New data centres: CloudHQ invests USD 4.8 billion in Mexico

Billions of dollars in tech continue to flow from the United States to Mexico. The US IT company CloudHQ, based in San Francisco in the US state of California, will invest USD 4.8 billion in the construction of a campus with six data centers in Querétaro in central Mexico. These will be used for cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI). The investment will create 7,200 jobs during the construction phase and around 900 highly qualified permanent jobs once the center is operational, which is scheduled for the first half of 2027. This was announced by Mexico's Minister of Economy, Marcelo Ebrard, when the project was announced in Mexico City at the end of last week.

According to Ebrard, CloudHQ's billion-euro investment is in line with Mexico's strategy of attracting strategic projects that enable the country to participate in the global technological transformation. "Virtually all services in our daily lives already depend on data centers, from applications to air travel or networked household appliances to the use of artificial intelligence," he explained.

Waterless cooling systems

The project in Querétaro will be one of the largest in the region and will be supplied via a private substation with a capacity of 900 megawatts, announced Keith Harney, Chief Operating Officer at CloudHQ. The US company is one of the world's leading developers of data centers and has invested beyond 17 billion US dollars in digital infrastructure at 23 locations around the globe. According to Harney, the new campus in Querétaro will be designed according to international energy efficiency standards. Water-based cooling systems will not be used to reduce the ecological footprint. Economics Minister Ebrard explained that the facility's water consumption will be "very low". The two did not specify what type of cooling systems would be used. Harney merely explained that the project aims to utilize clean energy.

Querétaro, like large parts of central and northern Mexico, has been struggling with water shortages for years, as industrial projects and agriculture put a strain on the region's groundwater systems. The major Mexican city, located three hours' drive north-west of Mexico City, is nevertheless increasingly becoming a hotspot for data centers. "This project makes Querétaro one of the most important locations for artificial intelligence in the country," emphasized Ebrard. In the recent past, US companies Microsoft and Amazon have already announced or made investments worth billions in Querétaro. The Amazon subsidiary Amazon Web Services (AWS) plans to invest five billion US dollars in an infrastructure cluster to offer customers advanced and secure cloud technologies. Microsoft, in turn, opened its first regional data center in Querétaro in early 2024.

(akn)