PODCAST · business
Cool Vector
by david95a
Cool Vector is a video-podcast about the rise of data centers and the digital infrastructure asset class.
Episodes
-
The Era of Nuclear-Powered Data Centers Is Approaching
Demand for nuclear power within the digital infrastructure industry is so great that the director of America's most important nuclear research complex has to remind people that he doesn't actually sell reactors. Cool Vector's David Snow caught up with Brian Smith, Chief Technology Officer of...
-
How to Build Two Gigawatts in West Texas
A planned two-gigawatt data center campus in West Texas will rely on behind-the-meter generation powered by abundant local natural gas, according to the CEOs of PowerBridge and Liberty Energy, the two companies partnering on the project. In an extensive interview with Cool Vector, Alex Hernandez,...
-
PTC and Nomad Futurist Unite for Golf and Next-Gen Development
A two-day charity golf tournament - the Nomad Ho'ohui Invitational - will now kick off the annual Pacific Telecommunications Council, according to Brian Moon, CEO of PTC, and Nabeel Mahmood, co-founder of the non-profit Nomad Futurist Foundation. The Nomad Ho'ohui, an invitation-only Ryder...
-
Data Centers Have a Community Engagement Problem
The data center industry has been caught off-guard by public backlash, and must respond with transparency and much deeper community engagement, three communications veterans tell Cool Vector. The Cool Vector episode, "Data Centers Have a Community Engagement Problem," includes Megan Baker…
more -
What Might 'Throw a Wrench' Into Data Center Financings?
A boom in off-balance-sheet data center development is made possible by the good credit of hyperscaler customers, says Harold Chen, Senior Director in Fitch's Complex Credit Group. In a conversation with Cool Vector, Chen says he expects courts to enforce the guarantees made to these...
-
The 'Big Game Changers' for Data Center MEP Engineers
The growing implementation of liquid cooling technologies is forcing data center MEP engineers to rethink their fundamental design assumptions, says Chris Sutton, founder of Sutton Engineering which specializes in data center design. Sutton tells Cool Vector that, while the electrical side of…
more -
Emerging Markets Need More Data Centers
Emerging and developing markets remain significantly underinvested in digital infrastructure, says Obinna Isiadinso, the global sector lead for data centers and cloud services investments at the International Finance Corporation (IFC). "India today has something like 1.7 gigawatts of capacity,...
-
Oracle’s Director of Construction Says Building Data Centers is Like Building Cities
Building AI infrastructure at gigawatt scale means "developing city-sized machines,'" says Craig Deering, senior construction manager at Oracle. Drawing on decades of experience — from dismantling AT&T and building the Baby Bells to leading cloud and now AI data center projects — Deering tells…
more -
Solutions for the Data Center ‘Power Bottleneck’
Data centers have access to plenty of power, but it's often stranded rather than put to use, says Ken Sullivan, co-founder and CEO of Bay Compute. "Power is the bottleneck to AI growth," Sullivan says. "A lot of the 'colos' and data centers are operating at 30, 40, 50% average power utilization."...
-
For Hamilton Lane, Good Data Center Operators Are 'Harder and Harder to Find'
The biggest constraint facing data centers is finding the people capable of operating those data centers, says Brent Burnett, Managing Director and Head of Infrastructure and Real Assets at Hamilton Lane. Burnett tells Cool Vector that as capital floods into digital infrastructure, the pool of...
-
Nomad Futurist Helps Computer Science Student Discover Digital Infrastructure
The digital infrastructure industry is incredibly diverse and needs talent of all types, says Harris Hamid, a computer science student at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, and a student advocate for non-profit Nomad Futurist Foundation. "No matter what you're doing, you can...
-
The Saga Behind NYC's Free Public Wifi
Walter Cannon helped create and implement LinkNYC, the project that brought free public Wi-Fi to all five boroughs of New York City. Cannon tells Cool Vector about how the project came to be under the Bloomberg Administration, as well as the logistical and political hurdles of rolling out…
more -
Bringing AI into Construction Management
Artificial intelligence tools are being adopted across construction, including digital infrastructure construction, says Indigo Pinto, Co-Founder IBB Solutions, a management firm for digital infrastructure construction projects. Pinto is also an ambassador for Nomad Futurist, and she reflects on...
-
Optimizing Data Center Design from 'Chip to Chiller'
The data center industry is leaving enormous value on the table by failing to apply chip-level simulation techniques to the full infrastructure stack, argues Sherman Ikemoto of Cadence. Closing the “chip-to-chiller” design gap is now an existential requirement, given the pace of AI compute…
more -
The Futures Market for Compute Has a Fungibility Problem
Stan Hanks invented a commodities market for broadband while at Enron, and has well informed views on the need for a similar market for compute. The main challenge: units of compute are proving difficult to standardize. In this episode of Cool Vector, Stan Hanks of Kreneon, Wayne Nelms of Ornn,...
-
The Coming Boom Will Be Fueled by Connectivity
The AI boom will be fueled by connectivity — and the companies that win will be the ones that can build fast enough to keep up with it, says LightRiver CEO Mike Jonas. The hyperscalers, telcos, and utilities driving this buildout are well-funded and highly motivated, but years of consolidation…
more -
Data Center Deals are Appearing on the Secondaries Radar
Data center owners are turning to the infrastructure secondaries market for capital, and getting pushback over unrealistic valuations, says Eddie Keith, Partner and Head of Infrastructure Secondaries in the Ares Secondaries Group. In a fascinating conversation, Keith tells sister channel Liquid...
-
Matching Power Demand With Power Availability
The data center industry is sitting on a large reserve of underutilized compute capacity, says Phil Flaherty, Chief Revenue Officer of PADO AI. The capacity existing facilities, and unlocking it — rather than waiting for new gigawatt-scale builds — is both faster and more practical. Flaherty…
more -
The Data Center C-Suite is Expanding
From his perch as an executive recruiter into the data center and overlapping asset management industry, Patrick Reyes says he is seeing a proliferation of opportunities for mid-level executives to move up to the C-suite, and to move from smaller platforms to larger, private equity-backed growth...
-
The Importance of Cable Landing Stations
Felix Seda of NJFX explains how a cable landing station differs from a conventional data center — its core value proposition being latency reduction and the elimination of routing inefficiencies, connecting the US, Europe, and Latin America across four subsea systems within a single co-location...
-
Inventory Problems When Hyperscalers 'Buy Everything Out'
When hyperscalers dominate supply chains by buying out available inventory and capacity, mid-market data center builders are left scrambling, says Kristen Sanderson, SVP at Duos Technologies Group. Sanderson is head of Duos Technologies' newly formed Infrastructure Solutions Group, which operates...
-
In Hawaii, Digital Infrastructure is a Public-Private Mandate
Hawaii is embarking on a major upgrade of its digital infrastructure, intended to make the Aloha State more competitive as a digital hub, according to Garret Yoshimi, VP for Information Technology and CIO of the University of Hawaii. "This is a really big investment for the state," Yoshimi tells...
-
Hawaii Studies Mainland Data Center Trends to 'Stay Ahead of the Curve'
Rosa White, CFO and Co-founder of DR Fortress, Hawaii’s largest data center company, says Hawaii's position as a tier-three market allows her company to see what unfolds on the mainland and globally first. DR Fortress owns a 65,000-square-foot data center in Honolulu, and is now pursuing a...
-
Bullish About the Tier-Two Data Center Opportunity
Demand for co-location from local enterprises remains strong in second-tier US cities, says Kevin Bostik, CFO of DartPoints, in an interview with Cool Vector. Speaking on the sidelines of the 2026 Pacific Telecommunications Council, Bostik says smaller cities will remain in play as enterprise...
-
Oracle's '300 Miles Per Hour' AI Tailwind
From his vantage point advising 15,000 Oracle enterprise customers, Scott Charter sees AI being rapidly integrated into the operating systems of modern business. Speaking on the sidelines of the DCD New York event in March, Charter, Director of AI Strategy for North America at Oracle, tells Cool...
-
Sustainability in Data Centers is Seeing Short-Term Setbacks
A widening gap is developing between the data center industry's stated sustainability ambitions and the harsh operational reality of an AI-driven power grab, say four digital infrastructure veterans. This episode of Cool Vector includes commentary from Miranda Gardiner, Executive Director of the...
-
MIT Grads Build 'S&P 500, But For Compute'
Two recent MIT graduations have launched “the S&P 500 for compute” in order to allow digital infrastructure market participants to better hedge against price fluctuations. Having graduated last year, Kush Bavaria, Co-Founder and CEO, and Wayne Nelms, Co-Founder and CTO, launched ORNN as an index...
-
In the Digital Infrastructure Deal Market, 'Most of 2026 is Spoken For'
Suffice it to say that Richard Lukaj has been busy - the Co-Founder of digital-infrastructure focused investment bank Bank Street has advised on a torrent of transcations accross data centers and fiber networks, and says the deal pace and complexity is such that "most of 2026 is spoken for."...
-
Hydrogen Will Fuel the First Zero-Emission Gigawatt Data Center
Is a zero-emission, gigawatt data center possible? The CEO of EdgeCloudLink says yes, but only if developers are capable of substituting hydrogen for natural gas as a source of energy. Speaking on the sidelines of the DCD New York event in March, Bachar tells Cool Vector his company already runs…
more -
'The Use Cases are There, the Infrastructure is Not'
Hyperscalers increasingly will realize they don’t need mega data centers, which, by the way, are becoming targets in military conflicts, according to industry veteran Tony Grayson. As the former President of Compass Datacenters and then Northstar Enterprise and defense, Grayson has long been at…
more -
In Data Center Development, Real Access to Power is the Key Differentiator
When a self-proclaimed data center developer claims to have a gigawatt of power secured, the proper response in far too many cases is, "No, you don't," says Mark McComiskey, Founding Partner of AVAIO Digital. Speaking with Cool Vector on the sidelines of the PTC 2026 event in Honolulu, McComiskey...
-
Grain Management is Going Global One Relationship at a Time
The Cool Vector editorial team welcomes Ted Manvitz, Managing Director and Head of International Investments at Grain Management, for a wide ranging conversation about digital infrastructure investing in non-US markets, as well as Manvitz’s professional history of investing in asset around the...
-
Bullish on Interconnection in Tier-Three Cities
Hunter Newby is making a big bet on internet exchange points in underserved mid-sized American cities. In a wide-ranging interview with Cool Vector, the founder of Newby Ventures says he predicts the same infrastructure model that proved highly profitable in tier-one markets over the past 25…
more -
Spain is at a 'Crossroads of Continents'
The case for Spain as an emerging AI infrastructure hub is made by Gabriel Nebreda Molinero, CEO of Nostrum Group, on the sidelines of the 2026 Pacific Telecommunications Council in Honolulu. Spain is uniquely positioned at the intersection of continents, Nebreda tells Cool Vector. The market has...
-
Data Center Demand is Strong, Debt Markets are Selective
The largest data center projects have a huge debt advantage, as well as a potential exti disadvantage, says John Day, Chief Commercial Officer of CleanArc Data Centers. Speaking with Cool Vector on the sidelines of the 2026 Pacific Telecommunications Council in Honolulu, Day shares front-line...
-
'Spikey' AI Compute Calls for More and Better Batteries
Data center batteries are no longer simply "backup insurance" for power disruptions, and are now a core part of digital infrastructure allowing efficient use of energy as well as unbroken uptime, say Brandon Smith, VP of Global Sales and Product at ZincFive and Nabeel Mahmood, a longtime data...
-
GI Partners: Competition for Digital Infra Deals is 'Really Positive'
When Mike Armstrong first joined GI Partners in 2014, digital infrastructure assets that went up for auction would attract maybe five bidders. Fast forward to today's heated market, and Armstrong says between 20 to 30 bidders compete for assets in a sale process. Armstrong, a Managing Director…
more -
Tower Infrastructure Keeps Adding "Gizmo" Revenue
Towers are the digital infrastructure that make modern connectivity possible. As demand for wireless connectivity surges, towers are becoming more valuable, while at the same time an increasing number of “gadgets” are being added to tower sites to serve the needs of proliferating…
more -
Inside the 'Winner Take Most' Hyperscaler Battle
GPUs versus TPUs, depreciating GPUs and data centers that may never be built - Cool Vector experts take you inside the issues causing the most uncertainty in the global data center market. A year ago, TD Cowan's Michael Elias roiled the data center world when he reported Microsoft was pulling…
more -
Like Data Centers, Real Estate Once was Absent From Institutional Portfolios
The future of the digital infrastructure asset class can be seen in the history of the real estate asset class, experts from PREA and Five Point Infrastructure tell Cool Vector. A mountain of institutional capital is eyeing data centers, but investors - including US pension funds - can often…
more -
ECP Was Buying Power Plants When They Were Out of Style
Energy Capital Partners, among the most dominant energy players in the global data center market, now sees an upside potential to its many power-plant sites that did not exist during decades of zero-growth in the electricity markets, says Andrew Gilbert, a Partner at ECP. Gilbert recently sat for...
-
Thor Equities' New Data Center Head Learned a Lot at Google
While at Google, where he led data center acquisitions across North America, Raj Vohra learned "we're just scratching the surface of what the world needs for compute capacity," says Vohra, now the head of data center investing for Thor Equities. "We'll see evolutions of different product types,"...
-
The Modular Future of Data Centers is Coming to a Parking Lot Near You
Agentic AI is driving the use of modular data centers, according to Tony Grayson, former President of Compass Datacenters, and now President and General Manager of Northstar Federal and Northstar Enterprise & Defense, where he has innovated modular data centers designed to bring flexibility and...
-
EQT, DigitalBridge and Zayo See 'Gargantuan' Upside in Fiber Networks
Two of the world's biggest digital infrastructure investors - EQT and DigitalBridge - are bullish about fiber networks, and tell Cool Vector why. The long-term bet on fiber began in 2019, when EQT and DigitalBridge jointly took Zayo private in a $14 billion transaction. In March 2025, the group...
-
Retrofitting Old Data Centers is Harder Than You Think
The moment its construction begins, a new data center becomes an old data center, given how fast technology and use-cases are evolving. Retrofitting an existing data center is the only way to save it from obsolescence. But retrofits are more difficult than you might imagine, a panel of experts…
more -
Constrained by Grid and Politics, Ireland Looks for a New Era of Data Center Growth
Despite its relatively small size, Ireland is a heavyweight among global data center hubs. But that advantaged position has been thrown into doubt amid political gridlock. In this episode of Cool Vector, four Irish data center veterans explain why Ireland's continued leadership in data...
-
How Crypto Brought Innovation to the Data Center Industry
The future of the data center industry is being shaped by a use-case pivot among crypto miners, as well as by energy innovations within the crypto industry that make compute more efficient, say two Macquarie Group analysts. In an interview with Cool Vector, Macquarie senior equities analyst Paul...
-
Europe's Tier-Two Data Center Markets Look Increasingly Attractive: DTCP
Power constraints in major European data center hubs is driving investment to second-tier markets like Berlin, Madrid and Manchester, says Zahl Limbuwala, Operating Partner at Germany-based investment firm DTCP. In a Cool Vector interview, Limbuwala explains the evolved landscape for data center...
-
Data Centers in India 'Very Strategic' for Hyperscalers and Investors, Says CapitaLand Investment
CapitaLand is building four major data centers in India, taking advantage of what Managing Director Surajit Chatterjee describes as a huge population underserved by digital infrastructure, a supportive government and keen hyperscaler interest in the country. In an interview with Cool Vector,...
-
RBC: To Monetize Data Centers, Investors are 'Ring-Fencing' Stabilized Assets
There is a greenfield development boom in the data center market, and the capital markets for digital infrastructure have rapidly evolved to keep up, drawing attention to risk factors of the many data centers already up and running, says the head of RBC Capital Market's influential data center...
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
Cool Vector is a video-podcast about the rise of data centers and the digital infrastructure asset class.
HOSTED BY
david95a
CATEGORIES
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Cool Vector have?
Cool Vector currently has 72 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Cool Vector about?
Cool Vector is a video-podcast about the rise of data centers and the digital infrastructure asset class.
How often does Cool Vector release new episodes?
Cool Vector has 72 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Cool Vector?
You can listen to Cool Vector on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Cool Vector?
Cool Vector is created and hosted by david95a.
URL copied to clipboard!