Execution, Power, and Public Trust: Rich Miller on 2026’s Data Center Reality

In the latest episode of The DCF Show Podcast, Data Center Frontier founder Rich Miller joins present DCF Editor in Chief Matt Vincent and Senior Editor David Chernicoff to examine where the data center industry stands as AI infrastructure moves from announcement to execution.

Miller also discusses his new Data Center Richness podcast and Substack project, which explores how data center professionals consume content and learn about the rapidly evolving industry. With information overload now a reality, Miller’s goal is to distill the most important signals shaping infrastructure decisions.

The conversation then turns to what defines 2026 for data centers: execution. After a year filled with megaproject announcements, the industry now faces the harder task of actually delivering campuses at AI scale—often under severe power constraints.

With utilities struggling to keep pace, on-site generation is shifting from temporary solution to long-term strategy, as developers seek reliable ways to power projects while easing community concerns about grid impacts.

Public resistance has also become a major factor. Miller notes that community opposition is now delaying or halting billions of dollars in projects, forcing operators to rethink how they engage with local stakeholders. Issues like power pricing and water usage are increasingly central to project approval.

On the technology front, Nvidia’s roadmap continues to reshape infrastructure planning, with rack densities rising sharply, liquid cooling becoming standard, and new power distribution models emerging to support AI factories. At the same time, Miller expects the market to stratify, with some operators specializing in AI factories while others serve cloud and enterprise demand.

The discussion also touches on nuclear power’s future role, with data centers positioning themselves as anchor customers, though meaningful SMR deployment remains years away.

Ultimately, Miller argues that the industry is moving faster than ever, and 2026 will reveal how well today’s massive investments translate into real deployments.

As he concludes: the next phase belongs to those who can deliver.