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AI Data Center Debt Is Showing Up Everywhere

By Meredith Mazzilli · Oct 2, 2026 9:33am PDT

Debt financing for data centers and related infrastructure has grown rapidly enough that it’s become its own category these days—credit analysts are breaking out AI versus non–AI-linked debt across markets to analyze new issuance and performance. Several asset managers in recent months have filed to create exchange-traded funds focused on AI or... Debt financing for data centers and related infrastructure has grown rapidly enough that it’s...

CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella. Photo by George Chan/Getty Images

Microsoft Tears Down Its AI Data Wall

By Kevin McLaughlin · Sep 29, 2026 9:38am PDT · 1 comment

Microsoft’s biggest products have generally thrived by letting other companies build on top of them. So Microsoft’s decision to join Apache Ossie, a 1-year-old software industry group aiming to make it easier for AI tools to access data from applications and databases, might not seem like a big deal. But actually it is.Just four months ago,... Microsoft’s biggest products have generally thrived by letting other companies build on top of...

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia. Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images

Nvidia Discusses Funding Its AI Data Supplier Mercor at a $20 Billion Valuation

By Phoebe Liu and Julia Hornstein · Aug 19, 2026 10:48am PDT

Nvidia has discussed an investment in Mercor, a data labeling provider that helps the chip designer develop its open-source AI models, according to a person with knowledge of the process. The investment would be part of a $20 billion-valuation round. Existing investor General Catalyst has been in talks to lead the round. Historically, most of... Nvidia has discussed an investment in Mercor, a data labeling provider that helps the chip...

Demonstrators take part in a protest at the Utah State Capitol last month. Image via Getty

The Economic Myths That AI Data Center Critics Believe

By Ann Davis Vaughan · Jun 22, 2026 8:37am PDT · 9 comments

Demonstrators take part in a protest at the Utah State Capitol last month. Image via Getty

AI Infrastructure

The Economic Myths That AI Data Center Critics Believe

By Ann Davis Vaughan · Jun 22, 2026 8:37am PDT · 9 comments

I’ve been visiting large AI data center projects in rural and industrial communities in the Midwest, Southeast and West, and I have found that two things can be true at the same time: AI data centers have drawbacks but are better for communities than their residents think, and those communities can win a lot more financial concessions and... I’ve been visiting large AI data center projects in rural and industrial communities in the...

Photo: Jeff Kowalsky/Getty

GM Doubles Down on Next-Gen Batteries in a Move on AI Data Centers

By Steve LeVine · Jun 9, 2026 2:00pm PDT

For a year, General Motors has been talking up plans to commercialize a next-generation manganese-based battery that would help it bypass China’s dominance of the electric vehicle and battery industries. For a year, General Motors has been talking up plans to commercialize a next-generation...

The Bald Hill lithium mine in Western Australia. Photo: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg/Getty

The AI Data Center Boom Ignites a Tear in Lithium Shares

By Steve LeVine · May 28, 2026 9:00am PDT · 2 comments

Investors fled the stock of lithium mining companies in 2022 and 2023, when the metal’s price plunged about 90% and mines shut down globally. Now they have piled back into the category. The reason: a boom in lithium-ion batteries used to power AI data centers and the electricity grid, and the possibility that high gasoline prices will trigger a... Investors fled the stock of lithium mining companies in 2022 and 2023, when the metal’s price...

An AI data center under construction in Michigan for Oracle and OpenAI. Photo: Jim West/UCG/Universal/Getty

Exclusive From The Electric: AI Data Center Demand Could Finally Spur a Battery Boom

By Steve LeVine · May 21, 2026 9:00am PDT · 1 comment

Western battery makers, which have scaled back plans for new factories amid tepid consumer demand for electric vehicles, have found a smaller but much needed stream of income from their ability to quickly deploy backup power for AI data centers. Western battery makers, which have scaled back plans for new factories amid tepid consumer demand...

Phononic founder, Tony Atti. Screenshot via YouTube/NYSE.

AI Data Center Startup Phononic Discusses Multi-Billion Dollar Valuation in Possible Sale

By Valida Pau and Anissa Gardizy · Apr 20, 2026 4:25pm PDT

Phononic founder, Tony Atti. Screenshot via YouTube/NYSE.

AI Data Center Startup Phononic Discusses Multi-Billion Dollar Valuation in Possible Sale

By Valida Pau and Anissa Gardizy · Apr 20, 2026 4:25pm PDT

The unrelenting demand for AI data centers is spilling over into lesser-known companies that supply components for essential tasks such as cooling chip servers. Phononic, a 17-year-old company whose semiconductor components prevent overheating in AI data centers, is hoping to cash in on that demand. The Durham, N.C., company is talking to... The unrelenting demand for AI data centers is spilling over into lesser-known companies that...

Andrey Rudkov / Bloomberg via Getty Images

AI Infrastructure

The Startup Trying to Tame Accounting Chaos Behind AI Data Centers

By Anissa Gardizy · Apr 20, 2026 10:08am PDT

The rush to build and finance AI data centers has created a new kind of stress for CFOs at companies developing them. Some executives at these firms tell me they are struggling to keep their books accurate and move money from their lenders to their suppliers on time, raising the risk of costly delays or even huge overpayments.That risk is... The rush to build and finance AI data centers has created a new kind of stress for CFOs at...

The Electric: Repurposed EV Batteries Are a New Power Source in AI Data Centers

The Electric: Repurposed EV Batteries Are a New Power Source in AI Data Centers

By Steve LeVine · Apr 16, 2026 9:00am PDT

EV batteries are turning out to have useful lives even after they stop powering vehicles. The battery industry, along with academics who study battery life, say the batteries turn out to still have a lot of juice when they seem dead. Rather than ripping them apart and recycling their metals, they say, EV batteries should be repurposed for... EV batteries are turning out to have useful lives even after they stop powering...

Giga Energy cofounders Brent Whitehead and Matt Lohstroh. Photo courtesy of Giga.

Meet Giga, a AI Data Center Developer That Has Barely Raised Capital

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 19, 2026 7:00am PDT

Startups developing data centers to power AI are among the most capital-hungry businesses around right now. Many are raising billions of dollars in equity and debt to build complicated facilities.There are few like Houston-based Giga Energy, however. Founded in 2019 by two Texas A&M juniors studying finance and industrial distribution, Giga... Startups developing data centers to power AI are among the most capital-hungry businesses around...

Image via Shutterstock

5 Ingenious Hacks That Are Boosting AI Data Centers

By Ann Davis Vaughan · Mar 16, 2026 8:00am PDT

Image via Shutterstock

AI Infrastructure

5 Ingenious Hacks That Are Boosting AI Data Centers

By Ann Davis Vaughan · Mar 16, 2026 8:00am PDT

The frantic rush to power and stand up AI data centers has spurred a range of speed hacks—from building AI tent cities, to firing up jet engines, to taking over abandoned industrial sites. What’s most surprising is all of the different ways the biggest AI data centers have improvised and scrounged to meet the staggering electricity demands of... The frantic rush to power and stand up AI data centers has spurred a range of speed hacks—from...

The liquid cooling system at an Equinix data center in Virgini

AI Infrastructure

Why There’s Another Wave of Neoclouds; AI Data Center Cooling Heats Up

By Anissa Gardizy · Jan 12, 2026 8:25am PST · 3 comments

There's a new wave of cloud computing startups raising money and touting landmark AI data center deals.Nscale is raising billions of dollars to build data centers for OpenAI. Fluidstack is filling its coffers to support Anthropic’s infrastructure. I expect a handful of other firms, including Moonlite AI, to raise money in the coming weeks,... There's a new wave of cloud computing startups raising money and touting landmark AI data center...

Bloomberg/Getty Images.

The Ripple Effects of the AI Data Center Boom

By Martin Peers · Jan 6, 2026 5:00pm PST

Trade in stocks exposed to the AI boom is getting even more volatile. Shares of Sandisk rocketed 27% on Tuesday for no obvious reason other than a report by Morgan Stanley about bigger-than-expected price increases coming for NAND flash memory, which Sandisk makes, among others. Demand for NAND flash has taken off in recent months, thanks to its... Trade in stocks exposed to the AI boom is getting even more volatile. Shares of Sandisk rocketed...