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- 🗄 More Gigawatts in Chicago
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✍🏽 This Week on Landon in the Loop:
🗄 More Gigawatts in Chicago
📊 Chart of the Week
📆 Events Around the City
🪄 Help For Our Readers
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🗄 More Gigawatts in Chicago
We've discussed at length the ongoing energy surge driven by AI demand, and how Illinois must take bold steps to build energy infrastructure for the future.
The need for high-power hyperscale data centers (1 GW and more) to support the future of compute is more urgent than ever.
Illinois should be dedicating every resource possible to attracting more hyperscalers to the state.
We have unmatched access to reliable nuclear energy, abundant water, and the infrastructure to support it.
We should 100% position ourselves as the leading state for compute.… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— Landon (@landon20s)
9:10 PM • Sep 25, 2024
Increasing Demand
AI, edge computing, and electrification are driving a massive increase in data processing and storage requirements, and traditional data centers are no longer sufficient to meet these demands.
Companies like Google, Microsoft, and Meta are pushing for hyperscale data centers with capacities reaching 1 GW.
Chicago must scale its data centers from 100 MW to 1 GW to remain competitive with hubs like Virginia and Texas.
Powering Data Centers with Clean Energy
Our state is already powered by 50% nuclear energy, which means we should prioritize expanding our clean energy footprint to support future data centers.
Colocating data centers near nuclear plants could offer a low-carbon solution for meeting massive energy needs.
Increasing tax incentives and leveraging federal funding, such as the CHIPS and Science Act, are crucial for attracting more hyperscalers to the region
Upcoming Projects
CloudHQ is constructing a 1.5 million sq. ft. data center in Mount Prospect.
The Prime ORD campus is a new 750,000 sq. ft buildout.
Meta is building a $1B data center in DeKalb and Microsoft’s is building a $500M expansion in the region.
A buildout in Hoffman Estates will include a new on-site substation, ensuring scalability toward hyperscale capacity by 2026.
📊 Chart of the Week
New data reveals that Chicago didn’t lose as many residents as expected during the pandemic.
While we saw a moderate outflow of residents, with a peak in 2020-2021, the departures were less severe compared to New York and San Francisco.
By 2022, the outflow stabilized.
Use AI as Your Personal Assistant
Ready to embrace a new era of task delegation?
HubSpot’s highly anticipated AI Task Delegation Playbook is your key to supercharging your productivity and saving precious time.
Learn how to integrate AI technology into your processes, allowing you to optimize resource allocation and maximize output with precision and ease.
📆 Events Around the City
Rise Chicago Kickoff Lunch
Monday
Chicago Digital Health Tech Breakfast Networking and Panel
Tuesday
Reply for more info
Unapologetic Leadership
Tuesday
Women in Manufacturing 2024
Wednesday
SB1047 AI Safety EA Discussion
Wednesday
👋 See you next week!
Follow me on Twitter for even more Chicago startup news.
Great blog on how startups can achieve ‘narrative command’ — aka the ability to control their industry’s story and become its leading voice.
How to get there:
- Craft a visionary "master plan."
- Launch products that set new industry standards.
- Use simple, memorable… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— Landon (@landon20s)
2:30 PM • Sep 26, 2024