From Silicon to Server: Mapping the Data Center Supply Chain
June 9, 2025
Five hundred billion dollars in capital investment over the next four years. This is the expected investment by NVIDIA to manufacture AI supercomputers and Blackwell chips in the United States. Although this single project is at a mind-boggling scale, it is one of many high-dollar projects announced in recent years that are changing the data center landscape across the U.S. But the world of data center development is multifaceted, involving numerous supply chain industries that systematically integrate with these massive investments. While these ambitious developments make eye-catching headlines, we should also be noting the lesser known, yet significantly impactful, technological advances coming from companies you may not immediately associate with data centers.
As cloud computing continues to revolutionize business operations, innovation, user experiences, and technology itself, the importance of the data centers that underpin this intricately robust digital infrastructure cannot be understated. Simply put, data centers are where the internet lives, and all activity that involves the internet relies on these structures. Their expanding importance in the framework of our society is reflected in their becoming a household term in recent years. With this increasing familiarity of the industry, discussions surrounding new data center development usually involve concepts like energy use, water, and sustainability. While these certainly are pressing topics, it is perhaps more critical to consider the diverse ecosystem of distribution and supply chain operations that integrate with data center development and its growth trajectory.