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Northern Data Group Opens AI and HPC Data Center in Pittsburgh

John Hoffmann, Group COO
July 23, 2025

Last week, I attended the inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, hosted by Senator Dave McCormick in Pittsburgh. It was inspiring to meet with and hear global leaders across AI, Energy, and Asset Management lay out their vision for Pennsylvania to lead the AI revolution, serving as an example for the rest of America. Overall, attendees committed more than $90 billion of investment in infrastructure, energy projects, data centers, skill building, and more.  

While it was certainly exciting to hear about what these future investments will accomplish, I was there because of the footprint that Northern Data Group has already established in Pennsylvania to expand access to AI and High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure.  In June, we officially cut the ribbon to our latest next-generation data center in Pittsburgh, which also happens to be the most recent data center to open in the region.  

The site is expected to provide 20MW of capacity by 2027 through a phased development approach and house infrastructure to manage complex and demanding workloads. Tailored for AI model training and HPC workloads, this data center is purpose-built for scale, speed, and high-density deployments.

Why Pittsburgh? 

Pittsburgh is a natural fit for our expansion, with access to major East Coast hubs (under 10ms latency), as well as Midwest markets. The city is home to a multitude of supportive local stakeholders, including globally recognized, top-tier research institutions and growing AI ecosystems. The site offers ideal accessibility for clients needing high-speed, low-latency compute power within the geographic area. 

Designed for organizations pushing the limits of computational possibility, from AI startups and model developers to leading enterprises in manufacturing, energy, life sciences, and biotech, our Pittsburgh data center delivers the performance, scale, and reliability they demand. 

As the ecosystem continues to grow across the state through the investments announced at the Summit and beyond, we look forward to collaborating with and benefitting from the innovative companies that are coming to Pennsylvania.  

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From left to right: Wayne Ginders, SVP, Global Operations and John Hoffmann, Group COO, at the Pittsburgh Launch event
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 John Hoffmann, Group COO, at the Pennysylvania Energy and Innovation Summit.

Built for the Future of AI

The Pittsburgh data center, operated by Northern Data Group’s Ardent Data Centers, is future-built with the most advanced specifications in mind. Built to satisfy the needs of the most ambitious enterprises, the site is equipped with:

  • 135kW+ rack densities, enabling anything from advanced model training to high-frequency trading environments
  • Rear door heat exchangers (RDHx) and direct-to-chip (D2C) liquid cooling, drastically reducing Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) to as low as 1.15 and increasing energy efficiency
  • The ability to house the very latest GPUs and compute hardware

This level of density and cooling capacity is critical for supporting complex and demanding workloads like real-time AI inference and enterprise-level HPC projects. The site will be able to support various actions, including fine-tuning models, running quantum simulations, or powering mission-critical enterprise applications. 

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Pittsburgh Data Center operated by Ardent Data Centers
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Pittsburgh Data Center operated by Ardent Data Centers

Leading the Way Forward

More than a standard AI data center, the Pittsburgh facility serves as a blueprint for how we plan to continue expanding our infrastructure portfolio to meet evolving demand in North America and beyond. At its core is modular design — a distinctive approach we take at Northern Data Group to deliver flexibility, speed to market, and adaptability. The modular data center model not only offers our customers a higher degree of customization but also the ability to scale rapidly as their needs grow.

Modular data centers allow us to:

  • Deploy capacity quickly to match demand and be move-in ready within 12 months
  • Scale operations incrementally, matching the pace of demand and avoiding overbuilding
  • Integrate emerging technologies like new liquid cooling systems with minimal disruption
  • Support diverse customer needs, from startups to large enterprises

As I said to everyone attending our Pittsburgh data center opening: Our commitment to strategic site selection, integration of the latest technologies, and our modular design strategy positions us for significant growth opportunities. The facility will enable a wide range of innovations across AI training and inference, computing at the edge, and more through our modular design strategy and commitment to operational excellence.
 

We’re grateful to the local community and officials in Pittsburgh for their support, and we look forward to contributing to the city’s next chapter as a center for digital infrastructure and innovation.

Learn more about the site and explore its capabilities here: Pittsburgh Data Center, by Ardent Data Centers.