HydraVault is set to build Chicago’s first downtown AI data centre, a game-changing facility designed for high-performance computing. With unprecedented power delivery of up to 200kW per rack, the facility will be optimised for the most demanding workloads, including AI, machine learning and high-frequency trading. Construction begins in late 2025.
With AI workloads expected to grow 3.5 times by 2030 and projected to account for 70% of total data center demand, facilities built specifically for extreme density compute will be critical. The new HydraVault facility, strategically located to serve the needs of the region’s most demanding compute users, meets that demand. Access for user buildout is anticipated in late 2026.
The data centre is designed to meet Tier 3 specifications, ensuring a high level of uptime and reliability with redundant systems. Its downtown location is in direct proximity to the city’s primary fiber interconnects, providing sub-millisecond latency to 350 East Cermak, a major hub for financial trading networks. The connectivity offers a rare edge advantage in one of the world’s most connected markets, significantly reducing deployment friction and operational costs for high-performance compute.
High performance data centre
The facility is engineered to deliver up to 200kW per rack, far more than the average 15-20kW per rack. With a total power capacity of 20MW, the facility integrates advanced liquid cooling systems, which are approximately 40% more energy efficient than traditional air cooling. The design, combined with an industry-leading Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.19, represents a dual advantage for organisations looking to maximise performance and sustainability, outpacing retrofitted alternatives. The facility also implements a closed-loop, waterless cooling system that combines leading technology designed to optimize heat rejection required by the computers, without wasting power.
“Training, inferencing, financial services, and medical research, among other industries, are accelerating faster than the infrastructure designed to support them,” said Scott D. Greenberg, Founder of HydraVault. “We’ve designed – and will build – a city centre AI factory for the future. The power density per square foot of building area in HydraVault, combined with the most advanced components demanded by the next generations of chip technology, makes HydraVault the definitive next-generation data center.”
The data centre will be built with SOC 1 and SOC 2 compliance specifications and will be PCI ready.
