The planned data center in Upper Burrell already has its first tenant.
TECfusions officials announced that TensorWave, an artificial intelligence cloud platform, will be deployed at its Upper Burrell site located at the former Alcoa Research and Development campus.
TECfusions spokeswoman Melissa Farney described TensorWave as a “neocloud.” A neocloud is a cloud computing provider that delivers AI-optimized infrastructure to meet demands of machine learning and data-intensive workloads.
“They build AI clusters and lease the space to companies running training and inference,” Farney said.
Initially, the infrastructure will be 10 megawatts. It’s the first in a multiphase approach for TensorWave to scale to one gigawatt at Upper Burrell’s TECfusions. One gigawatt is equal to 1,000 megawatts.
“They were already in our Tuscon facility,” Farney said. “The’re expanding there and now starting services in Pennsylvania, and declared intent to grow in Pennsylvania up to a gigawatt.”
TECfusions officials said previously the site could hold up to 3 gigawatts — roughly about three times more power than the Three Mile Island power plant near Harrisburg.
Data centers are large facilities that house equipment such as computer servers, storage systems and networking devices for companies and organizations.
Farney said TensorWave will fill Building J at the site, which was formerly used as a data center for Arconic, an Alcoa spinoff.
“AI is expanding at a historic pace, and TECfusions is enabling that growth through speed, flexibility and design innovation,” said Simon Tusha, founder of TECfusions. “TensorWave’s confidence in our ability to deliver large-scale AMD deployments within months reaffirms our leadership in speed to market and adaptive, real-world execution.”
The installations are scheduled to take place by this summer, according to TECfusions.
The initial 10 megawatt phase at Upper Burrell is expected to support more than 100 skilled trade jobs, according to TECfusions.
“We really do mean that,” Farney said. “We’re planning to start that process immediately. We’re looking forward to growing with the community.”
Farney said TensorWave’s cluster will rely on direct liquid cooling.
“AI deployments require a different type of cooling,” Farney said. “It’s direct liquid-to-chip, which is its own type of cooling. It’s a closed loop, so it doesn’t use water.”
Natural gas onsite will power the deployment, Farney said.
“Instead of paying for local utility, our plan is to scale up over time to use our own power grid,” she said. “The interconnect allows us to give that back to the grid if it’s needed for residents.”
TECfusions acquired the 1,395-acre site in Upper Burrell in December 2024.
TECfusions plans a public information meeting at 7 p.m. Jan. 26 at the township building, 3735 Seventh Street Road.
