will deliver end-to-end solutions spanning design, implementation, and operations.

Originally founded in 1858 as a textiles company, the modern Itochu was formed in 1946 and today operates in textiles, machinery, metals, chemicals, foodstuffs, and IT.

Itochu Techno-Solutions was founded in 1979 as Hamilton/Avnet Electronics Japan Limited, Itochu took over the company in 1985 and took the firm fully private in 2023. Today Techno-Solutions offers network, software, and data center services, and is the main IT partner for the Itochu parent and its other subsidiaries.

On its website, Techno-Solutions has previously said it operates six data centers across Japan in Yokohama (x3), Kobe, Shibuya, and Mejirozaka. It is likely leasing space in most of these after selling five data centers to Stonepeak’s Digital Edge in 2021.

Vantage breaks ground on Texas gigawatt data center campus for OpenAI

Vantage has broken ground on a new data center campus in Texas set to host hardware for OpenAI.

At full build-out, the 1,200-acre campus will host 10 single-story data centers, totaling 1.4GW across some 3.7 million sq ft (343,740 sqm). The air- and liquid-cooled site will reportedly offer densities of more than 250kW per rack. Each building will have three meet-me rooms.

The first building is due to go live in the second half of 2026.

Shackleford County is some 125 miles west of Fort Worth, close to Abilene, where Crusoe is developing a large campus for Oracle and OpenAI. Albany, the biggest city in the county, is located some 35 miles northeast of Abilene.

News that Vantage was targeting a large campus in Texas surfaced in July, with the company acknowledging but not revealing more details. The company officially announced plans for the “Frontier” site in August, saying investment in the campus will total more than $25 billion. OpenAI and Oracle were officially tied to the site in October as part of a slew of new Stargate announcements in the US.

DigitalBridge and Silver Lake-backed Vantage operates or is developing data centers across the US, including in Ohio, Georgia, Texas, California, Virginia, Arizona, Indiana, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Washington. Vantage doesn’t currently operate any facilities in Texas, though it has previously filed to develop sites in San Antonio.

Vantage is also developing a Stargate site in Wisconsin.

Carbon3.ai to deploy Nvidia Blackwell Ultra clusters at data centers in the UK

Carbon3.ai has signed an agreement to deploy Nvidia Blackwell Ultra AI infrastructure with HPE's direct liquid-cooled servers at its data centers in the UK.

Revealed on December 17, the company will deploy HPE ProLiant Compute XD685 servers with Nvidia Blackwell Ultra chips across a "nationwide network of data centers.“

The systems will be hosted within an HPE AI Mod POD, a modular data center solution that can be placed in a variety of locations and is already fitted with HPE cooling solutions.

The clusters are connected with Nvidia Spectrum-X and Nvidia BlueField-3. In addition, Carbon3.ai claims that using liquid cooling enables it to reduce the energy usage of the deployment by up to 30 percent, while the company also uses on-site generated renewable energy to power its data centers.

Carbon3.ai's AI platform runs on the Vast Data platform, which enables information to be stored, accessed, and used quickly.

Carbon3.ai launched a UK-based sovereign AI platform in September 2025, claiming at the time that it would eventually comprise 100,000 GPUs, aiming to reach more than 30 locations.

The company revealed plans for a modular AI data center in Derbyshire in November 2025.

On its website, the firm claims to have 50MW of available capacity, and a pipeline of 4.5GW. It appears to be planning four hyperscale data centers around the UK, as well as a network of 30 “rapid deployment sites.”

Little information about the company and how it is funded is available, though it appears to be a subsidiary of Valencia Energy, which operates the Erin Powerplant and other similar facilities around the country. Two of Carbon3.ai’s co-founders also hold senior roles with Valencia.

AWS plans data center in Covington, Georgia

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is planning a data center in Covington, just outside of Atlanta, Georgia.

Details about the data center project remain sparse, but Covington News and WSB-TV report that the company has made a $100 million agreement with the city to construct a water treatment and cooling facility to support the data center.

Decided during a December 15 city council meeting, the treatment facility will be used by a data center that AWS is developing along Alcovy Road.

AWS confirmed that the project is part of the $11bn investment plan for Georgia announced at the start of the year, focused in Butts County and Douglas County. Covington is just north of Butts County, in Newton County.

AWS previously acquired 430 acres of land along the I-20 across three deals in Covington for $36m in January 2024. At the time, however, it was not stated whether the site would be used for a data center project. Alcovy Road crosses over the I-20.

Currently, no information about the data center project – its size or expected IT capacity – has been shared.

However, in March 2025, a company known as Universal Planning LLC filed a Development of Regional Impact application this week with the Georgia Department of State Affairs for a data center campus known as the Gregory Road Data Center. Gregory Road intersects with Alcovy Road.

ByteDance signs deal to put TikTok US in control of Oracle-led consortium and avoid ban

TikTok owner ByteDance has agreed a deal to hand control of the video-sharing platform’s US operations to a group of investors, and avoid a ban.

The Chinese company has signed a legally binding contract that will see TikTok US operated by a joint venture (JV) led by Oracle.

ByteDance will retain 19.9 percent of the JV, while Oracle, and investment funds Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX, will hold 15 percent each.

Remaining shares in the JV will go to existing ByteDance investors, including Susquehanna International, KKR, and General Atlantic.

The deal was first unveiled in September, and will go through on January 22, 2026. If completed, it will mark the end of a long-running saga around the ownership of TikTok US.

American lawmakers have long sought to ban the Chinese-owned platform, citing national security concerns.

A TikTok ban was passed by the House, Senate, and then-President Joe Biden in January 2025, but has been extended by US President Donald Trump four times as talks over the platform’s ownership continued.

Oracle has long led acquisition discussions, and was set to acquire the business in partnership with Walmart during a separate ban attempt under Trump's first term. While that deal fizzled with Trump's election loss, TikTok moved its US cloud services to Oracle in an attempt to assuage national security fears.

Under the new deal, should it go through, it is thought Oracle would continue to serve as TikTok US' cloud provider.

SoftBank races to find $22.5bn to pay OpenAI

SoftBank is scrambling to raise $22.5 billion it needs to invest in OpenAI’s Stargate data center project, it has been reported.

The Japanese conglomerate was a founding partner in Stargate when it was unveiled in January. According to a report from Reuters, it needs to close a $22.5bn funding commitment to the ChatGPT-maker before the end of 2025, and is racing to raise the cash in a variety of ways.

In total, SoftBank has said it will invest $30bn in OpenAI, with a $19bn initial investment specifically for Stargate, the multi-gigawatt plan to build a network of AI data centers around the world.

Now Reuters says Masayoshi Son’s company will pursue a variety of other options, including selling some of its shares in Chinese ride-hailing app Didi, while a public listing of payments app PayPay could also raise funds, though this is likely to be in the first quarter of 2026.

Insiders who spoke to Reuters said Son had put a cap of $50 million on investments made by SoftBank’s Vision investment fund, with larger funding projects requiring his personal approval.

SoftBank could also look to borrow against British chip designer Arm. Son’s firm remains the majority shareholder in Arm after its public listing in 2023, and the company’s share price has risen significantly since its IPO. SoftBank has up to $11.5bn borrowing capacity that it could draw on against the company, Reuters said.