Quick Bytes

🚀 $500B AI Data Center Race – Stargate AI is making waves with a massive AI project, but controversy surrounds its funding. Microsoft, Oracle, and others are also scaling at unprecedented levels.

🔥 Alberta’s AI Power Play – A $70B data center project in Canada aims for 7.5 GW of power, rivaling Stargate’s scale, but still needs hyperscaler partners.

💰 AI Infra Spending Shows No Slowdown – Meta plans $60-65B in AI capex, while Microsoft is spending $80B/year. AI’s infrastructure boom is accelerating.

💧 Liquid Cooling Heats Up – 2025 is shaping up to be the year of liquid cooling for AI infrastructure—check out AI InfraDeck Release 3 for the latest tech breakdown.

🏥 AI Reshaping Healthcare – AI is transforming patient care, predictive modeling, and drug discovery, with major breakthroughs showcased at JP Morgan Healthcare Week.

🔥 Hot New Capacity for 2025 – Need data center space?

• Portugal: 4 MW available now, near major subsea fiber.

• South Central US: 100 MW, 5¢/kWh, Q1 2026.

• East Coast US: 12 MW available now, 12 MW more by EOY 2025.

📞 Want in on AI infrastructure’s next big move? Let’s talk capacity! 🚀

Stargate AI & the $500B Data Center Race — Plus a Glimpse at China’s DeepSeek R1

There has been the controversial announcement what is called a $500 billion AI project in the USA. There is controversy about how much funding is in the project. The announcement did talk about building this out over years.

Altimeter Capital has an analysis of the financials for the $100 billion per year of the Softbank, OpenAI, Oracle Stargate AI Data Center.

The project would start with about $3 billion of equity and ten billion worth of debt and 300,000 GPUS in 2025.

$100 billion worth of AI data center would need to secure 2 million Nvidia GPU chips each year. There would need to be $28 billion worth of equity. This would be three to one debt to equity.

This would need 7.8 Gigawatts needed by 2028.

Microsoft has started spending $80 billion per year on AI data centers and AI research. Microsoft’s buildout over 6 years would be very similar to a total scope of $480 billion. If Microsoft starts increasing its AI buildout and spend, then Microsoft operations should be larger than Softbank Stargate.

Stargate will start building clusters in Abilene, Texas and has said they will build in other unspecified states and locations.

Oracle had already started building an AI data center in Abilene.

Gavin Baker manages a $4 billion fund and is invested in XAI. He describes how the funding will still be deployed over a few years for Stargate.

Kevin O’Leary is leading a group building a $70 billion AI data center in Northern Alberta, Canada. This is another large nameplate AI project which is still raising the funding over years. They are also leveraging massive amounts of natural gas power for a massive project.

The first phase of the Wonder Valley Alberta project involves a US$2 billion investment to deliver 1.4 GW of power. Subsequent phases will add 1 GW increments of redundant power annually. When fully operational, Wonder Valley is expected to have a power capacity of 7.5 GW. The project’s planned 35 million square feet of development across 58 buildings will make it the largest AI data center in the world.

The energy scale of the Alberta project is comparable to the energy for a possible Stargate project. Alberta has not priced in the AI GPU chips as they need hyperscaling partners.

Interestingly, the Alberta AI energy project is comparable in scale to what Altimeter Capital estimates for Stargate by 2028.

In the last week, there has been the news of improved AI inference efficiency and some AI training efficiency from the Chinese Open Source DeepSeek R1 model. We have been analyzing this in detail and will follow up in our next newsletter. A preview is that  Jevons paradox (economics) occurs when advancement make a resource more efficient to use but the effect is overall demand increases causing total consumption to rise. The most recent Meta and Microsoft earnings calls (Jan 29) show no drop in planned AI capex and research spending. Meta will spend $60-65 billion on capex and most of this will be AI related.

Last week we discussed liquid cooling. Check out my AI InfraDeck Release 3 which is all about cooling technologies and jargon. In my assessment, 2025 will be the year of liquid cooling.

AI in Healthcare: Key Takeaways from JP Morgan Healthcare Week

As JP Morgan Healthcare Week wrapped up in San Francisco in mid-January, it was clear that AI is reshaping the future of healthcare. While AI has been slowly working its way into healthcare for years, the current boom is accelerating adoption and unlocking new possibilities at an unprecedented pace.

Why Healthcare Needs AI

The healthcare industry generates massive, complex datasets—from patient records and imaging to genomics and clinical trials. AI’s ability to process and extract insights from this data will revolutionize patient care, reduce costs, and improve efficiency.

Key Areas of AI Impact

• Patient Experience (PX): AI-powered assistants can help with symptom analysis, hospital navigation, and patient flow optimization. AI can also streamline billing, authorizations, and fraud detection, reducing inefficiencies and cutting costs.

• Doctor Experience (DX): AI is transforming diagnosis and treatment by analyzing symptoms, identifying patterns, and assisting with clinical decisions. AI-powered image analysis for ECGs and EEGs will improve precision, while virtual assistants will reduce administrative burdens.

• Predictive Modeling: AI can identify patients at risk of readmission, infection, or complications by analyzing past medical history, allergies, and treatments. This ensures better care continuity and risk management.

• Innovation in Genomics & Drug Discovery: AI can accelerate genomics research—helping scientists analyze genetic data, identify disease markers, and fast-track drug discovery and clinical trials. What once took years could soon happen in months or weeks.

The Future of AI in Healthcare

AI isn’t just about speed and cost reduction—it’s about improving patient outcomes and driving medical breakthroughs. Over the next decade, AI will transform every aspect of healthcare, from diagnosis to treatment and beyond.

Collaboration and innovation at events like JP Morgan Healthcare Week will be critical in making this future a reality. 

Ignite’s contribution to Healthcare Week was hosting an event with Supermicro and AMD called CxO Insights: AI in Life Sciences. This was an intimate gathering of Executives, Doctors, Thought Leaders and Infrastructure experts. For those interested, here are summaries of the keynote, Supermicro’s talk, AMD’s talk and the panel discussion.

Additional Capacity Opportunities For 2025

4 MW in Portugal

• Available now!

• Adjacent to a major undersea fiber-optic cable coming into Europe

• Rack densities up to 50kW per rack

100 MW in the South Central Region of the US

• 5 cents per kW-hr for electricity

• Rack densities up to 200 kW/rack

• Ready for service: Q1 2026

24 MW on the East Coast of the US

• 12 MW available now!

• Another 12 MW coming online by the end of 2025

• Rack densities up to 34 kW per rack

The above sites are great for large-scale deployments and we have plenty of inventory for those that need a few megawatts or hundreds of kilowatts of capacity. What kind of infrastructure are you looking for? Please book time here with our team to learn about what’s available.

Your Feedback Matters

At Infra Insider, we’re here to give you an edge—exclusive insights into the evolving infrastructure world that others miss. While most newsletters skim the surface, we go deeper, spotlighting the trends shaping AI, data centers, and tech capacity. Think behind-the-scenes intel, key players driving change, and actionable updates straight from the field. It’s not just another industry briefing—it’s your front-row seat to the future.

Your feedback is crucial in helping us refine our content and maintain the newsletter's value for you and your fellow readers. We welcome your suggestions on how we can improve our offering; [email protected]. 

Nina Tusova
Director of Customer Relationship & Success // Team Ignite