Published in Chicago

New Firm Announces Plans for 20MW Liquid-Cooled Data Center

Sep 12, 2025 | Posted by Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

A new liquid-cooled data center is being developed in downtown Chicago, Illinois by HydraVault, a new data center developer. The developer says the facility will be “designed from the ground up” for AI and financial systems.

The 20MW two-story facility, located at 2538 South Wabash Avenue, will offer densities up to 200kW per rack, utilizing hybrid air and liquid cooling systems (including direct-to-chip and rear-door heat exchangers as well as hot/cold aisle containment). It will achieve a PUE of 1.19 and feature a closed-loop, waterless cooling system.


"Training, inferencing, financial services, and medical research, among other industries, are accelerating faster than the infrastructure designed to support them," said Greenberg. "We've designed – and will build – a city center AI factory for the future. The power density per square foot of building area in HydraVault, combined with the most advanced components demanded by the next generations of chip technology, makes HydraVault the definitive next-generation data center."

There are 185 data centers in Chicago.

Proposed site for Morris Technology Park
Posted in Tract: Morris Tech Park Source: Tract
Posted in QTS: Chicago Campus |
Primary rendering of CyrusOne’s planned Wood Dale campus
Posted in CyrusOne: Wood Dale CHI6 Source: CyrusOne
Prposed site plan for Project Cardinal
Posted in Project Cardinal Source: United city of Yorkville
Proposed site plan for Project Steel By Prologis
Posted in Prologis: Project Steel Source: United city of Yorkville
Microsoft acquired land around Eldamain and Corneils roads in Plano, IL
Posted in Microsoft: Little Rock Source: Google Maps
CyrusOne's development plan for Little Rock Township Campus in Illinois
Posted in CyrusOne: Yorkville Campus Source: City of Yorkville
Plan of Microsoft's Elk Grove Technology Park site
Posted in Microsoft: Elk Grove Source: CBRE
Nexstar's site plan for Elk Grove Campus
Posted in Nexstar: Elk Grove Source: IL_720 Rohlwing Rd. LLC
The residential area Stream is looking to demolish for its Elk Grove campus
Posted in Stream: Chicago III Source: Google Maps
Prime Data Centers' Elk Grove Village Facility
Posted in Prime Elk Grove |
CyrusOne Bilter Road Campus preliminary site map
Posted in CyrusOne: CHI3 DC2 |
CyrusOne Bilter Road Campus preliminary site map
Posted in CyrusOne: Aurora III (CHI3) |
CloudHQ Mount Prospect campus site map
Posted in CloudHQ Mount Prospect ORD3 |
CloudHQ Mount Prospect campus site map
Posted in CloudHQ: Mount Prospect ORD2 |
CloudHQ Chicago campus site map
Posted in CloudHQ: Mount Prospect ORD1 |
Rendering of Aligned Chicago Data Center
Posted in Aligned Chicago ORD-01 |
Rendering of Prime's Chicago facility
Posted in Prime Elk Grove Source: Prime DC
Switch Room
Posted in DataBank (ORD1) 600 S Federal |
Outside
Posted in DigiCo: Chicago |
Rendering of the facility scheduled to be completed in early 2024
Posted in Metro Edge: Illinois Medical District (IMD) |
Inside 360 TCS
Posted in 360TCS-Lombard |
CHI02 floor layout
Posted in STACK CHI01B Source: STACK Infrastructure
The former AT&T campus is shaped like a old telephone
Posted in Microsoft Hoffman Estates 1 |
Proposed Microsoft Campus Plan
Posted in Microsoft Hoffman Estates 1 Source: Hoffman Estates
Rending of 1 of the proposed MSFT data centers in Hoffman Estates
Posted in Microsoft Hoffman Estates 1 |
Location Total SqFt Gross SqFt Power (MW)
T5: Chicago V 220,000 SqFt
Stream: Chicago III DC2 680,000 SqFt
DataBridge: Aurora, IL NN Request Dataset
Park 120,000 SqFt
Karis: Naperville, IL 211,000 SqFt

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