Hi again. This week's stories split between new power deals and the less glamorous side of AI infrastructure: lawsuits, power swings and how fast equipment can actually be installed. As always, I'll flag what's signed, what's built and what's still a plan.

This week's top 3

1. Microsoft's Indiana campus gets a 20-year power deal

NiSource announced a 20-year electricity agreement for Microsoft's planned campus in northwest Indiana, with service expected to start in 2028. NiSource says Microsoft will pay for the generation and transmission needed to serve its demand. Its GenCo business plans to grow a shared supply pool by about 1,100 MW and has contracted 600 MW of battery storage for a pool serving several large customers.

Why it matters: This is the "who pays" question with an actual answer on paper. NiSource says existing customers are protected and estimates savings of up to $140 per customer a year, but those are company forecasts, not bill cuts anyone has received. Approvals, construction and financing still stand between the contract and 2028. Source: NiSource announcement, Oct 16. → Read the brief

2. Judge keeps the NAACP lawsuit over xAI's gas plant alive

A federal judge in Mississippi ruled that the U.S. government can join a lawsuit over the gas plant powering xAI's Southaven data center, but can't use that role to end the case over the plaintiffs' objection. The NAACP alleges xAI and its affiliate MZX Tech built and ran the Colossus Gas Plant without required Clean Air Act permits.

Why it matters: When a campus builds its own power on site, air permits become part of the project. This ruling only decides who takes part in the case; it doesn't decide whether the allegations are true. The government's filing is due Oct 23, and xAI's motion to dismiss will be handled separately. Source: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, Oct 19. → Read the brief

3. NVIDIA wants AI factories built in a factory

NVIDIA introduced DSX POD, a reference design where partners assemble and test Vera Rubin computing systems inside modular containers before shipping them. NVIDIA says a prepared site could go from delivery to running in as little as 14 days, compared with about six months for a traditional build. Partner deliveries are planned for early 2027.

Why it matters: Faster installation could shrink the gap between a finished building and working AI. But the 14 days starts with a site that already has power, cooling and network, and both timelines are NVIDIA's estimates. No named customer installation is running yet. Source: NVIDIA announcement, Oct 21. → Read the brief

Quick hits

• Power swings: Siemens is investing in Skeleton Technologies and adding its supercapacitors to its data-center gear, to soften the sudden power jumps from thousands of AI chips. No investment amount or measured results yet. Brief →
• Power quality: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Ingeteam signed a memorandum of understanding to work on power equipment for U.S. data centers. It's an initial agreement, not a system in service. Brief →
• Cooling: Kioxia announced enterprise SSDs built for direct liquid cooling, up to 30.72 TB. Only samples are out, and specs may change before mass production. Brief →
• Japan: NYK, NTT Facilities, Eurus Energy and MUFG Bank are exploring floating data centers tied up at a port quay. There's no site, capacity, budget or opening date. Brief →

On the map

The map got its biggest update yet. It now combines four public sources (Epoch AI, Compute Atlas, DataCentersExposed and OpenStreetMap) and shows 3,866 U.S. sites, up from the 77 Epoch campuses it tracked before. All 77 original entries are still there. Of the 3,866, 952 are listed as operating, 351 under construction, 1,220 planned and 1,343 unknown. You can now filter by state, and each record carries a confidence label.

One caution: many of the new records are data centers whose AI use or size isn't known, so a pin isn't proof a site runs AI. Power figures are source estimates, not live readings. Explore the map → or see how we built it.

Explainer of the week

The Indiana deal is a good example of why "the data center will pay its own way" can be true and still leave questions. Paying for a dedicated substation is different from paying for the wider transmission network, and different again from the risk of building equipment for a load that never shows up. This week's explainer walks through how tariffs and contracts split those costs.

→ Read: Who pays when a data center needs a bigger grid? (7-minute read)

Two more new explainers pair well with it: Where AI data centers actually get their electricity and The long road from a data-center plan to a grid connection.

If you'd rather watch than read, the full video library is on YouTube. Subscribe here.

See you next Friday, Ryan

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