{"id":1229,"date":"2025-12-10T21:48:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T01:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/?p=1229"},"modified":"2025-12-10T21:48:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T01:48:36","slug":"digitial-infrastructure-a-new-frontier-and-watt-to-know-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/2025\/12\/10\/digitial-infrastructure-a-new-frontier-and-watt-to-know-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Digitial Infrastructure: A New Frontier and Watt to Know About It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last week, Duane Morris kicked off a new multipart webinar series\u2014What\u2019s Watt\u2014 <\/em>taking a deep dive into the critical relationship between energy and modern data centers and highlighting the trends and technologies reshaping digital infrastructure. The series launched with a state-of-the-market discussion with DigitalBridge\u2019s Jeff Ginsberg and Duane Morris\u2019 Robert Montejo<\/a>, moderated by Brad Molotsky.<\/a> The panel offered insights on the industry\u2019s key trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s Watt<\/em> you missed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Power Is Key<\/strong>

Watt\u2019s Old<\/em>: Smaller-scale developments with traditional grid access.

Watt\u2019s New<\/em>: A mix of utility power, onsite generation, and creative energy strategies to meet a much greater demand.

AI\u2019s explosive growth is reshaping the energy landscape, driving an unprecedented need for reliable, large-scale power. Training and operating advanced AI models requires massive compute clusters that draw far more electricity than traditional cloud workloads, pushing data centers into power ranges once associated with heavy industry. As organizations race to deploy AI capabilities, the demand for high-density facilities, fast interconnection, and resilient energy infrastructure is outpacing what many utilities can deliver on typical timelines. This surge is forcing developers, operators, and policymakers to rethink how and where digital infrastructure is built\u2014prioritizing power availability, alternative generation sources, and innovative grid partnerships to keep pace with AI\u2019s accelerating requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Infrastructure Is Expensive<\/strong>

Watt\u2019s Old<\/em>: Traditional loan structures with shorter maturities.

Watt\u2019s New<\/em>: Large-scale, multilayered financing with longer terms and institutional investors capable of absorbing significant risk.

The next wave of data center development\u2014driven by AI-scale power and capacity requirements\u2014will require hundreds of billions of dollars in capital. Whether this growth ultimately forms a bubble remains unclear, but its scale is already reshaping credit markets and stretching the capacity of conventional lenders. As banks reach concentration limits and face regulatory constraints, developers increasingly rely on institutional investors, sovereign funds, infrastructure platforms, and hyperscalers with trillion-dollar balance sheets to support long-duration projects. These deals frequently involve complex capital stacks, special purpose vehicles, and financing horizons of 15\u201325 years to match the lifecycle of large campuses and energy assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Focus on Execution<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watt\u2019s Old<\/em>: Out of sight, out of mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watt\u2019s New<\/em>: Plan deliberately and anticipate environmental, regulatory, and community challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambitious AI-driven demand has raised the stakes for planning and execution in large-scale data center and energy projects. Power generation\u2014whether grid-supplied or onsite\u2014introduces thermal loads, water requirements, land-use impacts, and transmission needs that must be addressed early to keep projects viable. In many regions, particularly in the Western U.S., water constraints, aquifer depletion concerns, and limited cooling alternatives can quickly challenge site feasibility. Local infrastructure pressures, such as noise, construction logistics, easements, and grid constraints, often converge with environmental and community concerns, creating conditions ripe for pushback or organized resistance. Effective execution now means proactive engagement, rigorous resource planning, and transparent mitigation strategies to avoid delays and ensure that projects scale responsibly amid real and growing demand for AI infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find a recording of the full-length discussion here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watt\u2019s Next:<\/em><\/strong>  Our webinar series continues with What\u2019s Watt: Nuclear Power and the Future of Data Center Construction<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, Duane Morris kicked off a new multipart webinar series\u2014What\u2019s Watt\u2014 taking a deep dive into the critical relationship between energy and modern data centers and highlighting the trends and technologies reshaping digital infrastructure. The series launched with a state-of-the-market discussion with DigitalBridge\u2019s Jeff Ginsberg and Duane Morris\u2019 Robert Montejo, moderated by Brad Molotsky. The panel offered insights … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Digitial Infrastructure: A New Frontier and Watt to Know About It”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[878],"class_list":["post-1229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-infotechtelecom"],"authors":[{"term_id":878,"user_id":6,"is_guest":0,"slug":"duanemorris3","display_name":"Duane Morris","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/843ff6e7a8fe5fc92109b47a45f34b6cf0ea499e6e788db23456c838b0ae6747?s=96&d=blank&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1229"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}