Ardent Data Centers has closed on a deal to acquire a data center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Last month, Ardent said it was acquiring two data centers in the US but didn’t provide details on either.
The Northern Data Group company plans to offer high-density compute hosting and services out of the site.
Set on 7.5 acres, the 41,000 sq ft (3,900 sqm) building currently offers 5MW. The company said it aimed to expand the site to 20MW; the site’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems will be upgraded alongside new liquid-based cooling infrastructure. Ardent will begin conversion immediately and expects to complete the upgrade by Q4 2024.
Corey Needles, MD for Ardent Data Centers, said: "Completing this acquisition is an important milestone in the execution of Ardent's strategy to build and offer the most efficient, secure, and optimized infrastructure to power the next era of innovation enabled by HPC. We're looking forward to beginning the retrofitting process as we shape it into a purpose-built facility that will join Ardent's flagship European site in Boden, Sweden, as another industry-leading HPC data center."
Details on the precise location, seller, or terms of the deal weren’t shared. However, Five 9s Digital last week reported it advised on the sale of a 42,000 sq ft, 5MW data center in Pittsburgh.
The facility, at 615 McMichael Road in McKees Rock, had been on sale for much of 2023. The building was constructed around 1980 and refurbished in 2008. It sold for $7.12 million.
Ardent hasn’t provided details on the other US data center, or a UK facility it was a preferred bidder on in last month’s €110 million ($119m) investment plan announcement.
Ardent was formed last year after high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure provider Northern Data Group separated its operations into three different brands: Taiga Cloud, Ardent Data Centers, and Peak Mining.
The company currently operates space at two sites in Boden, Sweden; and Lefdal, Norway. The company also claims a presence US, Canada, Netherlands, and Germany.
Aroosh Thillainathan, founder and CEO of Northern Data Group, added: "Finalizing Ardent's acquisition of the Pittsburgh site is a great way to kick off 2024, and a demonstration of the rapid progress across Northern Data Group.”
"Our continued investment to enhance and expand Ardent's data center portfolio will propel the execution of Ardent's ambition to deliver future-ready data center environments and provide colocation services for compute power, across the United States and Europe. Northern Data Group's proposition as a global HPC company is continuing to grow and we look forward to supporting further expansion of Ardent's portfolio throughout the year."
Northern Data Group was initially founded as Northern Bitcoin AG in Germany in 2009 and branded itself as a 'green' Bitcoin mining company. In 2019, it merged with Whinstone US whose CEO, Aroosh Thillainathan, then became CEO of the joint company.
In 2020, Northern Bitcoin was officially renamed Northern Data Group and moved its focus to HPC. Whinstone was sold to Riot in 2021.
