Status: Master Planning / Initial Construction (Tenant builds underway) | Location: Frederick County, Maryland, USA
The Quantum Loophole Frederick Data Center Campus is a visionary master-planned digital infrastructure site situated in Frederick County, Maryland, near the bustling Northern Virginia data center hub. The project is strategically important as it addresses the key infrastructure constraints—namely, power and fiber optic connectivity—that are increasingly limiting growth in the world's largest data center market (NoVa).
The campus is a redevelopment of the former 2,100-acre Alcoa Eastalco Works aluminum smelter site. This brownfield redevelopment offers a unique advantage: immediate access to massive existing high-voltage power infrastructure and dedicated water resources (recycled waste water) necessary for cooling the next generation of power-dense AI and machine learning workloads.
The master plan is built on an "Ecoscale" philosophy, focusing on ecologically balanced, gigawatt-scale development. A key feature is the QLoop, a proprietary, 40-mile, low-latency hyperscale fiber optic ring that connects the Frederick campus directly to "Data Center Alley" in Ashburn, Virginia, bypassing major urban congestion. This fiber ring will weave hundreds of thousands of fiber strands, giving tenants world-class, low-latency connectivity, effectively extending the Northern Virginia ecosystem into Maryland.
The total planned capacity of the campus is a monumental 2 GW (Gigawatts), designed to host multiple large hyperscale tenants and colocation providers. Initial phases, such as Rowan Digital Infrastructure's Bauxite campus, are already securing significant financing and moving towards construction, underscoring the serious commitment to delivering this massive capacity. The project's strategy of repurposing industrial land, using recycled water for cooling, and integrating massive, pre-secured power and network infrastructure positions it as a blueprint for sustainable, large-scale digital infrastructure development in power-constrained regions
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Project Name | Quantum Loophole Frederick Data Center Campus |
| Location | Frederick County, Maryland, USA |
| Status | Master Planning / Initial Construction (Tenant builds underway) |
| Commissioning | Phased, starting with initial 231 MW delivery (Expected late 2025) |
| Total IT Load | Up to 2 GW |
| Total Capacity | Up to 2,000 MW (Expected Hyperscale Capacity across multiple buildings) |
| Tier Level | Designed for Hyperscale requirements (Tier III/IV resilience standards) |
| Project Type | Master-Planned Digital Infrastructure Park |
| Header | Details |
|---|---|
| City Name | Frederick, MD (Near Washington D.C./Northern Virginia) |
| Population | near 80,617 |
| Urban Agglomeration | around 90,000 |
| City GDP | $19.19 billion in 2023 |
| Per Capita Income | $48,000 - $50,000+ |
| City Tier | Designed for Hyperscale requirements (Tier III/IV resilience standards) |
| Key Strengths | Proximity to "Data Center Alley," Access to Massive Power/Water, Tax Incentives |
| Header | Details |
|---|---|
| Developer / Operator | Quantum Loophole (Original Planner), TPG Real Estate (Owner), Rowan Digital Infrastructure (Anchor Tenant/Developer) |
| Strategic Infrastructure Partner | TPG Real Estate Partners (Financial/Land Owner) |
| Construction Contractor | N/A (Multiple tenants/contractors involved, e.g., C3M Power Systems for pump station) |
| MEP Engineering | N/A (Proprietary to anchor tenants/developers) |
| Network Connectivity | QLoop (40-mile hyperscale fiber ring to Northern Virginia Data Center Alley) |
| Power Infrastructure | Redevelopment of former industrial site with massive existing grid access |
| Header | Details |
|---|---|
| Power Capacity | Up to 2 GW |
| UPS Redundancy | N/A (Standard N+1 / 2N architecture expected) |
| Cooling System | Recycled Waste Water Cooling (Minimizing strain on natural resources) |
| Connectivity | Carrier-neutral, dedicated ultra-low latency fiber to NoVa |
| PUE Target | N/A (Expected to be highly efficient, driven by cooling and large scale) |
| Energy Mix | Focus on sourcing Renewable Energy and high grid reliability |
| Header | Details |
|---|---|
| Announcement | 2021 |
| Construction Start | 2024 (Initial site development and tenant builds) |
| Phase 1 Go-Live | Expected late 2025 (Initial 231 MW from Rowan's Bauxite I) |
| Full Buildout | Phased, expected early 2030s |
| Header | Details |
|---|---|
| Total Investment | Multi-Billion USD (Rowan's initial phases alone total over $2.2 billion) |
| Funding | TPG Real Estate, Institutional Investors (Debt/Equity Financing) |
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