The CEO of the company behind Harwood AI Data Center answers questions commonly asked – Inforum

HARMWOOD, N.C. — As a Texas company prepares to break into this month at a $3 billion artificial intelligence data center in northern Fargo, readers have asked a few questions about the facility.

The forum spoke this week about Applied Digital Chairman and CEO Wes Cummins about the 280 megawatt facility planned to east of Interstate 29 between Harwood and Fargo. The 160-acre centre is located on 925 acres near the North Softball Complex in the Fargo Park area.

Harwood City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday, September 10th to rezone the centre’s land from agriculture to light industry. Voting also gave the final approval to the centre’s building permit. This means that applied digital can break the facility at the facility this month.

“We are grateful for the support of the City of Harwood and look forward to continuing our strong partnership with the community as this project moves on,” Cummins said after the vote.

Construction began this month and applied a digital plan to open partially by the end of 2026. The facility should be fully operational by early 2027, the company said.

According to Applied Digital, the project will need to create 700 construction jobs while the facility is being built. The centre will need to be operated by more than 200 full-time employees, the company said. The facility is expected to generate tax revenue and economic growth for the region, but these estimates have not been revealed.

The facility has created doubts and protests. There are a few questions readers had about the facility.

Applied Digital said it is developing facilities that provide “high-performance data centers and colocation solutions for the artificial intelligence, cloud, networking and blockchain industries.” AI is used to run applications that make computers work, Cummins said.

“ChatGpt runs in facilities like this,” he said. “There are a huge number of servers within the facility that can run GPUs (graphic processing units) and you can train them. This is what you’re creating or inferring. This happens when people use the product.”

Applied Digital has not announced that tenants will use Polaris Forge 2, the name of the Harwood facility. At a Harwood City Council meeting, Cummins said the company is being sold to US companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft.

“The demand for AI capabilities continues to accelerate, and North Dakota remains one of the most strategic places in the country to meet that need,” he said. “We have strong interest from multiple parties and are in high-level negotiations with the US-based investment grade hyperschool on this campus, so it’s timely and wise to go ahead with groundbreaking and site development.”

AI data centers need to operate a significant amount of power, Cummins said. Other centres have traditionally been built near densely populated areas, but that’s not necessary, he said.

North Dakota produces enough energy to export it out of state, Cummins said. The Fargo area also has an electrical grid to connect to that energy, he said.

“Many North Dakotans, especially North Dakota leaders, want to better utilize the energy generated by North Dakota for their economic benefits within the state, and want to export it to a nearby state or Canada,” he said.

Most of North Dakota’s cold weather keeps the center cooler than states like Texas. That means the facility uses significantly less electricity than warm states, Cummins said.

“There’s much more efficiency from the facility,” he said. “These aspects make North Dakota an ideal location for this type of AI infrastructure, in my opinion.”

Cummins acknowledges that other AI data centers around the world use millions of gallons of water per day. Applied Digital designed a closed-loop system, so the North Dakota Center uses as little water as possible, Cummins said.

He compared the cooling system to a car radiator. Cummins said the centre will use glycol liquid to pass through the facility and servers. After cooling the equipment, the liquid passes through the chiller like a heat pump outside the home. Once cooled, the liquid recirculates over the continuous loop, he said.

People operating the facility use water for bathroom breaks and drinking, like people in their homes and cars, he said.

“We expect data centers to use the same amount of water as almost a single household, even if they are huge in size,” he said. “The reason is the people inside.”

Applied Digital claims that electricity bills will not rise for local residents because of the data center.

“Datacenters will help pay for a large portion of the fixed utility costs and spread the cost to more users,” the company said.

Applied Digital’s Center in Ellendale, North Dakota uses the same electricity produced in the state as it will be built in Harwood, Cummins said. The Elendale Center, which runs at around 200 megawatts a year, saved $5.3 million and $5.7 million in 2023 last year.

“Using infrastructure more efficiently will actually be able to lower rates,” Cummins said, adding that he also hopes for Harwood’s interest savings.

The applied digital concrete wall should satisfy the noise from the computer, Cummins said. What residents hear is fan noise from the heat pump used to cool the facility, he said.

“It sounds like something that runs outside your home,” he said when explaining that the facility produces minimal noise.

The loudest noise is building the facility, Cummins said.

The facility only covers 160 acres, but Applied Digital has purchased 925 acres of land, with the remaining space serving as a sound buffer. People living nearby may hear some sounds, he admitted.

“If you’re more than half a mile away from the facility, you’re very unlikely to hear anything,” he said.

The facility does not create emissions or other hazards that require environmental impact investigations, Cummins said.

Some people criticize Applied Digital and Harwood City Council for driving the approval process so quickly. Applied Digital announced the project in mid-August, and the city approved it less than a month later.

Cummins acknowledged the concerns but noted that the industry is moving rapidly. The US is competing with China to create artificial intelligence. It’s an undisappearing industry, Cummins said.

“We believe we are racing around the world for super intelligence,” he said. “It’s a competition between US businesses, but also with other countries. …I think it’s very important for the US to beat this AI race against super intelligence and artificial general information.”

Applied Digital said they would like to complete the basics and grading work for the project before winter begins. That is, we needed a timeline of prompt approval.

Harwood people have shown overwhelming support, Cummins said, adding that the protesters mostly came from other cities.

“I can’t imagine a project that would spend this amount and bring this kind of economic benefit to the community, the county and the state. “I think these types of projects are great for these types of communities.”