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A few miles from the aging casinos of Reno, Nevada, and in the neighborhood of the Tesla Gigafactory, a data center boom is emerging in a sprawling industrial park.  

Why it matters: Companies are saying the region is becoming as attractive as Northern Virginia for data centers.  

Driving the news: Crusoe Energy and Redwood Materials on Thursday unveiled two small data centers running on solar power and backed up by old EV batteries. 

Crusoe's data centers are tiny, just 1 MW of IT capacity, but the off-grid design could be a model for how to power smaller data centers quickly and with clean energy.

And they're not overly expensive. Crusoe's data centers are "cost competitive with Northern Virginia," said Cully Cavness, co-founder and chief operating officer, at the launch event. 

State of play: The data centers are just the latest additions to the booming hub in and around the 100,000-acre complex in Storey County, Nevada. 

One of the first data centers was from Switch, which started operating in 2017.

Now Google, Tract, EdgeCore, Novva, Vantage and PowerHouse are operating or building data centers in the park, and Microsoft purchased land there.

Apple has one down the road from the complex.

The big picture: Demand for energy to power AI data centers is soaring, and hyperscalers are racing to secure low-cost power.

The deserts of Nevada have low-cost land (and lots of it), access to clean energy and a pro-business environment that has encouraged construction and manufacturing in the region.

Nevada policymakers famously wooed Elon Musk to build his Tesla Gigafactory there with a sweet incentive package. 

The region is also a few hours' drive from the Bay Area, a perk that attracts engineering talent and enables the data centers to be close enough to Silicon Valley.

Yes, but: Data center hubs in Chicago, Phoenix and Atlanta are surging faster, according to CBRE, which tracks data center markets.

Texas, too, has several regions that are rapidly attracting data center operators. 

What's next: The Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center hub is just getting started. Expect more years of major construction.

AI data center boom emerges in Reno-Tahoe

Companies are calling it the new Northern Virginia.

Two modular data centers built by Crusoe, powered by solar and batteries in the Reno-Tahoe Industrial complex

Two modular data centers built by Crusoe, powered by solar and batteries in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center. Photo: Courtesy of Redwood Materials. 

A few miles from the aging casinos of Reno, Nevada, and in the neighborhood of the Tesla Gigafactory, a data center boom is emerging in a sprawling industrial park. Why it matters: Companies are saying the region is becoming as attractive as Northern Virginia for data centers.

AI data center boom emerges in Reno-Tahoe

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