Wednesday, 14 October 2026

Volta, an AI infrastructure company, recently sought to raise USD 5 billion in debt for a data center in Norway, according to Semafor Net Zero. The effort comes amid more than USD 450 billion in AI-related debt deals completed so far this year.

Some investors pushed back as the deal was marketed, saying they had reached their limit on data-center debt and demanding more security and a higher interest rate, Semafor Net Zero reported.

The deal was expected to price later in the week at an interest rate of at least 11%, anchored by a USD 1.5 billion order from Apollo, people familiar with the matter told Semafor Net Zero.

AI-financing deals are still being completed but less smoothly than earlier in the year, with higher rates and more heavily negotiated terms, investors and bankers told Semafor Net Zero.

Big Watt Digital and PowerHouse Data Centers secured approval to develop the Taylor Technology Campus near Taylor, Texas, a hyperscale project, according to commercialsearch.com. The complex will have up to 1 GW of power capacity at full build-out.

In a separate project, ServerDomes CEO David J. Keegan apologized to the Hudspeth County community for failing to inform residents directly and early about a planned data center there, according to KTSM. "You should have heard about this project from us directly and early, and you did not," Keegan said.

Keegan said the Hudspeth County data center would occupy 2,000 acres and consist of 10 dome-like buildings, each powered by a behind-the-meter gas solution.

Residents in Carbon County, Utah, and across communities in Ohio are resisting plans tied to data center development, from nuclear and gas buildout to local construction moratoria.

Plans in Carbon County call for 456 small nuclear reactors and a giant gas plant to serve data center complexes, according to High Country News. A Carbon County commission candidate said the opinions she heard were overwhelmingly opposed to data centers and nuclear plants.

In Ohio, activists helped spur data center moratorium votes in 10 communities and are seeking a statewide ban, according to Matter News. Residents are demanding local bans and moratoria while gathering signatures for a statewide ballot measure that could reach voters in 2027.

Washington and Manila announced plans for a 4,000-acre high-tech manufacturing hub in the Philippines' Central Luzon region, according to Grist.

The Pax Silica site sits within New Clark City and overlaps with the ancestral domain claims of thousands of Aetas, Grist reported.

Opponents, including Indigenous and local communities living on the designated land, say the project is an international land and resource grab undertaken in the name of U.S. AI ambitions, according to Grist.

Residents in Cedar Creek, Texas, are urging Bastrop County leaders to provide more transparency about a proposed data center and natural gas power plant planned near thousands of homes, according to CBS Austin.

In a separate case, an 18 MW cryptocurrency data center proposed south of Jerseyville remains absent from the Jersey County Board's agenda, according to The Telegraph.

A group marched to Ameren Missouri's headquarters to call for lower electricity bills and cleaner sources of energy, according to KCUR. The demonstration targeted the utility's plan to expand generation capacity.

Ameren Missouri said the planned expansion of power plants is primarily driven by new large data centers moving to Missouri, according to KCUR.

Missouri's new state energy plan, drawn up by the state's Department of Natural Resources, prioritizes new nuclear plants, energy independence and grid reliability, according to KTLO. Missouri Department of Natural Resources Director Jake Buxton said nuclear power is best suited to provide the state around-the-clock electricity as demand rises from artificial intelligence data centers, according to KTLO.