The news
Kevin Ooley, currently chief financial officer at DataBank, will become the company’s next chief executive. In an appearance on Bloomberg’s “The Close,” Ooley discussed the practical hurdles facing data-center operators during the current wave of AI-related construction. The firm runs facilities in more than 25 markets and must secure adequate power and supporting infrastructure to keep pace with demand.
Context
DataBank’s scale places it among mid-sized wholesale providers that serve hyperscale customers and AI developers. Until now, the company has grown by adding capacity across dispersed markets rather than concentrating in a few large campuses. Ooley’s move from CFO to CEO keeps leadership continuity while the firm confronts rising electricity costs and grid-connection delays that have become common across the sector.
Details
Ooley told hosts Romaine Bostick and Mandeep Singh that power availability remains the primary bottleneck. He noted that even markets with available land often lack sufficient transmission or substation capacity to support new halls at the densities AI workloads require. DataBank operates more than 70 sites; each new building therefore requires separate negotiations with utilities that face their own multi-year queues for equipment and approvals.
The company’s geographic spread across 25-plus markets gives it some flexibility to shift projects toward locations where power can be secured sooner. At the same time, that dispersion increases the number of individual interconnection studies and local permitting processes the firm must manage. Ooley’s background as CFO positions him to weigh capital allocation decisions that balance speed of deployment against long-term power-contract costs.
Why it matters
For customers evaluating colocation or wholesale capacity, the change in leadership signals that DataBank intends to keep executing on announced builds rather than pausing for a broader strategic review. Power constraints are not theoretical; they translate directly into longer lead times and higher prices for new racks. Operators that can lock in supply early gain an advantage, while those that cannot risk losing tenants to competitors with better utility relationships.
The same constraints affect every participant in the AI supply chain. Chip makers can ship GPUs, but without matching electrical capacity those chips sit idle or run at reduced utilization. DataBank’s experience illustrates how the bottleneck has moved from silicon to the grid. Enterprises planning large training clusters therefore need to treat power procurement as a first-order variable, not an afterthought.
Ooley’s public comments also underscore that infrastructure challenges are now discussed at the highest levels inside providers. Finance teams once focused on lease pricing must now model multi-year power-price escalation and the cost of backup generation. That shift changes the risk profile of new capacity and, by extension, the contract terms offered to tenants.
Data centers cannot be brought online faster than utilities can deliver megawatts. Ooley’s appointment places someone who has already modeled those costs in charge of navigating them.
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