Data Centers: Powering AI

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

Data centers have emerged as one of the most important and fastest-growing real estate asset classes, underpinning cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and the broader digital economy. Students will explore how data centers differ from traditional property types, with a focus on power availability, site selection, connectivity, and development execution. Over eight sessions, students will develop a practical understanding of how data centers are planned, built, and leased. Topics include technical fundamentals (power, cooling, redundancy), utility interconnection challenges, land use and entitlement considerations, development phasing, customer requirements, and target market strategies. Students will build a comprehensive development and investment strategy for a hypothetical data center project in a chosen market. Assignments throughout the course will incrementally develop key components of the project, including market selection, infrastructure feasibility, site evaluation, development planning, leasing strategy, and risk assessment. The course culminates in a final investment committee-style presentation and memo evaluating whether the proposed project should be pursued.