P
rime Data Center has opened a 242,500-square-foot data center in Vernon, Los Angeles, marking its latest expansion in the city's industrial heartland. The three-story facility at 4701 South Santa Fe Avenue replaces a 225,000-square-foot warehouse and is fully leased to two artificial intelligence companies. At full capacity, it will deliver 33 megawatts of power, powered by a city-owned utility.

    The data center was previously home to a 12-megawatt lease with a large technology company, which remains undisclosed. This summer, Prime leased 21 megawatts to Supermicro, a San Jose-based firm that subleased the power to Lambda Labs, a Silicon Valley startup. The 10-year sublease is valued at $600 million.

    Prime's data center portfolio spans California, with campuses in Dallas, Austin, Chicago, and Phoenix. Founded in 2018, Prime Data Center counts Macquarie Capital as an investor and has plans to expand into Europe, including a 124-megawatt campus in Denmark and a 40-megawatt site in Madrid.

    The data center boom is driven by the growing demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure. Prologis, a San Francisco-based company, has set its sights on data centers to boost profitability, citing "tremendous confidence" in future growth. Goldman Sachs estimates that data-center power demand will grow 160 percent by 2030, largely due to AI.