Novva Data Centers
Table of Contents

⚠ Disclaimer: This entry may be incomplete, out of date, or inaccurate. It is AI-maintained on a best-effort basis. Do not rely on it as a sole source — verify claims independently using the sources listed below.

Summary

Novva Data Centers is a privately held wholesale and multi-tenant colocation developer and operator based in West Jordan, Utah. It launched in July 2020 under CEO Wes Swenson, previously CEO of C7 Data Centers (acquired by DataBank in 2017), in partnership with CIM Group. Its flagship is a 100-acre West Jordan campus planned at 175 MW of critical IT load across three phases; in March 2025 it closed $2B of financing from J.P. Morgan and Starwood Property Trust to complete Phases 2 and 3, which are expected to finish in 2026. Novva also operates in Colorado Springs and North Las Vegas, opened a 60 MW Tahoe Reno facility in July 2025, and is building a 300 MW campus in Mesa, Arizona. It uses a water-free direct-to-chip cooling design and patrols its Utah site with Boston Dynamics Spot robots it calls “WIRE.”

Key Facts

  • Launched: July 2020 (Novva Inc., announced 2020-07-21)
  • HQ: West Jordan, UT
  • Type: Private; partnered with CIM Group
  • CEO: Wes Swenson (as of March 2025; verify current status)
  • Equity: CIM Group committed up to $355M more in June 2022, bringing its total equity commitment to $450M
  • Debt: $2B financing (J.P. Morgan lead arranger, Starwood Property Trust arranger), announced 2025-03-05
  • Flagship campus (West Jordan, UT): 100 acres, about 1M sq ft, 175 MW total
    • Phase 1: operating since 2023, fully leased that year to a global technology company
    • Phase 2: 318,000 sq ft, 72 MW; construction began December 2023; expected complete 2026
    • Phase 3: 318,000 sq ft, 72 MW; construction began January 2024; expected complete 2026
  • Other sites: Colorado Springs, CO (operating); North Las Vegas, NV (operating; reported 100 MW); Tahoe Reno, NV (60 MW, launched July 2025); San Francisco, CA (planned); Mesa, AZ (300 MW, under construction)
  • Cooling: company describes waterless / water-free direct-to-chip cooling; no PUE or WUE figures published in sources reviewed
  • Customer size range: 250 kW to 30 MW (wholesale colocation)
  • Water claim: Novva states 84% less water use than conventional facilities (per the March 2025 financing coverage)
  • Security automation: Boston Dynamics Spot robots (“WIRE”) on 24/7 patrol at the Utah site since 2021, upgraded with generative AI in 2024

What It Is / How It Works

Novva builds, owns and operates datacenters and leases capacity wholesale, from a single cabinet-scale deployment up to about 30 MW per customer, rather than building for one anchor tenant. Its 2022 release describes a “wholocation” model combining wholesale and retail colocation and build-to-suit options intended to cut customer go-live time to about 12 months.

Siting. Campuses sit in Western US markets with lower-cost power, dry climates and cooler ambient air: Salt Lake City, Colorado Springs, Las Vegas, the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, San Francisco and Mesa. The Tahoe Reno facility is six 10 MW raised-floor halls on a 100 MW on-site substation fed by NV Energy.

Cooling. Novva says its newer halls use water-free direct-to-chip cooling designed for AI loads. The company does not publish PUE, WUE or per-rack density figures in the sources reviewed, so claims about efficiency remain design-level.

Security robotics. The WIRE robots are Boston Dynamics Spot units first programmed with Brigham Young University engineering students, then upgraded by Rightpoint (a Genpact company) with a generative AI layer using OpenAI’s ChatGPT API. Tasks include scheduled patrols, thermal checks of equipment, facial recognition of authorized personnel and flagging vehicles without license plates (Novva, Genpact). Genpact’s reported results are self-reported with no quantitative metrics.

Notable Developments

  • 2025-09: DCD reports a $181M, nearly 205-acre land purchase in the Apex Industrial Park, North Las Vegas; the seller confirmed the sale but did not name the buyer and Novva did not comment; no capacity disclosed. (DCD)
  • 2025-07-08: Tahoe Reno Data Center launches: 60 MW, 300,000 sq ft, water-free direct-to-chip cooling. (DCD)
  • 2025-03-05: $2B financing from J.P. Morgan and Starwood to complete the West Jordan campus (Phases 2 and 3) and support Western US growth. (CIM Group)
  • 2024-09-30: WIRE robots receive generative AI upgrade. (Novva)
  • 2024-08: Novva confirmed as the developer of Project Borealis, a 300 MW, five-building campus in Mesa, AZ on 165 acres bought at auction for $62.7M; first 96 MW phase targeted for late 2026. (DCD, ConnectCRE)
  • 2024-01: Phase 3 construction begins at West Jordan.
  • 2023-12: Phase 2 construction begins; San Francisco site announced.
  • 2023: Phase 1 at West Jordan operating and fully leased.
  • 2022-06: CIM Group commits up to $355M more equity (total $450M); target of 1,000 MW of designed capacity by 2027. (PR Newswire)
  • 2020-07-21: Novva launches to build a hyperscale campus in West Jordan. (Novva)

Key People

Wes Swenson — Founder and CEO

  • LinkedIn: not found
  • Role: Founder and CEO, quoted as CEO in the March 2025 financing release
  • Previous employers: C7 Data Centers (CEO; acquired by DataBank in 2017)
  • Source: Novva launch release

Avi Shemesh — Co-Founder and Principal, CIM Group

  • Role: CIM Group principal quoted in Novva’s financing and equity releases; CIM is Novva’s equity partner
  • LinkedIn: not found

⚑ Shared background: Swenson ran C7 Data Centers (acquired by DataBank), a Utah colocation operator; DataBank is not currently documented in this section.

People — Last Reviewed: 2026-10-23

Supply Chain Position

Novva sits at the wholesale colocation operator layer, downstream of land, utility power, construction and cooling equipment and upstream of enterprise and hyperscale tenants.

Layer Detail
Land and site Owned campuses in UT, CO, NV and AZ; Mesa land bought at auction
Power Utility feeds; Tahoe Reno substation supplied by NV Energy; a Rolls-Royce partnership for power was announced July 2024 per Novva’s media center
Cooling Direct-to-chip system; vendor not disclosed
Construction General contractors not named in sources reviewed
Security robotics Boston Dynamics Spot; software by Rightpoint/Genpact and OpenAI API
Tenants Phase 1 West Jordan: a global technology company (unnamed); other tenants not disclosed

⚑ Capital concentration: CIM Group is both equity partner and co-founder; the $2B debt facility is separate but finances the same buildout.

⚑ Cloud-API dependency: The WIRE robots’ conversational features rely on OpenAI’s API, an external service dependency in a security setting.

Claim Verification

Claim: 175 MW campus completes in 2026 and is “one of the largest” direct-to-chip cooled AI datacenters

Status: Unverified

Supporting sources:

  • CIM Group release — 175 MW at completion; Phases 2 and 3 expected complete in 2026

Refuting / questioning sources:

  • No source reviewed confirms Phase 2 or 3 commissioning as of October 2026, and no independent ranking of direct-to-chip campuses was found.

Summary: Completion is planned, not confirmed; the “largest” framing is marketing.

Claim: Waterless cooling and 84% less water

Status: Unverified

Supporting sources:

  • Novva — describes a “unique” waterless cooling system without technical detail
  • Converge Digest — reports the 84% reduction versus conventional facilities

Refuting / questioning sources:

  • No WUE or PUE data and no stated baseline for the 84% comparison.

Summary: Directionally plausible for closed-loop dry-cooled designs; not independently measured.

Claim: Mesa campus of 300 MW with first 96 MW in late 2026

Status: Partially verified

Supporting sources:

Refuting / questioning sources:

  • Both reports date from the 2024 announcement; no 2026 construction update was found.

Summary: Capacity and schedule are announced plans; status is not confirmed.

Sources

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