- Landon in the Loop
- Posts
- 🌆 Let’s Talk Chicago Compute
79th Edition
✍🏽 This Week on Landon in the Loop:
🌆 Let’s Talk Chicago Compute
đź“Š Chart of the Week
📆 Events Around the City
🌆 Let’s Talk Chicago Compute
New Data Center Lands in Aurora
Starting today, I’m launching a new section in the newsletter that dives into Chicago’s role in fueling the future of compute.
From our nuclear power and data centers to fresh water resources and clean energy policies, Chicago and the greater Illinois are essential to addressing America’s compute challenges.
And this will all lead up to a meetup I’m hosting this Winter 🥶 👇🏽
The New Data Center on the Block
CyrusOne recently broke ground on a new $350M data center in Aurora, Illinois, which is their second facility since 2017.
It’s being build in partnership with CME Group and Google to support CME customers.
The center will span 400,000 square feet and deliver a compute capacity of 40MW.
Economic Impact
The data center will generate $20m in tax revenue for Aurora over the next decade.
It will create hundreds of union construction jobs, and for every one data center job, an additional 4.1 jobs are generated in the local economy.
The facility will expand colocation opportunities, providing more space for businesses to lease computing resources.
Our State’s Involvement
The project is backed by the Illinois Data Center Investment Program, which previously provided $25m for another CyrusOne development in Aurora.
The program targets projects exceeding $250 million in investment and requires a minimum of 20 new full-time jobs.
So far, over 21 data centers have participated, creating 430 jobs and driving $11B in capital investment across Illinois.
đź“Š Chart of the Week
Illinois has a relatively low share of total power consumption from data centers compared to states like Virginia.
This shows that Illinois has a well-diversified energy portfolio, drawing from multiple sources rather than relying on a single one.
With AI already accounting for 20% of data center demand in 2023 and projected to grow, we are well positioned to capitalize on this trend.
📆 Events Around the City
Industrial & Transportation Tech Hangout | Chicago
Monday
Chicago Angels: Building Community + Town Hall
Tuesday
Fireside Chat with Said Al-Hallaj, Founder and CEO of NETenergy
Tuesday
Chicago Climate Connect
Wednesday
Chicago Women In Recruiting ~ AI-ming High
Thursday
ImpactUp
Thursday
đź‘‹ See you next week!
A distinctive Midwest tech advantage that’s often overlooked:
You can count on your talent staying with you longer, even through the ups and downs.
This isn’t as common in other regions where there’s a culture of job-hopping.
Just my 2 cents.
— Landon (@landon20s)
6:26 PM • Oct 4, 2024