In New Carlisle, Indiana, near Lake Michigan, a farm covered 4,856,235 m² of land just a year ago. Now, one of the world's largest AI data centers stands there. It is called Project Rainier and is used exclusively to train and run advanced artificial intelligence models. Amazon invested $11 billion (approximately CZK 253 billion) in it, and the entire complex is dedicated to Anthropic, the company behind the Claude model.
Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), described the entire process as follows: "From cornfields to data centers, almost overnight." While competitors such as OpenAI are planning massive projects like Stargate, Amazon already has Rainier fully operational. The complex trains Anthropic's models directly on Amazon's own chips, without using chips from Nvidia.
Rapid construction
Construction began in September last year, and by October this year, seven buildings were already operational, with two more campuses in development. The entire site will eventually comprise 30 buildings and consume more than 2.2 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power over 1.6 million homes. The energy comes in part from a gas-fired power plant in Oregon, Ohio, which is being acquired by Indiana Michigan Power.
Josh Sallabedra, who leads the local AWS team and has 14 years of experience building data centers, relocated from the West Coast to oversee the project. He hired four general contractors to accelerate the pace. The buildings are packed with Amazon's Trainium 2 chips—according to Garman, about 500,000 are currently operating there, with that number expected to reach one million by the end of the year. Anthropic has already doubled its order thanks to the successful operation.
Local residents' reactions
Local residents in New Carlisle, a town of just 1,900 people, are not entirely enthusiastic. Marcy Kauffman, president of the town council, said it is difficult to lose so much farmland. Dan Caruso, a longtime resident, is concerned about further expansion: "Friends told me that once they got established, they would want more—and that's exactly what happened." At the peak of construction, more than 4,000 workers arrived here every day.
Nevertheless, Amazon continues to expand. Garman said the company is constantly adding capacity based on customer needs. Anthropic, which has received an $8 billion investment from Amazon (approximately CZK 184 billion), is collaborating on the development of Trainium 3 chips, which will soon appear in Indiana and elsewhere. Mike Krieger, Anthropic's chief product officer, praises Amazon for its speed: "They are amazing at actually getting things installed and making them available to customers."
Source: cnbc.com
