The Data Center Frontier Show

On the latest episode of the Data Center Frontier Show podcast, DCF Editor in Chief Matt Vincent speaks with Melissa Kalka, M&A and private equity partner, and Kimberly McGrath, real estate partner at Kirkland & Ellis, about how capital, power, and deal strategy are changing in the AI data center era. Their core message is clear. Capital is still flowing into digital infrastructure, but the market has become far more disciplined. Investors are no longer simply chasing land or growth stories. They are digging deeper into platform quality, delivery track record, contractual structure, and above all, power certainty. That last point now sits at the center of nearly every transaction. As AI workloads push development from 20 MW and 48 MW deals toward 100 MW, 500 MW, and even gigawatt-scale campuses, power availability has become the first screen in diligence. A site may have land and entitlements, but without credible access to power, it may struggle to attract customers, financing, or buyers. The conversation also underscores how AI has changed the asset class itself. Data centers are no longer being evaluated strictly as real estate. They are increasingly underwritten as a hybrid of real estate and infrastructure, with longer hold periods, shared campus systems, and more complex capital stacks. That dynamic is driving new financing structures, including more private credit activity, more infrastructure-style investment, and growing interest in open-ended and perpetual vehicles for long-term ownership. Powered land, meanwhile, has emerged as an asset category of its own. In a market where development pipelines remain robust and hyperscalers are pursuing massive capacity expansions, sites with large increments of secured power are drawing intense interest. Kalka and McGrath also explain that customer contracts now function as a key part of financing infrastructure. Lease and colocation agreements are being negotiated with greater attention to lender expectations, long-term revenue stability, and risk allocation around power delivery and development timing. For developers and operators, one of the biggest lessons is that structure matters early. Projects need to be organized from the outset in ways that make them financeable, investable, and divisible as platforms mature. Just as important, these deals now require extraordinary coordination across legal, real estate, regulatory, financing, environmental, and community stakeholders. The episode offers a timely look at a market moving out of its speculative phase and into a more demanding period defined by execution. In the AI era, the winners will not simply be those who raise capital fastest, but those who can align capital, contracts, land, and power into a credible path to delivery.

Jarrett Atkinson, VP of Supply Chain at Blueprint Supply Chain, specializes in mission-critical equipment logistics for data center construction. He explains how modern warehouse management systems deliver real-time visibility, lifecycle asset tracking, and unified multi-site control. Conversation covers resilience via cloud SaaS, implementation risks like data integrity, and emerging tracking tech for high-availability operations.

Joel Wynn, VP of Data Center Sales at Southwire, brings end-to-end expertise from mining to conductor engineering. He discusses reduced-carbon copper, material traceability, and how wiring and conductors drive embodied carbon. The conversation covers metrics like EPDs, supply-chain transparency, and practical steps for on‑premise power and procurement planning.

Bud Vos, CEO of MetOx, leads a company making high-temperature superconducting wire for power and grid uses. He explains how HTS can replace bulky copper infrastructure, enable much higher power density, and shift systems to higher current at lower voltage. He also discusses integration with liquid cooling and how smaller HTS footprints ease permitting and campus delivery challenges.

Tom Carroll, Director of Data Center at EBM Pabst Americas, is an HVAC and air-movement expert focused on data centers and supply chains. He explores liquid cooling and hybrid approaches alongside persistent air-cooling roles. He covers high-voltage DC readiness, localized manufacturing to shorten lead times, and digital tools like BMS protocols and digital twins to optimize systems.

Subzero Engineering is pleased to announce the acquisition of the Dissolvable Air Barrier (DAB) Panels product line from Cambridge R&D, further expanding Subzero’s portfolio of data center containment solutions and reinforcing its commitment to safety, performance, and turnkey system delivery.  DAB Panels are a unique overhead containment solution designed to provide effective airflow separation during normal data center operation while dissolving within seconds when exposed to water during sprinkler activation. This dissolvable design helps eliminate falling panel hazards and supports safer fire suppression outcomes—addressing a critical challenge found in traditional rigid overhead containment systems.  “With this acquisition, we’re strengthening our ability to deliver truly integrated, safety-driven containment solutions,” said Shane Kilfoil, President of Subzero Engineering. “DAB Panels complement our existing containment portfolio and give our customers another proven option to address airflow management and fire safety without compromise.”  DAB Panels are engineered for both hot aisle and cold aisle containment applications and offer a combination of airflow performance, safety, and installation flexibility. Made from EPA-certified, plant-based cellulose materials, the panels achieve Class A fire and smoke performance, producing low heat and minimal smoke while maintaining visibility for emergency personnel.  Despite their dissolvable design, DAB Panels remain durable during normal operation—withstanding high static air pressure and maintaining airflow separation where it matters most. Panels can be easily modified in the field to accommodate varying cabinet heights and existing infrastructure, eliminating the need to relocate sprinkler heads and reducing installation time and cost.  DAB Panels integrate seamlessly across Subzero’s full portfolio of data center containment products, including aisle frames, doors, roofs, and airflow management systems. This unified approach enables Subzero to deliver turnkey containment solutions engineered for performance, safety, and long-term scalability—backed by a single partner and a coordinated system designed to work together. 

In this episode of the Data Center Frontier Show, DCF Editor-in-Chief Matt Vincent speaks with Michael Siteman, President of Prodigious Proclivities and a long-time leader and board member within 7x24 Exchange International, about how data center development is being reshaped by AI, power scarcity, network strategy, and community resistance. Siteman explains how site selection has evolved from a traditional real estate exercise into a far more complex infrastructure challenge. “The business used to be a pure real estate play,” Siteman says. “Now it’s a systems engineering problem. It’s power, network topology, the real estate itself, and political risk.” The conversation explores the growing dominance of power in development strategy, including the rapid rise of behind-the-meter generation as utilities struggle to keep pace with demand. Siteman notes that attitudes toward onsite generation have shifted dramatically in just the past few months. “Six months ago, people would say, ‘If you don’t have grid interconnection, we’re not interested,’” he says. “In the last 30 days, it’s completely different.” Vincent and Siteman also discuss the balance between network access and power access, the risks of pre-leasing capacity before buildings are completed, and the growing importance of local politics and government relations in getting projects approved. The episode closes with a look at the widening gap between traditional hyperscale facilities and AI factories, the question of whether AI infrastructure is heading toward a bubble, and the industry’s urgent workforce shortage. “Data centers don’t run themselves,” Siteman says. “We simply don’t have enough people to build and operate the infrastructure that’s coming.” This is a grounded, field-level conversation about what is really driving data center development in the AI era, and what the industry will need to solve next.

Fengrong Li, Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting, moderates the discussion. David Blank, Siemens Energy turbine lead, explains gas turbines as near‑term backbone. Marty Trivette, AlphaStruxure energy solutions SVP, covers on‑site financing and modular builds. Brian Gitt, Oklo business lead, talks modular nuclear options. Yuval Bachar, ECL CEO, outlines modular hydrogen fuel‑cell DC‑first designs. They debate modularity, fuel mixes, fast‑response buffering, and phased on‑site power strategies.

The data center industry is racing into the AI era with bigger campuses, tighter timelines, and unprecedented infrastructure complexity. But in this episode of The Data Center Frontier Show Podcast, 7x24 Exchange International founding member and Mission Critical Global Alliance (MCGA) board member Dennis Cronin argues the industry’s biggest constraint may be the one it talks about least: people. Cronin’s message is direct: the “talent cliff” isn’t coming; it’s already here. Based on recent research into open roles, he estimates 467,000 to 498,000 openings in core data center positions (facilities and ops leadership, electrical, generator/UPS, HVAC, controls), plus another ~514,000 emerging roles tied to AI infrastructure, sustainability, and cyber-physical security—bringing the total to roughly one million jobs the industry needs to fill. A major driver is what Cronin calls the “five-year experience trap”: employers require five years of experience even for entry-level roles, but newcomers can’t get experience without being hired. The result is widespread talent poaching, involving workers jumping from site to site for 10–20% raises, without expanding the overall labor pool. Cronin also highlights a frequently missed reality in public policy debates: the job multiplier effect. While data centers may have lean direct staffing, they support a much larger ecosystem of contractors, service providers, and manufacturers, from generator and UPS technicians to security integrators and the electrical/mechanical supply chain, many of whom are already scrambling to hire. On training, Cronin explains why company-run programs and commercial training aren’t enough on their own. Internal academies often produce siloed specialists trained for a single operator’s environment, while commercial courses, often ~$1,000 per day per person, are typically designed to upskill people already in the industry, not onboard new entrants. MCGA’s strategy focuses on community colleges as the most scalable on-ramp: affordable programs, scholarships, and hands-on labs that can produce strong technicians in two-year degrees. Cronin cites programs at Cleveland Community College (NC), Northern Virginia Community College, and Southside Community College (VA), noting that dozens of schools are exploring data center curricula but funding remains a barrier. Cronin’s proposed solution is a true workforce ecosystem: outreach, standardized curriculum, certification labs, structured apprenticeships, and employer commitments. He also advocates replacing the “five years” requirement with an entry-level certification that proves foundational knowledge, i.e. acronyms and language, reading one-lines, SOPs/MOPs, and crucially, safety and situational awareness in electrical and mechanical environments. Finally, Cronin tackles the money question. With $60B in data centers announced this year, he says the industry needs a major, shared investment across operators, vendors, contractors, and manufacturers to fund training and scholarships at scale. The stakes are operational: in an era of gigawatt AI facilities and shrinking margins for error, workforce readiness is now a mission-critical issue.

In the latest episode of The DCF Show Podcast, Data Center Frontier founder Rich Miller joins present DCF Editor in Chief Matt Vincent and Senior Editor David Chernicoff to examine where the data center industry stands as AI infrastructure moves from announcement to execution. Miller also discusses his new Data Center Richness podcast and Substack project, which explores how data center professionals consume content and learn about the rapidly evolving industry. With information overload now a reality, Miller’s goal is to distill the most important signals shaping infrastructure decisions. The conversation then turns to what defines 2026 for data centers: execution. After a year filled with megaproject announcements, the industry now faces the harder task of actually delivering campuses at AI scale—often under severe power constraints. With utilities struggling to keep pace, on-site generation is shifting from temporary solution to long-term strategy, as developers seek reliable ways to power projects while easing community concerns about grid impacts. Public resistance has also become a major factor. Miller notes that community opposition is now delaying or halting billions of dollars in projects, forcing operators to rethink how they engage with local stakeholders. Issues like power pricing and water usage are increasingly central to project approval. On the technology front, Nvidia’s roadmap continues to reshape infrastructure planning, with rack densities rising sharply, liquid cooling becoming standard, and new power distribution models emerging to support AI factories. At the same time, Miller expects the market to stratify, with some operators specializing in AI factories while others serve cloud and enterprise demand. The discussion also touches on nuclear power’s future role, with data centers positioning themselves as anchor customers, though meaningful SMR deployment remains years away. Ultimately, Miller argues that the industry is moving faster than ever, and 2026 will reveal how well today’s massive investments translate into real deployments. As he concludes: the next phase belongs to those who can deliver.