CloudHQ announces US $4.8B plan to build six data centers in Querétaro

U.S. tech steadfast CloudHQ volition put an estimated US $4.8 cardinal to physique six information centers and complementary infrastructure connected a azygous tract successful Querétaro, a institution enforcement said Thursday.

Keith Harney, CloudHQ’s main operating officer, announced the concern astatine President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Thursday greeting property conference.

CloudHQ COO Keith Harney shared the quality astatine President Sheinbaum’s Thursday property conference. (Saúl López Escorcia/Presidencia)

“Our tract successful Querétaro is 52 hectares and we volition beryllium gathering six information centers, astir apt for unreality compute and AI and it volition beryllium up to 900 megawatts of captious IT load,” helium said.

The task was archetypal announced successful 2023, astatine which clip CloudHQ said that the concern would beryllium $3.6 billion.

The information halfway field is “in adjacent proximity to Querétaro Airport and volition beryllium the biggest information halfway field successful Mexico designed to accommodate 6 buildings of 48MW of IT load powered by an onsite substation,” according to the CloudHQ website.

Querétaro Airport is located astir 25 kilometers eastbound of Querétaro city.

Harney described the task  as a “hyper-scale information halfway field successful Querétaro,” a authorities that has go a information halfway hub owed to factors including its cardinal determination successful Mexico and a increasing energy supply.

He said that it is anticipated that operation of the information centers volition make “7,200 highly-skilled operation jobs.”

The field — which volition person its ain 900-megawatt substation — is expected to beryllium completed successful 2027. Once operational it should supply 900 imperishable jobs, and make off-campus jobs arsenic well, according to the CloudHQ executive.

Harney said that CloudHQ “is respectful of sustainable design” and highlighted that the information centers volition beryllium equipped with “waterless cooling” infrastructure. Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said that campus’s h2o usage volition beryllium “very low.”

However, determination are concerns astir the interaction information centers volition person connected h2o proviso successful Querétaro, which, similar galore states successful Mexico, has faced important h2o accent successful caller years.

Google and Microsoft are among the companies that already person information centers successful the Bajío portion state.

Microsoft opens caller information halfway portion successful Querétaro

Harney noted that CloudHQ is “one of the largest information halfway developers successful the world” and leases the facilities it builds to “the world’s largest technological companies.”

The companies that lease the information centers marque their ain important investments successful the facilities, helium said.

“The superior concern I shared with you is our cost. We rent our abstraction to our customers. Our customers volition marque a superior concern into the spot to marque it acceptable for their business,” Harney said.

“Typically that concern could beryllium 3 to 5 times the outgo of our building, and that would beryllium for a unreality compute and if that was AI it would beryllium importantly higher. So arsenic you tin see, [there volition be] important superior investment,” helium said.

“… Our customers yet find what they volition usage the abstraction for but we’re highly assured that this abstraction volition beryllium utilized for unreality compute and AI, truthful artificial intelligence,” Harney said.

“… We are pleased to beryllium playing a supporting relation successful enhancing the integer system for Mexico,” helium added.

Sheinbaum emphasized the value of expanding Mexico’s information processing capacity. (Saúl López Escorcia/Presidencia)

Sheinbaum said that concern successful information centers is “important for Mexico,” explaining that it gives the state “the capableness to process information related to artificial quality and accusation technology.”

“We besides request these investments to bring benefits for the community,” she said.

Ebrard highlighted that “practically each the services successful our regular lives volition beryllium connected to these kinds of information centers.”

“… That’s wherefore [the investment] is precise important — due to the fact that of its amount, the fig of jobs [it volition create] and the effect it volition have,” helium said.

CloudHQ’s information halfway field successful detail 

Harney provided a scope of different details astir CloudHQ’s task successful Querétaro. He said that:

• CloudHQ has collaborated with authorities successful Querétaro connected “the onshore and pre-development process” since 2021.
• Cloud HQ has besides collaborated with the Federal Electricity Commission and the National Energy Control Center to “secure archetypal power” for the company’s field and “will proceed to collaborate arsenic we upsize capacity.”
• Cloud HQ volition “seek to unafraid a semipermanent anchor tenant” for the information halfway campus.
• CloudHQ is gathering a abstracted “2-gigawatt maneuvering substation” to supply powerfulness to the information centers.
• CloudHQ volition trust connected “the Mexican proviso concatenation arsenic overmuch arsenic we can” portion gathering the information centers.
• The field tract is “just west” of the Querétaro Airport.

With reports from El Economista and Reuters