The Partners Group-backed data center firm won praise from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin after it promised a massive data center investment that will more than double EdgeCore’s power capacity in the state once the project is finished.
Denver-based data center provider EdgeCore announced Wednesday that it plans to spend $17 billion to build a 1.1-gigawatt facility in Virginia.
The 3.9 million-square-foot data center campus will be built on 697 acres of land in the Shannon Hill Regional Business Park area of Louisa County, the company stated in a press release. Once it comes online, it will be EdgeCore’s third data center campus in the Old Dominion state. EdgeCore currently has about 500 megawatts of capacity under management in Virginia.
“The investment in this land enables EdgeCore to expand our growth in Central Virgina, providing our hyperscale and AI focused customers with scalable, cost-efficient data center solutions, while simultaneously benefitting the residents of Louisa County with decades of tax revenue, job creation and ancillary investments,” EdgeCore CEO Lee Kestler said in a statement.
[RELATED: EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure Built For ‘Exponential’ Growth, New President Tells CRN]
The project won praise from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who said in a statement that the commonwealth is the “world capital” of the technology infrastructure that supports the global digital economy.
“Virginia is the world capital for the infrastructure on which the internet and the entire global economy runs. From the spine of the internet running through Ashburn to the transatlantic cables that connect in Virginia Beach, the entire Commonwealth is engaged in supporting the technology which runs the world. We are proud to welcome EdgeCore to Central Virginia where their $17 billion investment will create jobs and fund vital public resources,” said Youngkin.
EdgeCore said once the new data center is complete, the facility will use the most efficient environmental standards when it comes to the water and air-cooled systems that are employed to cool the facility, striving to meet its benchmark water usage of less than .01 liters per hour.
The newest EdgeCore news brings the company’s total active market count to six, including Ashburn and Culpeper, Virginia; Silicon Valley; Greater Phoenix; and Reno, all of which have been designed to accommodate data centers for single hyperscale tenants.
Backed by billions in private equity, EdgeCore has been on a growth streak.
EdgeCore was acquired by private equity firm Partners Group in 2022 for $1.2 billion. The private equity firm invested an additional $1.9 billion into the company last year to fund expansions across its existing locations.
Talking with CRN a week after he was named the company’s first president, EdgeCore President Steve Conner called out the importance of power planning, sustainable energy mixes, the growing adoption of liquid cooling and the need for data centers to support AI.
In addition to the project announced Wednesday, EdgeCore has projects underway in Phoenix and Reno, Nev., which will add hundreds of megawatts of capacity to its existing system, and has plans to double the number of employees.
“Where we’re focusing right now, and where you’re going to see a lot of that growth, is on the operation side,” Conner told CRN during the interview earlier this month. “We want to make sure that for our customers we give them a consistent service, whether we’re in Phoenix or Ashburn, [Va.], or Reno, [Nev.]—pick your place.”
