Issue #14
22 July 2026
Editor's Note
This week's newsletter has a strong Texas flavour, with CyrusOne announcing its sixth campus in San Antonio, Google filing for two new sites in Vernon, and an 867-acre Saltworks proposal in Graham. Texas continues to pull ahead of every other market globally, and the pace of simultaneous development across the state is unlike anything we are seeing elsewhere. Cushman and Wakefield's 2026 report ranked Dallas first globally as a primary market, and deals like these suggest that position is only strengthening.
The story that caught my attention most this week though is Orcadian Energy's proposal for an offshore data center in the North Sea, 65 miles off the coast of Great Yarmouth. A gas-powered platform with carbon capture built in, bypassing the national grid entirely and sidestepping the planning opposition that has slowed so many onshore projects in the UK. It is early stage and will need regulatory approvals and financing before anything is built. But as an idea it represents exactly the kind of creative thinking the industry is being pushed toward when conventional routes to power and planning are blocked.
North America
- Google files for two data centers in Vernon, Texas
Vernon is a small town in northwest Texas. Google filing there is another data point in the consistent push into markets where land is available and grid connections can be secured without years of waiting.
- CyrusOne announces sixth data center campus in San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is quietly becoming one of the most active secondary markets in the US. A sixth campus from a single operator signals the kind of market confidence that tends to attract others.
- Stream proposes 867-acre 'Project Saltworks' data center in Graham, Texas
867 acres in a small Texas town. The scale of what is being proposed in tertiary markets continues to surprise. Graham has a population of around 8,000 people.
EMEA
- London's Honey Monster Factory site set to host CyrusOne data center
Repurposing an industrial site in a constrained market like London is increasingly how development gets done in EMEA. Land with planning history is faster to develop than greenfield, and the Honey Monster site has a certain charm to it as a data center origin story.
- Cubbit and GigaCloud partner to bring cloud services to Poland and Ukraine
Distributed cloud storage entering Ukraine is notable. Digital infrastructure investment in a country still navigating active conflict says something about long-term confidence in the market.
- UK oil and gas firm plots 200MW gas powered offshore data center in North Sea
Orcadian's concept solves three problems at once. Power, planning, and grid pressure. Whether it gets built is another question, but as a signal of where developers are looking when conventional routes are blocked, it is genuinely interesting.
Asia Pacific
- Envision Targets Gobi Desert for AI Data Centre Expansion
Remote locations with extreme climates for cooling and abundant land are becoming more viable as the industry solves for connectivity and power independently. China's approach to large-scale AI infrastructure is worth watching on its own terms.
- CapitaLand Ascendas REIT Selling Singapore Data Centre for $155M
REITs recycling capital out of mature assets to fund new development is a healthy sign of a maturing market. Singapore remains one of the most constrained data center markets in APAC, which is why secondary locations like Johor continue to attract such strong interest.
- International Finance Corporation to invest up to $175m in two AirTrunk data centers in Johor, Malaysia
Development finance institutions investing in Johor signals growing institutional confidence in Southeast Asia's data center fundamentals. AirTrunk and Johor have become synonymous with APAC hyperscale growth over the past two years.
Get the Next Issue.
One email a week. Unsubscribe anytime.