GIGAWATTSAppendix A // A Timeline of the Data Center

Back matterAppendix A

Appendix A: A Timeline of the Data Center

2,026 words 9 min

In this chapter3
  1. The Prologue Cycle, 1962–1990
  2. The First Cycle, 1987–2022
  3. The Second Cycle, 2022–November 2026

Dates are those reported in the chapters. Where a deal was announced in one month and closed in another, the entry gives the date that matters to the story and the chapter gives the rest.

The Prologue Cycle, 1962–1990#

Date Event Chapter
1962 BBN demonstrates time-sharing; Ross Perot's Electronic Data Systems is incorporated I
April 7, 1964 IBM announces the System/360, renting for $2,700 to $115,000 a month I
April 4, 1965 The New York Times describes "the computer center as a public utility" and quotes a forecast for the "data-center industry" I
May 1968 University Computing Company bids for 10 percent of Western Union, with a stock valued above the telegraph company's I
September 1968 EDS goes public at $16.50 a share, 118 times earnings I
October 1968 The Justice Department weighs forcing IBM out of time-sharing; IBM moves the business into a subsidiary three weeks later I
March 24, 1969 Perot bids for Collins Radio, a company with 55 times EDS's sales; he withdraws after five weeks I
1969 Jeff Wilkins founds Compu-Serv to sell an insurance company's idle computer time I
August 29, 1969 University Computing lists on the New York Stock Exchange after cutting its forecast twice, blaming "high interest rates" I
April 22, 1970 EDS stock falls 50 points in a day; the Times reports Perot's $445 million paper loss I
August 1970 Honeywell buys GE's computer business; GE keeps its time-sharing services I
November 1972 University Computing loses $38.9 million in a quarter, including a $9.7 million write-down of its own computers I
August 1983 The Times visits a hot site in a Catskills cave with "everything but the computer" I
June 29, 1984 GM agrees to buy EDS in a deal valued at as much as $2.55 billion I
January 1986 Paul Catalano opens DataPort, a vault 100 feet beneath the World Trade Center I
March 13, 1986 SunGard and Microsoft go public on the same day I
July 26, 1989 IBM agrees to run a large part of Kodak's data processing I
December 6, 1989 IBM announces a $2.3 billion restructuring charge and 10,000 job cuts I

The First Cycle, 1987–2022#

Date Event Chapter
1987 Rick Adams starts UUNET in a borrowed office in Arlington County, Virginia II
1992 UUNET, PSI and Sprint-ICM set up MAE-East at MFS in Tysons Corner, Virginia II
February 1993 Jim Crowe offers $8 million for UUNET; Adams holds out for $12 million II
March 2, 1994 The NSF names the four Network Access Points, one of them run by MFS Datanet II
May 1995 UUNET goes public at $14 a share and closes its first day at $26; PSINet goes public May 1 II
April 1996 MFS agrees to buy UUNET for $2 billion II
July 1996 Digital Equipment opens the Palo Alto Internet Exchange for commercial service III
August 1996 WorldCom buys MFS for $14.3 billion; a $25 million placement pays for Exodus's first Internet Data Center II, III
December 1, 1996 AOL switches to a flat rate of $19.95 a month, and its peak load triples II
December 24, 1997 UUNET announces a Loudoun County headquarters for more than 3,000 workers II
March 18, 1998 Exodus prices its IPO at $15 and closes its first day up 84 percent III
June 1998 Jay Adelson and Al Avery incorporate Equinix III
1998 Equinix builds DC1, its first Ashburn data center; Akamai is founded; Andrew Odlyzko debunks the Internet traffic myth III, VI, VIII
June 1999 Metromedia Fiber Network agrees to buy AboveNet, owner of PAIX, for $1.76 billion III
October 29, 1999 Akamai goes public and closes its first day up 458 percent, worth more than $13 billion III
February 2000 Exodus's Market Value tops $20 billion III
March 10, 2000 The Nasdaq peaks at 5048.62 III
March 2000 Qwest hires IBM to build 28 CyberCenters; Level 3 reaches 4 million square feet in 30 facilities III
August 11, 2000 Equinix goes public at $12 a share III
September 5, 2000 WorldCom agrees to buy Intermedia, and with it Digex III
January 10, 2001 Exodus closes its purchase of Global Crossing's GlobalCenter for about $6.1 billion of stock III
February 2001 More than 100 server farms ask PG&E for 1,200 megawatts; Qwest is told to wait until 2002 III
June 2001 CIBC estimates that only 22 percent of North America's data-center space will be used or sold that year IV
September 11, 2001 Akamai cofounder Danny Lewin dies aboard American Airlines Flight 11 IV
September 26, 2001 Exodus files for Chapter 11 IV
November 2001 Cable & Wireless agrees to buy the best of Exodus's data centers; at closing on February 1, 2002, it gets twenty-eight of them for $560 million in cash IV
January 2002 Global Crossing files for Chapter 11; Globix announces it will seek bankruptcy protection IV
July 21, 2002 WorldCom files for Chapter 11 IV
October 2002 Equinix stock closes at 30 cents; on October 2 it signs a rescue with ST Telemedia's i-STT and Pihana Pacific V
December 2002 Rob Roy buys a former Enron Broadband building in Las Vegas for $930,000 V
June 2003 Level 3 closes its purchase of Genuity for $60 million in cash plus $77 million of prepayments IV
January 2004 A bankruptcy court approves Savvis's $155 million bid for Cable & Wireless USA, the remains of Exodus V
April 2004 WorldCom emerges from bankruptcy as MCI and moves its headquarters to Ashburn VI
October 28, 2004 Digital Realty prices its IPO at $12 a share as the first data-center REIT V
December 2004 Equinix buys the data-center assets inside AboveNet's San Jose building for about $900,000 V
March 14, 2006 Amazon launches the Simple Storage Service, S3 VI
June 2006 The Times reports on Google's "Project 02" in The Dalles, Oregon VI
August 24, 2006 Amazon opens the beta of the Elastic Compute Cloud, at about 10 cents per server-hour VI
April 2, 2007 Steve Smith takes over as Equinix's chief executive V
October 2007 DuPont Fabros Technology goes public at $21 a share VI
August 7, 2008 Rackspace prices its IPO at $12.50, eight years after withdrawing its first filing V
November 2008 DuPont Fabros halts construction, and its shares fall to $1.93 V
September 9, 2009 Zayo buys FiberNet, the seed of zColo VI
December 2010 Google agrees to buy 111 Eighth Avenue for about $1.9 billion VI
January 2011 Verizon agrees to buy Terremark for about $1.4 billion V
April 7, 2011 Facebook launches the Open Compute Project and publishes its Prineville designs VI
April 2011 CenturyLink agrees to buy Savvis for about $2.5 billion of equity V
July 2, 2012 Zayo closes its $2.21 billion purchase of AboveNet VI
October 2013 QTS goes public at $21 a share VI
May 29, 2015 Equinix agrees to buy TelecityGroup for £2.35 billion VII
July 14, 2015 Digital Realty agrees to buy Telx for $1.886 billion VII
September 2016 Loudoun County passes 10 million square feet of data centers VI
December 2016 Equinix agrees to buy 29 of Verizon's data centers for $3.6 billion VII
June 9, 2017 Digital Realty agrees to merge with DuPont Fabros in a deal valued at about $7.6 billion VII
May 8, 2019 Zayo agrees to be acquired by Digital Colony and EQT for about $14.3 billion including debt VII
October 29, 2019 Digital Realty agrees to combine with Interxion in a deal worth about $8.4 billion VII
December 15, 2020 DataBank closes its purchase of zColo's U.S. and U.K. sites, for about $1.2 billion VI
June 7, 2021 Blackstone agrees to buy QTS for about $10 billion VII
November 15, 2021 KKR and GIP agree to buy CyrusOne for about $15 billion; American Tower agrees to buy CoreSite for about $10.4 billion VII
May 11, 2022 DigitalBridge and IFM agree to buy Switch for about $11 billion VII

The Second Cycle, 2022–November 2026#

Date Event Chapter
November 30, 2022 OpenAI releases ChatGPT VII, VIII
December 6, 2022 The Switch take-private closes, the last big deal of the Reconsolidation VII
May 30, 2023 Nvidia touches a $1 trillion Market Value VIII
June 2024 xAI chooses a former Electrolux factory in Memphis; Goldman Sachs and Sequoia publish their skeptics' questions VIII
July 2024 Construction begins on the Abilene, Texas, campus that becomes Stargate's first site VIII
September 20, 2024 Constellation announces the restart of Three Mile Island Unit 1 to serve Microsoft VIII
November 1, 2024 FERC rejects an expanded behind-the-meter deal between Amazon and Talen's Susquehanna plant VIII
December 2024 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory reports that data centers used 4.4 percent of U.S. electricity in 2023 VIII
January 21, 2025 OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank and MGX announce Stargate at the White House VIII
March 27, 2025 CoreWeave prices its IPO at $40 a share VIII
June 2025 Texas Governor Greg Abbott signs Senate Bill 6, the data-center "kill switch" VIII
September 9, 2025 Oracle reports $455 billion of remaining performance obligations VIII
October 29, 2025 Nvidia becomes the first company to close above $5 trillion VIII
December 2025 PJM's capacity auction clears at its cap and falls 6,623 megawatts short of its reliability target VIII
February 2026 SpaceX acquires xAI VIII
March 2026 OpenAI raises $122 billion at an $852 billion valuation; the Energy Department announces a 10-gigawatt campus at Piketon, Ohio VIII
September 21, 2026 Abbott orders Texas's environmental agency to stop issuing data-center permits VIII
October 26, 2026 Anthropic files its S-1 publicly VIII
November 3, 2026 Voters reject data centers in 40 of 41 local ballot measures; Gina Hinojosa defeats Abbott VIII
November 5, 2026 The Nasdaq has its worst day in 19 months, and chip stocks fall more than 12 percent VIII

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