FILE PHOTO: AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters are placed on computer motherboard in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
(Reuters) -Vantage Data Centers said on Tuesday it would spend more than $25 billion to build a 1,200-acre data center campus in Shackelford County, Texas, as surging demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure fuels mega-scale developments.
Backed by private equity firm Silver Lake and asset manager DigitalBridge, Vantage said the 1.4-gigawatt campus, dubbed "Frontier", is the largest in its global portfolio.
Chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini need massive compute, prompting demand for purpose-built data centers. These facilities are costly as they require cutting-edge chips, servers, adequate power and cooling solutions.
Companies including Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta Platforms are committing billions of dollars to expand and create their data center facilities.
Vantage says the construction of the campus has begun, which will be home to 10 data centers and support ultra-high-density racks exceeding 250 kilowatts each. The first building is due in the second half of next year.
Silver Lake was a founding investor in Vantage in 2010. Vantage CEO Sureel Choksi joined the company from Silver Lake in 2013.
After exiting Vantage in 2017, Silver Lake said it was invited back on a proprietary basis in 2023 to support capital raising and co-lead a $9.2 billion equity financing with DigitalBridge in 2024.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
