Aligned Data Centers Takes Fight To Northwest With Planned 27-Acre Campus

Hillsboro, Ore., is known as the ‘Silicon Forest’ for its embrace of tech companies. In addition to Aligned, hyperscalers like Meta, NTT and enterprise providers such as Flexential and Stack Infrastructure have recently built data centers in the area.

Aligned Data Centers said Tuesday it is building a massive new 27-acre campus in Oregon that will house 108 megawatts of capacity for its customers, ramping up competition in the ultra-hot Pacific Northwest where it will go toe to toe with hyperscalers and larger enterprise providers.

“The rapidly expanding Hillsboro data center market offers a host of advantages to hyperscale and large enterprise customers, especially as compared to other Western data center locations,” Andrew Schaap, CEO of Aligned, said in a statement. “Hillsboro offers a business-friendly environment, affordable power and renewable energy options … as well as proximity to international subsea cable networks that reduce latency between the U.S. and high-growth markets in the Asia-Pacific region.”

[RELATED: Aligned Data Centers Moves Into Latin America With ODATA Buy]

Hillsboro is known as the “Silicon Forest” for its embrace of tech companies. Intel is the city’s largest employer with 20,000 jobs. In addition to Aligned, hyperscalers like Meta, NTT and enterprise providers such as Flexential and Stack Infrastructure have recently built data centers in the area.

Aligned said the broad plan for Hillsboro includes the initial data center at Aligned’s Hillsboro campus, which is expected to offer 72 megawatts of critical capacity. The second building is currently planned for 36 megawatts.

Aligned’s campus is designed to cut costs on macro expenses as well, savings it plans to pass along to customers. Aligned is building its facility in Oregon’s Enterprise Zone program. Hillsboro has no state, city or county sales taxes, and Oregon’s Enterprise Zone program offers property tax abatement to data centers for up to five years that bring new facilities, equipment and employment to the region.

Electricity is also less expensive there, “lowering customers’ total cost of ownership,” according to Aligned.

“The campus will combine Aligned’s patented and award-winning Delta³ cooling technology with a state-of-the-art waterless heat rejection system, fortifying corporate sustainability commitments as well as preserving local water resources, while the region’s mild climate will help further reduce power usage and costs associated with data center cooling,” the company said in its statement.

Aligned finished last year with the purchase of Odata ,a provider of data centers throughout central and South America. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it opens huge new markets for the company in Mexico, Brazil, Columbia and Chile, the company said in a statement announcing the deal Dec. 13.

The Dallas-based provider of what it calls sustainable and adaptable data centers enterprise infrastructure solutions grew its physical footprint last year with 470 megawatts of construction started or planned.

The company opened two data center facilities in Phoenix with a combined 400-megawatt capacity. It also has sites under construction in Dallas, Chicago, northern Virginia, Frederick County, Md., and Salt Lake City.

Meanwhile, Odata is one of the fastest-growing hyperscale data center platforms in the Western Hemisphere and gives the new company room for growth, regional expertise and partnerships across geographies. The move should also provide a more robust supply chain to help its enterprise and hyperscale customers, Schaap said in a statement at the time of the deal.

“The acquisition combines a significant growth runway for expansion and a proven ability to deliver capacity at maximum speed, with regional expertise and partnerships, enhanced fiscal resources and a resilient supply chain, to deliver a world-class data center platform that meets the demands of our global hyperscale and enterprise customers,” said the statement at the time of that deal.