Five years ago, power was an afterthought in data center development. Today, it’s what determines whether your project happens at all.
AI workloads rewrote every assumption overnight. Utilities that planned for modest annual growth are now fielding requests for gigawatts. Interconnection queues that used to move quickly have been stretched for years. Hyperscalers are selecting sites based on a single question: Can we get the power quickly at scale?
Is this a power problem? No—it’s an ecosystem problem.
THE REAL CHALLENGE
Getting a campus online today requires resources and planning on an unprecedented scale, including power commitments, regulatory updates, and fiber connectivity. AI workloads require power at speeds and densities unparalleled in today’s world. Building a gigawatt-scale data center requires cooperation from utilities, regulators, developers, and investors. Still, each of these players operates on a different timeline, speaks a different technical language, and sees the market through different lenses.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jarrett Appleby is the Founder and CEO of ASG, with 30+ years of leadership across global data centers, telecommunications, and digital infrastructure. He helps clients navigate market transitions, asset positioning, and transaction execution with a combined operator-and-investor perspective. Appleby also advises The Blackstone Group on digital infrastructure investments and serves as an independent board member of Unitas Global and SunGard Availability Services. Previously, he held leadership positions at Digital Realty, CoreSite, Equinix, Reliance, AT&T, MCI, and Qwest. He has a BA in Mathematics and Economics and an MBA from Lehigh University.
