From 2023 to 2026: AWS Accelerates Indiana’s Largest Data Center Build
Aterio Research Team
In 2023, AWS announced plans for a $11 billion data center campus in St. Joseph County, Indiana—originally pitched as a multi-phase development extending through 2030. Fast forward to 2025, and satellite imagery tells a far more aggressive story. Aterio’s latest analysis from May 11, 2025, confirms all 16 planned buildings are already under construction. We now estimate 1 GW of capacity will be online by Q3 2026—a timeline that beats expectations by several years.
🛰️ What Our Satellite Imagery Shows
Captured just last month, Aterio’s high-resolution imagery reveals:
- 16 separate data center facilities actively under vertical construction
- Backup generators staged across the site, indicating near-term power testing
- Trenching and substation infrastructure visibly underway
This coordinated activity suggests AWS is preparing not just for general cloud expansion, but for a specialized, high-density AI workload.
Figure: New Carlisle North data center construction progress as of May 11, 2025. Captured via Pléiades Neo satellite, © 2025 Airbus DS, sourced through SkyWatch. Image analysis by Aterio.
Figure: New Carlisle South data center construction progress as of May 11, 2025. Captured via Pléiades Neo satellite, © 2025 Airbus DS, sourced through SkyWatch. Image analysis by Aterio.
The AI Link: Project Rainier & Trainium 2
In a recent Bloomberg interview, AWS CEO Matt Garman confirmed that the company is building one of the world’s largest AI clusters for Anthropic, using hundreds of thousands of Trainium 2 chips—their custom silicon for training large language models.
“The cluster we’re building with Anthropic will be 5× larger than their previous one,” Garman said, hinting at the scale of infrastructure behind it.
Although AWS hasn’t named the location, the scale and build speed at St. Joseph strongly suggest it’s a leading candidate for Project Rainier deployment.
Infrastructure and Power Implications
A campus of this scale could ultimately deliver 2.25 GW of capacity, enough to power 1.5 million homes. Early signs of:
- Utility-scale substations
- High-redundancy generator layouts
- Energy-efficient design principles
…indicate AWS is building this site with long-term AI workloads—and massive power draw—in mind. This aligns with their push for liquid cooling, sustainability, and tighter control of silicon-to-software optimization.
Why It Matters for Institutional Investors
St. Joseph isn’t just another hyperscale campus—it’s a case study in how hyperscalers are accelerating AI infrastructure timelines. For global investors, utilities, and REITs, this development offers key insights:
- Earlier-than-expected capacity online = revenue acceleration
- Silicon-specific infrastructure = tenant stickiness for REITs
- Verified build status = reduced speculation risk
Aterio’s real-time geospatial monitoring ensures your investment outlook is based on what’s being built, not just what’s been announced.
Want to know which data center campuses are actually progressing—not just on paper, but in steel and concrete?
Download our Free June Data Center Report or schedule a call with us.