Susana SchwartzROI Starts With Power, Permitting and Capital Commitments
RCRTech publisher Jeff Mucci attended Structure Research’s infra/STRUCTURE 2026 Conference, featuring Greg Miller and Remington Yee of Citizens, Brent Mayo of DigitalBridge and Jeremy Wolfe of First Citizens Bank.
As you’ll see in Mucci’s article on the session, “Capital Allocation in the Age of AI Scale, Constraints, and Execution Complexity,” the experts referred to “time to power” as a critical financial variable that can no longer be viewed merely as a construction milestone.
To avoid stranded infrastructure, utilities are requiring a larger upfront financial commitment, with developers having to fund preliminary work and reserve power before securing a signed customer lease.
To find out what other factors are slowing the time to revenue, check out the story here.
Susana Schwartz
Technology Editor
RCRTech
AI Infrastructure Top Stories
EXA back in subsea-build market: Jim Fagan of EXA Infrastructure, says transatlantic capacity is running out way earlier than forecast, prompting the company to build its 500Tbps, 24-fiber-pair Meridian system. The build comes as AWS, Google, and Meta increasingly retain capacity on their own cables for AI.
JLL on EU DC rating: Assad Noori, EMEA head of data centers at JLL, told RCRTech that the European Union’s proposed data center rating scheme could become an increasingly important for investors, lenders and hyperscalers. The intent is to increase transparency around data centers’ energy and water use.
AI Today: What You Need to Know
Megadeal debt financing: Oracle, Broadcom, and SpaceX are purportedly in talks with major lenders like Apollo, Blackstone, and Goldman Sachs. The intent is to arrange tbillions of dollars in debt deals to fund AI chip and infra rollouts.
SunPower breaks ground: SunPower broke ground on a new solar power system dedicated to fueling an AI data center in Reno, NV, a venture involving Cobalt Power Systems and SunPower New Homes and aiming for 100-megawatt-plus scale.
Pentagon ceases use of Anthropic:The BBC has reported that the Pentagon stopped using Anthropic AI tools following a standoff regarding national security and ethical guardrails. This counters previous reports about usage in military operations.
Oracle trucking gas to DCs: Oracle is trucking compressed natural gas to DC sites in specialized trailers and decompressed on-site to run power generators in Utah, Texas, New Mexico and other places where pipelines are delayed.
Leaders game out “Day After” scenarios: Anthropic, OpenAI, and other AI leaders are reportedly gaming out political and public safety fallout if widespread cyberattacks or service outages spark public backlash.
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