Trump’s Defense Production Act (DPA) memorandum on grid equipment intends to rapidly increase the production and deployment of “dangerously limited” supplies of what RCRTech talked about earlier in the week, such as transformers, high-voltage transmission components, advanced conductors, power electronics, substations and grid-supporting manufacturing equipment.

With his five presidential determinations under Section 303 of 1950’s DPA, “as Amended, on Grid Infrastructure, Equipment, and Supply Chain Capacity,” the administration plans to bypass standard competitive procurement requirements and provide direct financial support to manufacturers.

The real impact will depend in large part on the Department of Energy’s implementation and consequentially, substantial funding for financial incentives aimed at electrical manufacturers and those related to energy infrastructure.

As you will see in tomorrow’s RCRTV AI TechTalk with Crusoe Energy’s pre-construction estimator, the wait time for securing full grid connections in congested energy markets is about 8 years, making power the leading site-selection criteria for data center builds.

Susana 2

Susana Schwartz
Technology Editor
RCRTech

AI Infrastructure Top Stories

Nvidia – Google Cloud hardware scaling: New A5X instances featuring Nvidia Vera Rubin GPUs can scale to nearly 1 million GPUs in multisite clusters using Google’s Virgo networking. This will help agents reason and execute complex tasks.

AirTrunk gains 600MW: APAC data center operator AirTrunk has entered the Indian market through its acquisition of Lumina CloudInfra, procuring a 600MW development pipeline and up to $5 billion in potential future investment.

Ciena talks ‘network readiness’ for AI: Neoclouds prioritize GPU deployment, often leaving network infrastructure to catch up in early stages of scaling. With AI exerting pressure across transport networks, operators are racing to keep up.

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AI Today: What You Need to Know

Vast Data secures $1B: Vast Data has raised about $1 billion in a late-stage Series F funding round that values the company at $30 billion. CEO Renen Hallak said the round was driven by investor interest rather than a predefined capital target.

TSMC 11.8% return raises eyebrows: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing 11.8% monthly return and a 12.9% gain over the past 3 months prompted investors to reassess its recent share performance and chipmakers’ strength overall.

Virginia Transformer Corp. expands: Virginia Transformer Corp. is expanding its Georgia Transformer facility in Rincon to increase its production capacity by 50%. The expansion represents a $40 million investment and will create 400 jobs.

Vertiv Q1 results: Vertiv Holdings reported its Q1 financial results, with net sales of $2,650 million, a 30% increase as compared to Q1 2025. This highlights the need for power and thermal management for AI-driven, high-density computing.

Broadcom – Meta work on 2nm AI Chips: Broadcom & Meta extended their AI Pact into 2029 to focus on future generations of Meta’s custom AI chips. This initial commitment exceeds one gigawatt (GW) and is the first phase of a multi-GW rollout.

Accelsius NeuCool: Accelsius is positioning itself as an innovator in AI-focused thermal management solutions with its NeuCool® IR150, highlighting its two-phase, direct-to-chip liquid cooling for data center and edge computing environments.

RCR Events

Defense Communications Forum, April 28thJoin defense leaders, technology innovators and system integrators and explore how commercial network solutions can be adapted to meet defense-grade requirements, enabling secure, resilient, AI-driven, multi-bearer networks. Test & Measurement Forum, May 19thJoin the annual Test & Measurement Forum where industry leaders, innovators, and engineers come together to tackle the most pressing test and measurement challenges in telco today. Register now