In the tranquil Washington-area suburb of Ashburn, Virginia, is a large yet unassuming building. In front is a small pond with a fountain, the only sounds the quacking of the ducks paddling across it and the muted roar of distant motorway traffic.
But inside is what many consider to be part of the backbone of the future of technological development: a massive data centre. Rows and rows of servers thrum loudly, neatly organised and secured behind constantly monitored locked cages.
Artificial intelligence is driving an unprecedented demand for data centres around the world and the state of Virginia is believed to be home to at least 650, leading some in technology circles to refer to it as the data centre capital of the world.
“Some say that 80 per cent of US internet traffic ends up coming through Northern Virginia here,” Jon Lin, chief business officer at Equinix, told The National during a rare tour inside one of the company's plants in Ashburn.
Equinix is one of the world's largest data centre companies, and runs 273 of them in 37 countries, including France, Oman and the UAE.
While AI might be the latest tech buzzword, Equinix is confident that overall trends in cloud computing and digitisation will continue to bolster the sector.
“The mainstream utilisation of computer data continues to drive demand and that's a steady development,” Mr Lin said. Although AI has created more demand around the world, nuance is important when discussing it, he added.
“The new wrinkle from AI has
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