The Aligned ORD-01 data centre – named after the code for Chicago’s O’Hare airport – is 48MW, expandable to 60MW, and occupies 220,000 square feet (20,400 sq m).
Eventually, said Aligned, its 7.5 hectare campus will offer two multi-storey facilities and more than 100MW of capacity. The other will be called ORD-02.
Aligned CEO Andrew Schaap said “Chicago’s centralized location, long-haul connectivity, and access to renewable energy options make it an ideal geostrategic destination for hyperscalers and multinational enterprises to deploy their mission-critical infrastructure.”
The data centre has a waterless heat rejection system, a system already used in Phoenix, Arizona. Customers can expand service 50kW per rack at a time.
ORD-01 and ORD-02 are served by 12 metro, long haul and international fibre networks, said Aligned. The campus will draw redundant, critical power with 108MW total capacity.
Schaap said: “Bringing one hyperscale data centre online the same day that we break ground on a second facility is a testament not only to the demand for Aligned’s adaptive and sustainable data centre platform, but to our ability to deliver infrastructure at the velocity our customers need it, even in a supply-and power-constrained market such as Chicago, anywhere in the world.”
The company pointed to Chicago’s “low utility costs and attractive tax incentives, including exemptions from sales and use tax for qualifying data centres”, and said they “provide competitive advantages to Aligned’s customers who will benefit from the data centre investment programme offered by the state of Illinois”.
