Data Center Bytes

The rapid expansion of AI infrastructure, cloud computing, and hyperscale data center development is increasing pressure on data center operators to secure reliable electricity while advancing sustainability objectives. Against this backdrop, renewable energy credits (RECs) have emerged as an advantageous instrument, among other renewable energy strategies.

As investment in nuclear energy continues to grow, driven in part by rising electricity demand from data centers, AI infrastructure, and other large-load users, project developers and investors are navigating increasingly sophisticated commercial and regulatory structures.

Global power is shifting from oil and shipping to AI infrastructure—fiber, power, semiconductors, and data centers that will define sovereignty and influence.

Data center capacity has become one of the most sought-after resources in today’s digital economy. The rapid growth of cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and data-intensive applications—particularly those driven by high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs)—has significantly increased demand for power, cooling, and physical infrastructure. As a result, a growing number of companies are turning to colocation arrangements as a faster and more cost-effective alternative to building and operating their own data centers.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has issued a Level 3 Alert calling for immediate attention from NERC registered entities regarding the reliability risks associated with large computational loads, including data centers, artificial intelligence training facilities, cryptocurrency mining operations, and similar facilities.

Germany has taken a significant step toward strengthening its digital infrastructure with the adoption of a National Data Center Strategy aimed at expanding capacity, supporting artificial intelligence development, and addressing sustainability concerns.

Among the many considerations for building, operating, and monetizing data centers, a vital aspect is whether the data center owners and customers will be able to export to—and use within—a non-US data center competitive hardware and software, namely the advanced semiconductors used in training and running large-language models.

S&P Global Market Intelligence recently released its 2026 US Datacenter and Energy Report, which summarizes the forces that may shape data center and power generation development in the coming year.

Our prior blog post discussed an issue faced by investors who use the tokutei mokuteki kaisha (TMK) as the vehicle to own a data center in Japan. The primary issue the post explored was whether a TMK is required to entrust movable assets (including the data center fit-out) with a Japanese trustee.

Cloud computing has been sold as elastic, on-demand access to virtually unlimited resources. However, the rapid growth of data-intensive and artificial intelligence–driven workloads has strained the availability of certain types of computing, particularly specialized processors and region-specific capacity. As a result, customers (and their lawyers) are questioning whether compute resources will be available when needed.