February 11, 2026

Global data centres, power & grid briefing (UTC: 2026-02-11)

Top news (3)

• Demand is running ahead of financing and grid capacity. In its 2026 outlook, DataBank said enterprise colocation demand should remain strong, but warned that financing and grid capacity will be strained by AI-scale infrastructure; it cited 15 GW leased in 2025 and noted that most capacity is expected online in late 2026–2027 (Data center industry outlook for 2026: power, funding, AI).
• Energy constraints are now shaping the AI supply chain and M&A. Jefferies argued the AI cycle is shifting pricing power toward memory suppliers (SK Hynix, Micron) with memory prices up ~50% last quarter, while flagging energy as a binding constraint; it also referenced OpenAI’s call to add 100 GW/year and said Google announced a $4.75bn acquisition of Intersect to secure renewable power (AI investment cycle shifts pricing power toward memory suppliers).
• Geopolitics is increasingly tied to “connectivity + AI data centres.” Azerbaijan and the US issued a Strategic Partnership Charter covering regional connectivity, energy, AI and digital infrastructure, and security, with working groups to define projects/roadmaps within three months (Azerbaijan and US Charter on Strategic Partnership for Connectivity, AI).

Key deals & projects

United States

• Michigan (Detroit metro) carrier hotel scale/throughput: 123NET highlighted its seven-story, 136,000 sq ft Southfield data center located at Michigan’s “most fiber-dense intersection,” reportedly moving 10 terabytes per second, linking 40 ISPs, and hosting infrastructure for automakers and other sectors (Inside 123NET’s seven-story Southfield carrier hotel data center).

Azerbaijan / US

• Strategic partnership framework (project pipeline to be defined): The Charter explicitly calls out cooperation areas including AI data centers, connectivity corridors (including the Middle Corridor and TRIPP), energy and security, with defined near-term next steps (projects/roadmaps within three months) (Azerbaijan and US Charter on Strategic Partnership for Connectivity, AI).

Power & grid / interconnection highlights

United States

• Call for a grid “renaissance” to meet AI compute load growth: Grid Forward’s CEO urged a coordinated, large-scale US grid upgrade to support AI compute demand and broader electrification; he framed current progress as too slow and referenced commentary that “datacenters into space” could become easier over three to five years if grid build-out continues to lag (Grid Forward CEO urges urgent grid infrastructure renaissance now).

Market signal: delivery timing vs leasing

• DataBank’s outlook emphasizes a near-term timing mismatch: 15 GW leased in 2025, with much of that capacity expected to arrive late 2026–2027, alongside warnings that both grid capacity and financing are tightening (Data center industry outlook for 2026: power, funding, AI).

Policy, regulation & security

Nordics (security and digital infrastructure posture)

• Norway threat assessments and infrastructure sovereignty: Commentary on Norway’s 2026 threat assessments (E-tjenesten, PST, NSM) highlighted digital-domain vulnerabilities and state-actor risk (notably Russia, with concerns about China), alongside a call for joint Nordic digital infrastructure to reduce foreign dependence (Norway faces major security challenges, urges Nordic digital infrastructure).

South Caucasus / US (connectivity + security)

• Charter scope includes security and digital infrastructure: The Azerbaijan–US Charter and related signing coverage includes cooperation spanning energy, defense/security, AI data centers, and connectivity corridors, with project definition delegated to working groups on a defined timetable (Azerbaijan and US sign Strategic Partnership Charter, discuss cooperation).

India (market access / policy advisory)

• Policy-to-market execution capacity expands: Access Partnership opened an India office and plans to launch an AI Diffusion Framework & Playbook at a February 2026 summit, targeting clients across AI, data centres and related strategic sectors (Access Partnership opens India office to support AI market access).

Technology & operations watch (capex/opex relevance)

Storage, private cloud and AI infrastructure tooling

• IBM storage platform refresh with a dated GA milestone: IBM announced FlashSystem 5600/7600/9600, a 5th-gen FlashCore Module (up to 105TB), and “FlashSystem.ai,” claiming up to 90% reduction in manual effort and up to 40% greater data efficiency; general availability: 6 March 2026 (IBM unveils agentic AI-powered FlashSystem portfolio for autonomous storage).
• Dell Private Cloud broadens hypervisor options: Dell Private Cloud added Nutanix support (deploy Nutanix AHV on Dell PowerFlex now), with Dell PowerStore integration planned for the summer, while maintaining VMware and Red Hat OpenShift support (Dell Private Cloud adds Nutanix support for flexibility).

Energy efficiency / grid interaction research signals

• Carbon/energy-aware autoscaling: NeuroScaler (research) reported 34.68% lower energy use versus Kubernetes HPA in a real testbed while maintaining target latency—relevant to operators focused on energy constraints and cost-to-serve (NeuroScaler: AI-native Energy-Optimal Autoscaling for Container-Based Services System).
• Data-centre load modelling for power-system stability: A research paper proposed a physics-informed dynamic load model validated on multiple datasets and evaluated on several grid test systems, highlighting that interactions among large electronic loads can affect post-disturbance recovery dynamics (Dynamic Load Model for Data Centers with Pattern-Consistent Calibration).

Networking performance at scale (AI clusters)

• Programmable-switch TCP at very high throughput: Laminar (research) described a TCP stack on programmable switches (Intel Tofino 2) targeting near-RDMA performance while preserving TCP/POSIX compatibility; reported benefits include tail-latency and throughput-per-watt improvements (Laminar enables TCP at terabit speeds on programmable switches).

Two-line close

Grid delivery speed and financing capacity remain the key gating items against continued AI-led leasing momentum.
Security posture and sovereign connectivity initiatives are increasingly being packaged together with AI data centre ambitions.