NV1 and the Nevada Hyperscale Boom: Vantage Data Centers Bets $3B on the AI Future

In mid-July 2025 Vantage Data Centers unveiled plans for its first foray into Nevada, investing almost $3 billion in a new hyperscale data center campus in Storey County, just outside Reno. The NV1 campus is sited on more than 135 acres and will have four multi-story data centers with a total of over 1 million sq ft of available space.

Currently, the campus is slated to be provisioned for 224 MW, with the first building scheduled to open in 2026. According to Vantage, the first two buildings are already fully leased.

The new campus, as the eighth Vantage site in North America, represents the company’s move into Tier II markets, following the lead of other major technology investments. North America is not the company's only region of interest and as of mid‑2025, Vantage Data Centers operates 35 hyperscale data center campuses in 21 markets across five continents (North America, EMEA, APAC, which includes regions like Africa and Asia‑Pacific).

Austin Osborne, Storey County manager, talked about the importance to the community of the Vantage development, saying:

Data Center Boom Gathers Speed at TRIC

Storey County is seeing quite a data center boom, with Vantage joining companies such as Google, Switch, Tract, EdgeCore, Novva, and PowerHouse either already operating or building data centers in the area, with many operators making use of the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center (TRIC) locations. According to the Storey County information, it is the areas’ strategic location, ease of access to renewable energy providers, and the region’s business-friendly environment that has made the county attractive to data center operators.

The Vantage NV1 data center is intentionally architected for AI at hyperscale, balancing high-density GPU hosting, sustainability (goals of LEED certification and low WUE), and modular liquid-cooling readiness. The low WUE is achievable due to the closed loop chiller system that will be deployed which limits the amount of water necessary for cooling. 

Air cooled chillers will also be available depending on client needs, The data center is designed to be scalable, supporting AI workloads at 360 – 720 W/sq ft. NV1 will likely include high-voltage on-site substations, a standard Vantage design element, to ensure scalable and redundant delivery of power to GPU clusters.

Dana Adams, President, North America at Vantage Data Centers, highlighted the importance of being able to deliverable scalable AI infrastructures, saying:

Powering NV1: Clean, Scalable Energy for AI at Scale

When you examine the design of Vantage’s NV1 campus, it becomes clear that reliable, scalable power is foundational to its deployment. The high-density GPU clusters, support for N=1 or 2N redundancy, and the 24/7 high-availability AI workloads all point to a need for guaranteed, clean energy at scale.

That’s where NV Energy and Nevada’s evolving grid play a key role. As the primary utility serving Storey County and the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, NV Energy delivers over 9,200 MW of generation capacity statewide and is aggressively transitioning to renewables—with goals of 50% by 2030 and net-zero carbon by 2050.

This energy portfolio aligns closely with Vantage’s global commitment to 100% renewable energy across its campuses. Nevada is particularly well positioned due to its access to:

• Geothermal – Nevada ranks second in the U.S. for geothermal capacity, offering stable, around-the-clock baseload generation.
• Solar – Strong growth in utility-scale solar across western and southern Nevada, where irradiance is among the best in the country.
• Battery Storage – NV Energy’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) includes significant investments in grid-level storage.
• Natural Gas – Still used as a reliable baseload source and for grid balancing.

Power delivery has also been bolstered by transmission infrastructure upgrades, most notably the One Nevada Line (ON Line), a 500 kV transmission backbone connecting northern and southern Nevada. This line enhances system reliability and opens potential interconnections to CAISO and BPA systems, offering further grid flexibility.

Thanks to years of investment in power infrastructure to support hyperscale expansion at TRIC, NV1 can plug into a proven, high-capacity, clean energy ecosystem, delivering the kind of scalable, resilient, and sustainable power next-generation AI workloads demand.

A Regional Surge: Storey County Becomes Ground Zero for Hyperscale AI Infrastructure

Vantage’s $3 billion NV1 project may be the newest marquee name at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, but it is far from alone. Storey County is fast becoming one of the most competitive and strategically important regions for large-scale data center development in North America. With AI-driven infrastructure needs accelerating, several operators are racing to secure land, power, and fiber in what is emerging as the West’s premier hyperscale staging ground.

EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure, for example, has begun development of a two-building, 1.5 million square foot campus designed to support up to 216 MW of critical IT load. The firm has partnered with NV Energy to bring dedicated power capacity online, with phased deliveries beginning in late 2025. While EdgeCore hasn’t disclosed specific tenants, the site is clearly engineered with GPU-intensive workloads in mind, offering high-density data halls capable of supporting the kind of thermal and electrical loads associated with AI and machine learning at scale.

Tract, a land acquisition and development platform founded in 2022, has quietly become one of the most influential players in the region. Tract now owns more than 11,000 acres in Storey County across multiple parcels, including the Peru Shelf and South Valley areas within TRIC. The company’s strategy revolves around delivering shovel-ready, power-entitled sites, developed in close coordination with NV Energy, that can support up to 2 GW of capacity. Tract has already broken ground on its first campus and is aligning its delivery schedule with long-lead transmission infrastructure set to come online starting in 2026.

Meanwhile, Novva Data Centers is bringing a distinct vision to Storey County, blending high-density infrastructure with a heavy emphasis on automation and operational transparency. Its 60 MW Reno campus, which features autonomous drones and robotic dog security patrols, is expected to come online in 2026. The facility includes six 10 MW data halls and a dedicated 100 MW substation, built with sustainability in mind via direct-to-chip, water-free cooling technology. Novva positions itself as a tenant-friendly operator capable of serving both large-scale cloud deployments and specialized AI clients.

This rapid buildout is supported by a maturing utility landscape. NV Energy’s 500 kV One Nevada (ON Line) transmission corridor, coupled with new substations and renewable integration points, is creating the kind of backbone that hyperscale operators require to deploy AI clusters at volume. The utility’s long-term integrated resource plans (IRPs) include expanded solar, geothermal, and battery storage assets—all elements critical to the next generation of data center workloads.

The result is a regional transformation: Storey County, long known for its role in Nevada’s industrial evolution, is quickly becoming one of the most dynamic and infrastructure-rich environments for AI-scale digital infrastructure in the country. With Vantage, EdgeCore, Tract, Novva, and legacy operators like Switch and Google now locked in an unspoken competition for scale and speed, Storey County is no longer really just a frontier. It’s more the front line.

Behind the Boom: Storey County’s Growing Pains in the Age of AI Infrastructure

While Vantage’s NV1 campus symbolizes a $3 billion bet on Storey County’s digital future, not everyone in the region is celebrating unrestrained growth. Local leaders, residents, and advocates are increasingly raising concerns about whether the pace of data center expansion is outstripping oversight, infrastructure, and long-term planning.

At the forefront of debate is power procurement transparency. Although direct minutes from Storey County Commission meetings are limited, NV Energy officials, including CEO Doug Cannon, have acknowledged strain on utility planning as data center demand could quadruple Northern Nevada’s electrical grid within a few years. Cannon also warned that if anticipated data center loads do not materialize, infrastructure costs might fall on existing customers. He stressed that developers must contribute financially to infrastructure build­outs to shield local ratepayers.

Public concern isn’t confined to energy. Although data center water use in Storey County is often framed as minimal (roughly five Olympic-sized pools per year per facility) broader critiques question cumulative regional impacts. Environmental reporting points to water resource stress, especially across basins like the Truckee and Carson, where total groundwater commitments already exceed sustainable yield. Critics argue that even closed-loop or air-cooled systems may shift cooling impacts elsewhere or mask broader ecological costs.

In Reno, nearby governance models offer insight into contentious dynamics. Sierra Club’s Toiyabe Chapter filed a high-profile appeal against the Webb Data Center near Reno’s North Valleys over violations of open meeting protocols and environmental standards. Residents and climate advocates pushed for moratoriums and transparent municipal ordinances to regulate the emerging land use of data centers, citing high energy, water consumption, and minimal local employment benefits.

While direct parallels in Storey County Commission records are scarce, this context suggests similar dynamics may be unfolding, especially as public comment tends to be limited given the county’s small population and narrow appeal zones in permitting.

Land-use friction is also emerging around zoning and traffic. Property owners and community members in Storey County have voiced concerns at planning and zoning hearings, including increased nighttime construction traffic, noise from heavy equipment, and absence of planning for workforce housing to support incoming contractor and technical staff. Reports indicate that developers like Tract and EdgeCore have faced pointed questions on these fronts, though details remain patchy in public filings.

Still, county officials remain cautiously optimistic. Storey County Manager Austin Osborne has emphasized the transformative opportunity while acknowledging strain:

“We’re in a period of hypergrowth. The opportunities are real, but so are the pressures. We’re working to ensure that this next generation of infrastructure development doesn’t repeat the mistakes of past industrial booms - where the benefits flowed out faster than they flowed back in.”

As the NV1 project advances toward its 2026 opening with 224 MW of provisioned capacity, Storey County faces a critical juncture. Vantage and peers must balance speed and scale with steady infrastructure planning and social license. As the digital infrastructure race heats up, community trust may prove as invaluable as clean power and high-density compute deployments.

At Data Center Frontier, we talk the industry talk and walk the industry walk. In that spirit, DCF Staff members may occasionally use AI tools to assist with content. Elements of this article were created with help from OpenAI's GPT4.

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