LightHouse Data Centers, a company founded by former Amazon Web Services executives, has partnered with Wharton Digital, an investment group, to launch a hyperscale data center platform in North America. The partnership was announced on January 14 after LightHouse emerged from stealth mode.
The companies stated that their joint effort combines LightHouse's expertise in hyperscale development, leasing, and operations with Wharton's institutional capital. They said the platform is prepared to deliver more than 2 gigawatts of capacity to meet growing demand from hyperscale, artificial intelligence, and cloud customers.
Nick Etscheid, co-founder and CEO of LightHouse, said, "We are excited to join forces with Wharton to build a premier data center platform at a time of unprecedented demand. Wharton immediately understood the scale of what we are building, and this partnership allows us to accelerate delivery of next-generation infrastructure precisely when the market needs it."
As part of the transaction, Wharton has invested in LightHouse and contributed its powered land business and related properties to the platform. The groups said their combined expertise will create a robust development pipeline with a long-term runway spanning both hyperscale campuses and major metro infill sites.
Peter C. Lewis, founder and chairman of Wharton Equity Partners, has been appointed chairman of LightHouse. The company said Wharton's funding will enable corporate growth and a project pipeline expansion for LightHouse.
LightHouse currently has about 300 megawatts of operating power capacity and more than 2 gigawatts in active development across markets in the U.S. Southeast, Southwest, and Midwest. The company said it also has targeted infill locations near major metropolitan areas.
LightHouse said it plans on delivering multiple data center campuses later this year and also early in 2027, each with significant follow-on power capacity. The company stated this would deliver on its strategy of providing both speed and scale for its customers.
Ben Basson, co-founder and chief development officer of LightHouse, said, "We are seeing unprecedented demand for capacity in 2026 and 2027. Given our team's experience leading major AWS region expansions and launching gigawatt-scale campuses, our team is uniquely positioned to deliver large-scale capacity on accelerated timelines for our customers."
On Wednesday, LightHouse said its facilities are purpose-built for next-generation, high-density AI workloads. The company's sites include liquid-cooled architectures while supporting traditional hyperscaler core services.
Peter C. Lewis said, "We are in the very early stages of one of the greatest paradigm shifts our world has ever seen and I am excited to join Nick and Ben's vision to build something special and differentiated in delivering the infrastructure needed to support our digital economy."
Etscheid and Basson previously spent nearly a decade delivering more than $10 billion in data center projects for AWS, along with another data center provider.