Gigawatt-Scale Maryland Data Hub Advances

Quantum Loophole, which began construction in June for a massive, 2,100-acre “Gigawatt-scale” hyperscale data center campus in Frederick, MD, already has lined up its first four tenants for the first phase of the project, deals which will encompass 240 MW of capacity.

Quantum also announced this week that construction is underway on its QLoop network, a 40-mile hyperscale fiber ring that will connect the Frederick campus to the internet ecosystem in the heart of Northern Virginia’s data center cluster in Ashburn, VA.

In August, the first of two under-the-Potomac River borings for the fiber optic cables was completed. The 3,500-foot boring drilled through bedrock 90 feet below the river.

Quantum announced in May that data center provider Aligned would build out a facility on the campus site in Frederick, to be branded as Quantum Frederick.

The campus will rise on the site—purchased by a joint venture of Quantum and TPG Real Estate Partners in 2021—of a former Alcoa aluminum smelting plant. Quantum has several development-ready parcels to offer that are fully entitled for data center development—a major selling point as NIMBY sentiment against new data centers grows in rural areas of Virginia.

Quantum did not identify the three other tenants that will operate data centers on the Frederick campus, but it is anticipated that at one or two major cloud players who develops and operate hyperscale data processing facilities will be among the first-phase tenants.

The QLoop network is a critical component of Quantum’s plan to establish millions of SF of data centers on one campus, aiming for a gigawatt of capacity—more than exists in any market but Northern Virginia, which is the largest hub in North America.

Frederick, a leading life sciences and biotech hub, does not have a large cluster of data centers. Operators are drawn to clusters and increasingly require interconnecting network infrastructure that support instant sharing of data.

Quantum is betting that its QLoop will be a magnet drawing data center providers to the Frederick campus, with the fiber optic link to the Ashburn network essentially making the Frederick development an extension of the NoVa cluster in terms of data sharing.

Another key component of the Frederick campus is the power infrastructure Quantum has lined up to support a gigawatt-sized operation.

Dominion Energy, the largest utility covering Northern Virginia, has warned data center providers that it won’t be able to cover the power needs of new data center facilities in the western portion of the Ashburn cluster until it installed two new power transmission lines, a project that will take several years to complete.