March 22, 2026

The U.S. Department of Energy just put a stake in the ground on what “AI-scale” infrastructure looks like: a 10GW data center campus at Portsmouth, Ohio, paired with up to 10GW of new generation — including 9.2GW of natural gas — and $4.2bn of grid upgrades. SoftBank/SB Energy and AEP Ohio are in the mix, and DOE says construction starts this year. If this is real execution rather than a grand render, it’s the clearest sign yet that the U.S. is willing to co-locate compute with new fossil generation at a scale that blows past today’s “hyperscale” vocabulary.

The Big Stories

The DOE-backed PORTS Technology Campus plan is unusually explicit about power: 10GW of data center load and up to 10GW of supply at the same site, with 9.2GW coming from gas. The project also flags $33.3bn in Japanese funding tied to the gas build-out and $4.2bn in grid upgrades, which tells you this isn’t being pitched as “just another interconnection request” — it’s being framed as industrial policy plus hard infrastructure. What matters: this is a template for how mega-loads may get permitted and financed in constrained U.S. power markets—by bundling generation, transmission upgrades, and political sponsorship into one package.

Behind the Headlines

DayOne’s reported IPO filing is a reminder that the capital markets are trying to re-price “AI data centers” as a distinct asset story, not a capital-intensive utility-with-servers. DayOne (the Singapore-headquartered GDS spinoff) is said to be seeking a $5bn U.S. IPO at a $20bn valuation, coming right after a $2bn Series C in January 2026 with a notably heavyweight investor list (GDS, Boyu, Hillhouse, SoftBank Vision Fund, Ken Griffin, Coatue, INA). The tell here is speed: raise privately, then sprint to public markets while the AI-power narrative is still hot. For incumbents, it’s also a competitive signal—if DayOne can set a valuation anchor in public markets, it pressures peers’ cost of capital and reshapes who can afford the next wave of power-secured builds.

India’s grid-and-storage machinery is also quietly moving from “pilot scale” to “system scale.” PGCIL’s tender for a 500MW/1000MWh standalone BESS in Punjab (Patiala) under the TBCB route sets a clear procurement timetable (bids due 24-Mar-2026) and frames storage as core transmission-linked infrastructure, not an add-on. The detail that jumps out is the size: 1GWh is large enough to matter for regional balancing and peak-shaving discussions that increasingly sit underneath data center siting conversations. Watch what the tender attracts—if it pulls serious competition, it’s a sign India is building the market mechanisms (and risk allocation) that make large power-hungry loads easier to serve without waiting a decade for grid expansion alone.