Quantum Loophole are looking at three new US states to expand their business, which is based around supplying the building blocks for data centre development: land, power, water and fibre.
The company has told Capacity it has shortlisted locations in Illinois, California, and Texas, and in some cases is in active negotiations for specific sites.
When asked why these states were picked as the next locations for Quantum Loophole, CEO Josh Snowhorn said “it is where we see shortfalls over the next decade for our product and where our clients are telling us they need help”.
Frederick Campus, Quantum Loophole’s existing development, is a 2,000 acre plot of land that had 1,500 acres already zoned for industrial activity.
It is located just 20 miles from the Ashburn internet ecosystem across the border in Northen Virginia, and had significant power infrastructure already in place from its days as an Aluminium smelting plant.
Snowhorn has similar criteria for Quantum Loophole’s next sites. He expressed a preference for a large plot of land that was already zoned, but said the company would be willing to play the long game of rezoning for the right site.
He also said “massive power at transmission scale and existing fibre, sewage and water” were all key criteria that any new site would need to fill, in addition to an adjacency to the core internet exchange in the area of interest.
In addition to developing and selling the land at Frederick Campus, Quantum Loophole are building a high capacity 40 mile fibre loop between the site and Ashburn.
"This is something we'll do again in new locations" Snowhorn said.
If a second site is to be acquired, Snowhorn told Capacity this would result in ramping up staff, although not immediately.
Quantum Loophole has a lean management team running Frederick Campus, and Snowhorn expects the hiring to be more focused on staff local to Illinois, Texas or California.
“Once we buy land we kick off using outside resources and add staff full time as the project matures,” he said.
“Management can deal with multiple locations, but staff will be augmented as needed with local talent”.
Towards the end of last year, Aligned Data Centers, the first company to buy land at Frederick Campus from Quantum Loophole, ran into some difficulty securing permits for its back-up diesel generators.
Read our interview with Josh explaining this situation and his take on it here.
