German giant data center from Microsoft Azure can process 520 megawatts

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Two years ago, Microsoft announced that it would also build huge AI data centers in Germany. The first building permits for several buildings in the Rhenish lignite mining area are now available, and the groundbreaking ceremony took place on March 12.

So far, however, Microsoft has not provided specific figures on the planned total capacity of the cluster of several data centers. However, the grid operator Westnetz is converting the Bedburg substation for this purpose and is laying new 110-kilovolt lines with a total capacity of 520 megawatts (MW).

This means that the Microsoft Azure cluster in North Rhine-Westphalia will reach similar dimensions in its final expansion as NTT is planning in Rhineland-Palatinate with 482 MW. There, expansion reserves for more than 600 MW are even planned.

For comparison: The largest German data center location to date is the Frankfurt/Main area. According to estimates, data centers with a total capacity of just over 1.1 gigawatts (GW) are currently in operation there.

The data center strategy just adopted by the German federal government could therefore be successful. Because a total of investments in data centers totaling 25 to 30 billion euros are currently planned in Germany.

Small and large fish

Many of the large planned data center projects, however, extend over long periods. The respective investors initially want to attract interested parties and expand capacity only as needed. Therefore, many of the projects in Germany are also planned in blocks in the form of several buildings.

Compared to the gigantic AI factories like Stargate Abilene or xAI Colossus 2, which are currently under construction or already running in the USA, most projects in Germany appear modest. According to Elon Musk, the $18 billion Colossus 2 in Memphis has been running with 1 GW since January and is expected to increase to 2 GW. Mobile gas turbines are partly used to supply power because the grid capacity is insufficient.

So far, there is no comparable demand for AI computing power in Germany, mainly because there are no companies like Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft or Apple here, some of which serve several billion users.

The sluggish demand for AI computing power in this country was also mentioned by Telekom CEO Höttges at the opening of the Tucherpark AI data center in Munich, which is rather small with 12 MW. Nevertheless, this facility alone is expected to roughly double the AI computing power currently available for rent in Germany.

Different offers

The offers also vary greatly. Many large data centers in Germany are so-called colocation data centers, where tenants operate their own hardware. In this case, the investment sums mentioned for the respective data center primarily relate to the buildings, their infrastructure (power supply, cooling, physical security) and possibly network technology.

Cloud hyperscalers such as market leaders Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, on the other hand, house their own servers in their halls. Therefore, the largest part of their investments flows to hardware manufacturers, the largest of which are located in the USA (Nvidia, HPE, Dell, AMD, Intel, Cisco, Arista, Supermicro).

Green electricity (also) from Saxony

Microsoft emphasizes that the data centers in NRW will use green electricity. Microsoft buys this primarily through Power Purchase Agreements (PPA), including with the large Saxon PV project Energiepark Witznitz.

(ciw)