Naver expands data center in Sejong, South Korea

Naver is expanding its data center in Sejong, South Korea, to meet growing AI demand.

As reported by Chosun Biz, the company is going to develop both the second and third phases of construction on the Gak Sejong campus simultaneously.

The first phase of construction was launched in November 2023. The site spans 290,000 sqm (3.1 million sq ft) and is planned to reach 270MW of capacity, and aims to be able to host 600,000 servers, running Naver's cloud services.

Gak Sejong spans five floors, three below ground and two above ground. The data center is designed to withstand an earthquake magnitude of 7.0.

At the time of the first phase launch, Naver said the second phase would begin in 2025.

The currently operating part of the data center is using natural air cooling via the hybrid system Namu III Air Membrane Unit.

According to Noh, phases two and three will bring in direct liquid cooling systems as the basic design to enable Naver to increase rack densities to between 30 and 50kW, and more advanced GPUs require more power. Naver is also testing the feasibility of immersion cooling.

Earlier this year, Naver revealed plans for a 500MW data center campus in Morocco. It is also reportedly set to deploy 60,000 Nvidia GPUs in partnership with LG AI Research, SK Telecom, NC AI, and Upstage in a deal signed this week.

Naver offers public cloud services through its multi-region Ncloud and its on-premise Neurocloud service.

Immersion cooling firm Submer launches AI cloud unit

Liquid cooling firm Submer has launched a new cloud unit.

The company this week announced the launch of InferX, a new unit it said will offer sovereign AI cloud services.

Submer said the new division aims to deliver a “faster, denser, and greener AI cloud built to accelerate the age of intelligence through a dual-plane strategy that connects core and Edge infrastructure.”

The company said core data centers will handle large-scale training and hosting in high-density GPU clusters, while Edge AI infrastructure will offer real-time inference close to users through telco and regional networks.

The company said InferX – not to be confused with the US-based serverless inference platform of the same name – will combine Submer's liquid-cooling expertise with its advanced AI operations and delivery capabilities.

Details of any planned InferX facilities or deployments were not shared. On its website, InferX said it would use a vertically-integrated data center design featuring liquid-cooled GPU clusters.

The company recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Madhya Pradesh in India to jointly develop up to 1GW of liquid-cooled AI data centers – though it wasn’t clear if these would be operated by Submer or merely use the company as a cooling provider.

Iozera acquires enterprise data center in Houston, plans upgrade to multi-tenant AI site

A new firm has acquired an enterprise data center in Texas and plans to convert it into a multi-tenant site.

Iozera this week announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire a fully operational 4.5MW data center in Houston. Terms of the deal weren’t shared.

The facility will be expanded and modernized into a 10MW, AI-ready multi-tenant hub able to host Nvidia Blackwell GPUs.

The Houston data center will employ ZutaCore’s HyperCool direct-to-chip, waterless liquid-cooling technology, delivering up to 140kW per rack. Taiwan’s Pegatron will be Iozera's primary source for GPU servers.

The site is currently operating under a short-term leaseback with Tailored Brands-owned Men's Wearhouse.

Timothy Ngo, a venture capitalist with Ryse Ventures, is an investor in Iozera, according to LinkedIn.

Iozera has previously announced plans for a large-scale data center in Morocco. In May 2024, the firm outlined its hopes to build a 386MW data center hub at Tetouan, in the north of Morocco, near the Strait of Gibraltar. It's unclear if the company has started work on that site.

CoreSite secures STN’s GPU cloud venture as a customer in Chicago

CoreSite has secured a new GPU cloud provider as a customer in Chicago, Illinois.

The American Tower company this week announced an expansion of its relationship with managed services provider STN.

STN has selected CoreSite’s CH2 Chicago data center to host GPU One, the company’s graphical processing unit (GPU) cloud platform. Launching in April 2025, the GPU One cluster comprises more than 1,500 liquid-cooled Nvidia B200 GPUs in SuperMicro servers across 24 racks.

STN first started working with CoreSite in 2019, starting with a single rack at CoreSite’s SV7 facility in Santa Clara. It has since expanded to LA1 in Los Angeles and now CH2 in Chicago.

CoreSite said it is supporting more than 100kW per rack with liquid cooling for STN. More than 90 percent of customers in the multi-tenant computer room in which STN resides at CH2 are liquid-cooled.

Operating 30 facilities across 11 US markets, CoreSite's estate comprises approximately 4.5 million sq ft (418,000 sqm). American Tower, a company traditionally focused on owning cell towers, acquired CoreSite for $10.1 billion in November 2021. Stonepeak subsequently acquired a 29 percent stake in CoreSite for $2.5 billion the following year.

CleanSpark expands into AI data center development with 270 acre acquisition outside Houston, Texas

Cryptomine firm CleanSpark has acquired land outside Houston, Texas, for its first foray into AI data centers.

This week, the Nasdaq-listed company announced it had acquired the rights to approximately 271 acres of land in Austin County, Texas, and executed long-term power supply agreements totaling 285MW to support the development of a data center campus to serve AI, cloud, and enterprise workloads.

Details on the site weren’t shared, but CleanSpark said the property is on a regional fiber backbone and supported by grid infrastructure. The site is also in close proximity to several natural gas pipelines, which are being evaluated for industrial-scale behind-the-meter generation opportunities.

CleanSpark intends to begin site design and development immediately, with energization of more than 200MW expected in the first half of 2027.

Describing itself as “America’s Bitcoin Miner,” CleanSpark currently has around 33 Bitcoin mining sites in operation across Wyoming, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Georgia.

The company has more than 1GW of capacity under contract and recently announced a pivot to HPC and AI data center development.

Earlier this week, CleanSpark announced a partnership with immersion cooling provider Submer, a company that has made its own move into building data centers and launched its own cloud unit.

Eaton acquires Boyd Thermal for $9.5bn to further liquid cooling portfolio

Power and cooling firm Eaton is acquiring the data center cooling business of Boyd.

The company this week announced it has signed an agreement to acquire the Boyd Thermal business of Boyd Corporation from Goldman Sachs Asset Management for $9.5 billion.

The transaction, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026.

Boyd’s thermal business serves data center, industrial, aerospace and other markets. The US-based division has more than 5,000 employees, with manufacturing sites across North America, Asia, and Europe.

Boyd Thermal has forecast sales of $1.7 billion for 2026, of which $1.5 billion is in liquid cooling.

Founded in 1911, Eaton is an American electronics manufacturing company. The company offers power systems for data centers, including UPS solutions.

With roots tracing back to 1928, Boyd provides material and thermal solutions, providing cooling tech for batteries, power inverters, and other electronics. It provides offerings around single-and two-phase liquid cooling, immersion cooling, and air cooling, including CDUs, cold plates, and cooling loops. In July, the firm launched a 2.3MW CDU that it says can efficiently cool more than ten Nvidia NVL72 racks.

Vertiv plans $1bn PurgeRite acquisition to support data center mechanical flushing, purging, and filtration

Vertiv plans to acquire Purge Rite Intermediate, LLC, (PurgeRite) for $1 billion in cash plus up to $250 million based on achieving certain 2026 performance metrics.

PurgeRite provides mechanical flushing, purging, and filtration services for data centers, as well as other mission-critical facilities. Clean fluid loops are essential for maximizing cooling performance, as well as for maintaining uptime.

Fluid management can include high-velocity fluid loop flushing to remove debris, purging to remove air and gas, and filling with clean fluid.

Vertiv said that PurgeRight has strong relationships with hyperscalers and Tier 1 colocation providers, along with proprietary technologies for mechanical flushing, purging, and filtration.

With the boom in liquid cooling to support AI workloads, Vertiv has acquired a number of businesses to bolster its offering.

In 2023, the company acquired coolant distribution infrastructure provider CoolTera. The next year, it picked up centrifugal chiller technology and assets from BiXin Energy Technology Co.

AWS signs 300MW hosting deal to lease capacity from Cipher Mining

Cryptoming data center firm Cipher Mining has secured Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer.

The company has also announced plans for a new 1GW data center campus in Texas.

Cipher signs on AWS as a customer

Cipher has announced an approximately $5.5 billion, 15-year lease agreement with AWS to provide turnkey space and power for AI workloads.

Under the terms of the lease, Cipher will deliver 300MW of capacity in 2026, including both air and liquid cooling to the racks.

Cipher was spun off from Bitcoin mining hardware giant Bitfury in March 2021 and went public via a merger with blank-check company Good Works Acquisition Corp.

Cipher targets 1GW campus in Texas

In its results, Cipher also announced the formation of a joint entity to develop a 1GW site, named Colchis, in West Texas.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cipher is expected to provide the majority of the financing, which would result in an approximately 95 percent equity ownership, assuming standard lease and development terms in a future HPC lease.

The 620-acre Colchis site includes a fully executed 1GW direct connect agreement with American Electric Power (AEP), which will construct the necessary dual interconnection facility for a targeted energization in 2028.