Cool Vector

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 have left them understaffed for the scale of deployment they now need to execute, Jonas tells Cool Vector.
Speaking on the sidelines of the PTC in Honolulu, Hawaii, Jonas also breaks down why the shift from AI training to inference is the next major wave — one that will push spending from massive hyperscale campuses into metro networks and ultimately reach a world where machines, not people, are asking and answering the questions.
Access the transcript and a searchable content library at the Cool Vector Substack.
#datacenter #digitalinfrastructure #coolvector #ptc

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 Courage how digital infrastructure has rapidly evolved from a fringe asset class into one of the most active and compelling corners of the secondaries market, driven by capital needs that outpace what traditional fund structures can accommodate. 
Keith draws on nearly two decades of secondaries experience to lay out what separates a smart infrastructure secondary from a trap, why the asset class rewards diversification, and the criticality of  mature cash-flowing assets anchored to a strong development pipeline.
 Among the key takeaways:
• Troubled data center deals are of no interest to infrastructure secondary buyers. If a GP can't sell an asset through a traditional process, bringing it to the secondary market as a last resort is a signal to run — not a reason to look harder.
• Data center execs have inflated expectations on value. Some data center owners have valued their platforms at 1.3 to 1.4 MOIC, but due diligence done by infrastructure secondaries buyers have revealed valuations more in the 0.8 to 1.0 range. A data center owner will be hard pressed to sell assets at strong multiples without future revenues supported by contracted cash flows.
• Distressed secondary deals have been 'some of the worst.' The continuation vehicle market was born out of post-financial-crisis distress, and those early deals — broken assets from broken franchises that secondary capital was supposed to rescue — turned out to be some of the few reliable ways to lose money in a market with a thirty-year history of generating returns.
• LPs should not overallocate to digital infrastructure. Infrastructure investing moves in waves — digital was considered fringe before COVID made it the belle of the ball — and the investors who stay diversified across the full asset class are the ones who don't get caught over-indexed to last cycle's darling.
Access the full transcript and a searchable library of content at the Cool Vector Substack.
#coolvector #infrastructure #datacenter #secondary #privateequity

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 tells Cool Vector the real opportunity lies in coordinating what happens inside a data center's walls with the broader grid, turning today's passive power consumer into an active, grid-aware participant that can reduce costs and improve reliability. 
He pushes back sharply on the political narrative that data centers are driving up energy prices, arguing instead that properly implemented grid-flexible data centers, combined with a growing renewables base, are actually a mechanism for keeping prices low.
Access the full transcript and a searchable library of content at the Cool Vector Substack.
#datacenter #digitalinfrastructure #power #coolvector

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 platforms. Reyes, a Partner at Nu Advisory Group who oversees executive recruiting in the digital infrastructure space, says that as private capital floods into digital infrastructure, the link between investment activity and executive hiring has never been tighter. In an in-depth conversation with Cool Vector’s David Snow and Cloud2Ground’s Hadassa Lutz, Reyes explains how the influx of capital is fueling an expansion of the data center C-suite. This also means the creation of relatively new roles within data centers designed to address new opportunities and challenges, Chief Development Officer and head of Community Relations among these. Among the key takeaways: • Some data center CFOs are seeing $1 million cash comp. Total cash for this critical C-suite role at major platforms is clearing seven figures, with PE-backed executives chasing equity payouts in the $10 million to $40 million range upon exit. • Turnaround executives are starting to be hired by data centers. Not every platform is succeeding, and distressed situations are beginning to emerge — bringing a new class of turnaround-oriented CEO and CFO hires into the sector. • Data centers have billions to deploy and need talent. Capital formation and executive hiring are now inseparable, with investors calling recruiters before platforms even formally exist. • Data center executives are seeing step-up opportunities. Inter-industry competition for talent is intensifying, creating a wave of VP-to-C-suite promotions as platforms proliferate. • The rise of the Chief Development Officer. The COO role has grown too large to hold both front-end development and back-end operations, driving broad adoption of a dedicated CDO seat. • The rise of corporate VC across data centers. Major data center companies are expected to follow utilities into corporate venture, backing deep-tech energy startups to secure future power supply chains — and the chief energy officer of the future will need to be fluent in early-stage investing. • Scaling data centers requires “extremely rigorous” executives. At gigawatt scale, a six-to-twelve-month construction delay means hundreds of millions in losses, so execution discipline is now as prized as strategic vision. Access the full transcript and a searchable content library at the Cool Vector Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/coolvector/p/the-data-center-c-suite-is-expanding?r=4tjd55&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web #coolvector #datacenter #digitalinfrastructure #humancapital

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 facility. He frames NJFX's moment as directly tied to the industry's shift from AI training to inference, arguing that the network layer — not just compute — becomes the critical variable once trained models need to reach end users at scale.
Access the transcript and a searchable library of content at the Cool Vector Substack: https://coolvector.substack.com/p/the-importance-of-cable-landing-stations
#datacenter #digitalinfrastructure #newjersey #telecom

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 as a more flexible, nimble alternative to traditional big-box distribution, taking a strategic, project-specific approach to sourcing rather than speculative stocking. 
Sanderson, speaking on the sidelines of the 2026 Pacific Telecommunications Council, tells Cool Vector sees a significant market gap between surging industry demand and the number of experienced, relationship-driven operators capable of navigating it — and Duos is betting that superior service levels will be the differentiator.
Access the transcript and a searchable content archive at the Cool Vector Substack: https://coolvector.substack.com/p/inventory-problems-when-hyperscalers?r=4tjd55
#digitalinfrastructure #datacenter #coolvector

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 Cool Vector. "It's public funds going into this space, really intending to lift all boats in terms of infrastructure."
The University of Hawaii's role in this build-out is to leverage its deep research and education partnerships to position the state as a regional hub, making resilient, multi-path connectivity to AI data centers and global markets an urgent priority.
Among the takeaways from this interview, conducted on the sidelines of the 2026 Pacific Telecommunications Council event in Honolulu. 
• Hawaii is undertaking a major federally funded inter-island submarine cable replacement project to ensure global connectivity and enable future transpacific cable landings critical to the state's economic and institutional future. The $120 million Hawaiian Islands Fiber Link (HIFL), a public-private partnership between UH and Ocean Networks, will span 24 fiber pairs across six islands and is expected to be ready for service by late 2026 — with the broader state broadband initiative, Connect Kākou, receiving an additional $149M BEAD federal award announced at PTC in January 2026. University of HawaiiHawaii News Now.
• UH's Board of Regents approved a long-term ground lease with Google in 2024 to host cable landing stations on the UH West Oahu campus, a deal years in the making that positions the university as a literal landing point for transpacific infrastructure rather than just a policy voice.
Access the transcript and a searchable content archive at the Cool Vector Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/coolvector/p/in-hawaii-digital-infrastructure?r=4tjd55&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
#digitalinfrastructure #datacenter #coolvector #hawaii #telecom

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 three-megawatt expansion, paced deliberately to stay one step ahead of incoming demand from the hyperscalers and AI providers that are increasingly eyeing Hawaii as an edge market.
Access the transcript and a searchable archive of content on the Cool Vector Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/coolvector/p/hawaii-studies-mainland-trends-to?r=4tjd55&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
#digitalinfrastructure #datacenter #hawaii

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 customers need to push workloads closer to the edge.
Bostik also describes the unique role that a CFO plays at a digital infrastructure company in securing the best capital structures with the right partners up front, given the typically large capital commitments required at the outset of a development. 
Access the transcript and a searchable content archive at the Cool Vector Substack: https://coolvector.substack.com/p/71975fd8-113f-40a6-9fde-02834b1067e2?postPreview=paid&updated=2026-05-17T22%3A42%3A42.654Z&audience=everyone&free_preview=false&freemail=true
#digitalinfrastructure #datacenter #coolvector #coolvector

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 Vector how AI is reshaping everything from hiring and benefits management to quarterly financial closes — and believes the demand curve has no ceiling.
"I remind you: today's AI is the worst AI you'll ever see,” Charter tells Cool Vector. “A month from now, two months from now, a year from now, it will be dramatically different. We are only anticipating where our new growth will come from. I look back to my customer base and I use a baseball metaphor — right now, most enterprises are not turning on true inferencing engines inside of their companies. We're not in the top of the first inning of that metaphorical ball game. We're all still looking for parking."
Key takeaways from Scott Charter’s Cool Vector interview:
• Oracle has rapidly scaled from traditional cloud infrastructure to AI factories, exemplified by expanding from 131,000 to 800,000 GPUs in a single cluster.
• Corporate AI adoption is evolving from author-and-answer tools toward agentic workflows that can compress multi-week business processes into days.
• Charter sees compute costs trending toward near-zero, which he expects to unlock an era of abundance where AI applications expand far beyond what cost-justification currently allows.
Access the transcript and a searchable content archive at the Cool Vector Substack: https://coolvector.substack.com/
#datacenter #digitalinfrastructure #ai #coolvector #oracle