UAE AI Firm Anchors New Downtown Minneapolis Data Center

A unit of G42, the Abu Dhabi tech conglomerate backed by Emirati royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan, has signed on as the primary tenant for an office-to-data center conversion in Minneapolis, part of its nascent push to compete for AI business in the US.

Core42, a digital infrastructure firm under the G42 umbrella, took 20 megawatts of capacity at 1001 Third Avenue S., a 500-square-foot building in the city’s downtown. Cogent Communications is also a tenant of the data center and has offices in the building, as does adjustable-bed manufacturer Sleep Number Corp.