Edged US has topped out its second data centre on its Aurora, Illinois, campus. The 72 MW facility is fully pre-leased.
The milestone marks completion of the building's structural framework at a site designed for AI training and inference workloads. The centre uses closed-loop, waterless cooling and is expected to save more than 277 million gallons of water a year compared with conventional data centres.
Located at 2835 Bilter Road, the site is in Aurora, the second-largest city in Illinois and part of a growing technology hub in the wider Chicago area. Construction is continuing with FCL Builders, and the facility is scheduled to become operational in the second quarter of 2027.
The topping out comes as operators and developers expand data centre capacity to meet rising demand for AI computing. Edged opened its first facility on the Aurora campus in February 2025.
Chicago expansion
Together, the two buildings make up the company's Chicago campus and add to its broader North American network, which includes sites in Atlanta, Columbus, Council Bluffs, Dallas, Des Moines, Kansas City, and Phoenix.
The new Aurora facility will provide 72 MW of critical capacity, making it one of the larger projects in a market where data centre investment has accelerated as cloud providers and technology groups seek more space and power for AI systems.
Water use has become a growing issue for the sector, particularly in areas where local resources are under pressure. Edged says its ThermalWorks cooling system allows the facility to operate without using water for cooling, a design choice intended to reduce strain on local supplies while supporting more digital infrastructure.
The company's portfolio-wide average design power usage effectiveness is 1.15. PUE is a standard industry measure that compares total energy use with the energy consumed by computing equipment.
Demand pressure
Operators across the United States are racing to secure land, electricity, and customers as AI workloads reshape infrastructure requirements. Facilities built for AI typically require greater power density than conventional enterprise computing sites, increasing pressure on utilities, construction timelines, and cooling systems.
Edged says the Aurora building was purpose-built for high-density AI workloads and was fully pre-leased before completion, indicating that demand was committed ahead of launch.
That pre-leasing trend has become more common in major US data centre markets, where developers seek to reduce risk and customers move early to secure future capacity. Long lead times for power connections and specialist equipment have made early commitments more valuable for landlords and operators.
Mitch Fonseca, chief operating officer of Edged US, linked the project to broader demand from AI customers and the need to build quickly while controlling resource use.
"As demand for AI infrastructure accelerates, speed, efficiency, and sustainability must advance together," Fonseca said.
"Reaching this milestone in Aurora reflects the strength of our partnerships, the dedication of our construction teams, and our commitment to delivering high-performance infrastructure designed for the future of compute. We're proud to continue investing in the Chicago region with infrastructure that supports innovation while dramatically reducing environmental impact."
Local presence
Beyond construction, Edged says it has supported local organisations and community initiatives in the Aurora area, including Hesed House and other non-profit programmes. It did not disclose the scale of that support.
Edged describes itself as a builder and operator of AI-ready data centres for hyperscale cloud companies, technology providers, and large enterprises. It says its North American platform is expanding at gigawatt scale to meet customer demand.
For Aurora, the immediate milestone is simpler: the frame of the second building is complete, and a fully pre-leased 72 MW data centre is moving into the next stage of construction.