Wyoming

Data Center News Roundup: Meta Plans $800M Wyoming Facility, Google Misses Emissions Targets

Published

1 year ago

July 5, 2024

Data Center News Roundup: Meta Plans 0M Wyoming Facility, Google Misses Emissions Targets

With data center news moving faster than ever, we want to make it easy for industry professionals to cut through the noise and find the most important stories of the week.

The Data Center Knowledge News Roundup brings you the latest news and developments across the data center industry – from investments and mergers to security threats and industry trends.

To keep up to date with all things data centers, subscribe to the Data Center Knowledge newsletter to get content straight to your inbox.

Hyperscale Announcements

Meta has unveiled plans to develop a hyperscale data center in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Once complete, the $800 million, 715,000 sq ft campus will be the Facebook owner’s 21st data center in the US and 25th globally.

“Cheyenne stood out as an outstanding location for Meta to call home for a number of reasons,” the company said this week. “It provides good access to infrastructure and energy, it has a strong pool of talent, and we have found a great set of community partners that have helped us move this project forward.”

Regional news publication Cowboy State Daily has been keeping a close eye on Meta’s expansion in Wyoming. According to the paper, a $1.2 billion solar project is planned near the data center with the capacity to produce enough electricity to run 771,000 homes.

ARPA-E’s Peter de Bock Talks Data Center Cooling Obstacles, Innovations

Elsewhere, Amazon will partner with the Australian government for a cloud data system to handle top secret information, in a move that’s aimed at improving the nation’s cyber capabilities.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles announced the partnership with Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud division, at a press conference in Canberra this week, saying the government would invest at least A$2 billion ($1.3 billion) over the next decade in the new system.

The location of the data centers and the nature of the information they will be holding weren’t disclosed.

In other news, Gulf Energy will spend $271 million to expand its existing data center facility in Bangkok, Thailand, AQ Compute has started the construction of a new sustainable data center in Barcelona, Spain, and Northern Data is considering a $16 billion IPO as it looks to expand its data centers.

For more of the latest data center developments around the world, check out our July roundup.

Falling Short

In other hyperscale news this week, Google said its emissions shot up by 48% over five years, as the company has infused artificial intelligence throughout many of its core products – making it harder to meet its goal of eliminating carbon emissions by 2030.

Could Algae Be the Key to Data Center Sustainability?

Google’s annual sustainability report was released Tuesday (July 2) and covers the tech giant’s progress toward meeting its environmental goals. The company said its greenhouse gas emissions totaled 14.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent throughout 2023. This is 48% higher than in 2019, the company said, and 13% higher than in 2022.

Google said higher energy consumption at its data centers and emissions from its supply chain were to blame and said its push to add AI to its products could make it more difficult to reduce emissions going forward.

“As we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute, and the emissions associated with the expected increases in our technical infrastructure investment,” Google wrote in the report.

Cool Runnings

Data Center Knowledge recently sat down with Peter de Bock, head of the US Department of Energy’s ARPA-E initiative, who discussed the critical challenges of data center cooling.

As AI workloads surge, efficient thermal management has become pivotal. In this exclusive interview, de Bock discusses the opportunities and hurdles impacting the COOLERCHIPS initiative, which aims to cut typical data center cooling energy to under 5%.

New Data Center Developments: July 2024

“As we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute, and the emissions associated with the expected increases in our technical infrastructure investment,” de Bock said.

Check out the full article to learn more.

Internet Speed Record Broken

And finally, an international team of researchers has set a new world record for the world’s fastest internet speed – at a blistering 402 terabits per second (Tb/s).

The team, led by the Photonic Network Laboratory of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Japan, demonstrated a record-breaking optical transmission bandwidth of 37.6 THz to enable the new data-rate record in a standard commercially available optical fiber.

At this speed, it would take just one minute to download every movie listed on the Internet Movie Database and less than a millisecond to install the popular video game, Elden Ring.

“It is expected that the data-rate of optical transmission systems required to enable ‘Beyond 5G’ information services will increase enormously,” NICT said in a press release. “New wavelength regions enable deployed optical fiber networks to perform higher data-rate transmission and extend the useful life of existing network systems.”

University of Wyoming sues former energy research partner for $2.5M – WyoFile

Published

3 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

University of Wyoming sues former energy research partner for .5M – WyoFile

The University of Wyoming filed a lawsuit this week seeking $2.5 million from an energy company it partnered with to research enhanced oil recovery.

The university in 2024 signed a contract with Houston-based ACU Energy to advance research at the university’s Center of Innovation for Flow Through Porous Media, according to the university’s complaint filed Monday in Wyoming’s U.S. District Court. ACU Energy agreed to pay the university $15 million over the six-year research period. The company, according to the complaint, was to pay the university $2.5 million annually with two payments each year.

While the university kept up its end of the bargain — by assembling a research team, training research members and incurring costs to modify laboratory space — ACU Energy “failed to pay the University even a cent owed under the Agreement, leaving $2,500,000 outstanding in unpaid invoices,” the complaint alleges.

ACU Energy did not respond to a WyoFile request for comment before publication.

Old Main, the University of Wyoming’s oldest building, is home to administrative offices. (Tennessee Watson/WyoFile)

The company notified the university in February that it was terminating the contract, and the university notified ACU Energy in May of its breach of contract, according to court filings. The university asked the court for a jury trial.

Enhanced oil recovery refers to methods used to squeeze more crude from reservoirs that have already been tapped for primary production, extending the life of an oilfield.

The university commonly accepts money from private businesses in return for lending resources and expertise to advance research. The Center of Innovation for Flow Through Porous Media is part of the university’s Research Centers of Excellence in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences.

The Center of Innovation for Flow Through Porous Media, led by Mohammad Piri, a professor of petroleum engineering, bills itself as “the most advanced oil and gas research facility in the world.” The center conducts research at the university’s High Bay Research facility, which “is funded by $37.2 million in state dollars and $16.3 million in private contributions, with an additional $9.2 million in private gifts for research equipment,” according to the center’s website.

The center has received donations from oil industry heavyweights like ExxonMobil, Halliburton and Baker Hughes.

Piri was tapped to serve as “principal investigator” for the UW-ACU Energy partnership, according to the university’s complaint. As of press time, ACU Energy had not filed a response to the lawsuit.

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Wyoming

Search for fugitive wanted for child-sex crimes leaves Wyoming town on alert

Published

15 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Search for fugitive wanted for child-sex crimes leaves Wyoming town on alert

With a population under 600, Byron, Wyo., is generally a quiet town. In recent weeks, streets have been even quieter as both local and federal law enforcement search for 39-year-old fugitive Anthony Pease, who is wanted for six counts of sexual assault involving a minor.

Authorities have been searching the area for weeks, and a reward for information leading to an arrest now sits at $2,000.

See how the search impacts the town:

Search for fugitive wanted for child sex crimes leaves Wyoming town on alert

Saturday morning, law enforcement shared there was a confirmed sighting of Pease near town and reminded residents to remain vigilant by locking their doors and reporting suspicious activity. According to Wyoming’s Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office, before the weekend sighting, Pease hasn’t been seen since Nov. 1.

The Big Horn County Schools Superintendent, Matt Davidson, told MTN News a school resource officer on staff stays up to date with the latest on search efforts, and some parents say they’ve been keeping their kids indoors when they’re not at school.

As the search continues, the mayor as well as some residents, say they are taking law enforcement’s advice while keeping a watchful eye.

“I never used to lock my house during the day. I didn’t even lock my vehicles at night. In fact, a lot of the time I’d leave the keys in them. I’ve talked to other people and there is quite a few people that are nervous. I would hope that a lot of us are nervous because this is a bad thing,” said Byron Mayor Allan Clark.

In fact, investigators could be seen around Byron knocking on doors and scanning land outside of town.

“There’s just so much area and a low population, so much area for him to hide and seek shelter,” Clark said.

With so many wide-open spaces and abandoned buildings in the area, Clark understands why the search has gone on so long.

According to the US Marshals Service, Pease is 5 feet 11 inches tall and may also be going by the name Abraham. They also ask that anyone nearby who has a collection of silver dollars to ensure they are still there, and if not, to report to authorities.

Marshals say Pease is considered dangerous, and the public is told to not approach him and instead call 9-1-1. As the search has stretched over six weeks, many residents hope a capture will bring life back to normal.

“I hope that they capture him soon, and I hope that us as community members and around the area keep our eyes open and report anything suspicious,” said Clark.

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