The week's tape reads like the market decided dirt is the easy part. The deals that actually closed between July 28 and August 4 were contracts and credit structures — a 40 MW campus 100% pre-leased before it's fully built, a 1.125 MW Dallas colo hall signed only after the offtake was locked, a $95 million fund invented in weeks to front ERCOT's interconnection deposits, and a $1.18 billion securitization that got upsized 30% because investors who'd never bought data center paper wanted in. Meanwhile the entitlement door kept narrowing: Loudoun County — the densest data center market on earth — rejected 3.25 million square feet and asked its lawyers whether it can stop taking applications altogether.

If you're chasing 10–60 MW deployments, that's both doors moving at once. The capital markets door is swinging open, but only for projects with contracted demand attached. The zoning door is closing on everything else. Demand first, dirt second.

A Dogecoin-Treasury Cleaning Company Just Pre-Leased 40 MW to Cerebras

CleanCore Solutions is an Omaha cleaning-products company that spent the spring holding a Dogecoin treasury and pivoted to AI infrastructure in June. On July 29 it announced a 10-year colocation services agreement with wafer-scale chipmaker Cerebras covering 40 MW of critical IT load at a Minnesota campus — 100% of the site, pre-leased, at roughly $800 million initial contract value, with two 10-year renewal options that could push the total past $3 billion. Fifteen MW of IT load is live today on about 20 MW of energized utility power; the rest, and first revenue, lands Q1 2027.

The structure is the interesting part. The campus sits in a new JV — Monarch SPV HoldCo LLC, CleanCore at 79% with up to $500 million of committed capital, a partner contributing the project assets and development services. Laugh at the sponsor's résumé if you want, but run the math: ~$2 million per IT-MW per year on a 10-year single-tenant term, fully pre-leased before buildout. That is the cleanest mid-size comp printed this week, and it came from a company that sold floor cleaner eighteen months ago. Classic.

Deal specs. Sponsor: CleanCore Solutions via Monarch SPV HoldCo LLC (79/21 JV); tenant Cerebras Systems · Site: Minnesota; city n/d · Footprint: n/d · Load: 40 MW critical IT (55 MW utility at full buildout; 15 MW live today) · Density: n/d — no sf disclosed · Lease: 10-yr colocation services agreement, 100% pre-leased single tenant, two 10-yr renewal options, escalator n/d; tenant newly public, not investment-grade · Deal value: ~$800M initial term, >$3B with renewals · Source: DCD.

1.125 MW in Dallas, and the Offtake Came First

The smallest deal of the week is the purest expression of the same logic. Kidz AI — the former edtech company Classover, pivoted to neocloud in May — signed an MoU announced August 3 to lease 1.125 MW at Limestone Networks' DFW3 facility in Dallas for an Nvidia B300 cluster, starting at 0.5–0.6 MW in a dedicated hall and ramping as servers arrive. The colo capacity exists solely to serve an already-signed 60-month, $44.6 million GPU services agreement with inference platform Canopy Wave. CEO Stephanie Luo said it plainly: demand first, capacity second.

Two things worth filing. First, the underwriting template — contracted downstream revenue before the lease is inked — now runs from 1 MW to 40 MW without modification. Second, the real estate: legacy downtown colo and carrier hotels are absorbing the single-digit-MW inference clusters the big builders won't touch. That's inventory most brokers wrote off years ago.

Deal specs. Sponsor: Kidz AI (via Catalyst Compute); landlord Limestone Networks; offtake Canopy Wave · Site: Limestone DFW3, within Dallas city limits; address n/d · Footprint: n/d — one dedicated hall · Load: 1.125 MW at full ramp (0.5–0.6 MW initial) · Density: n/d · Lease: colocation MoU (not yet definitive), term n/d, underpinned by 60-mo $44.6M GPU services agreement; Nasdaq micro-cap tenant, speculative credit with contracted revenue · Source: DCD.

$50 Million per Gigawatt, Due July 10: Who Fronted Batch Zero's Deposits

Last issue I told you ERCOT's Batch Zero window had closed and the studying had started. Here's who wrote the checks. Houston's Dynamix Capital Partners, with Staubach Capital and Soda Springs, closed the ~$95 million SSSC Batch Zero Fund on July 30 — a first-of-its-kind vehicle that financed the security deposits Texas landowners had to post by July 10 to qualify for ERCOT's large-load interconnection process, priced at $50 million per gigawatt. The fund backed roughly 1.7 GW of requested capacity, including a 1.2 GW site adjacent to Austin and a 480 MW site adjacent to the DFW metroplex. Allocations are expected April 2027; refundability hangs on a PUCT rule (16 TAC §25.194) anticipated for adoption in September.

The sites are mega — that's the exception, and the reason it's here is the product, not the parcels. Traditional lenders wouldn't underwrite bespoke, refundability-uncertain collateral on a three-week fuse, so someone built a fund that would. Every landowner and mid-size developer heading into future ERCOT batches now has a benchmark for what deposit financing costs and who supplies it. Expect imitators before the April allocations print.

Deal specs. Sponsor: Dynamix Capital Partners + Staubach Capital + Soda Springs (SSSC Batch Zero Fund LP), anchored by an unnamed institutional credit partner · Site: 1.2 GW site adjacent to Austin; 480 MW site adjacent to DFW; exact locations n/d · Footprint: n/a — powered-land deposit financing · Load: ~1.7 GW of requested interconnection capacity backed · Structure: fund finances landowner security deposits at $50M/GW under ERCOT Batch Zero; refundability pending 16 TAC §25.194 (Sept 2026); allocations April 2027 · Deal value: ~$95M deployed · Source: GlobeNewswire.

Aligned Reopens the ABS Window: $1.18B, Upsized 30%, 90% Investment-Grade Rent

Aligned Data Centers closed a $1.183 billion asset-backed securitization on July 28 — its first since 2023 — upsized roughly 30% from a $905 million target on institutional demand, including investors new to the asset class. Collateral: four stabilized campuses across three markets, 14 enterprise customers, more than 90% of annualized adjusted base rent from investment-grade counterparties. Multi-tranche, five-year anticipated repayment dates, proceeds to the development pipeline and refinancing.

This one's here as the week's cost-of-capital benchmark — the portfolio is big, but the signal prices every stabilized 10–60 MW colo asset in the country. A reopened, oversubscribed data center ABS market means the exit and the refi both got cheaper for anyone holding leased, investment-grade rent rolls. If your asset can't clear that 90% IG bar, you now know exactly what the market is paying up for.

Deal specs. Sponsor: Aligned Data Centers (private; recently acquired by a BlackRock GIP-led consortium) · Site: 4 stabilized campuses across 3 markets; markets n/d · Footprint: n/d — portfolio level · Load: n/d · Structure: multi-tranche ABS (Class A-2-I + Class B), 5-yr anticipated repayment, 14 enterprise customers, >90% of AABR investment-grade · Deal value: $1.183B (vs. $905M target) · Source: GlobeNewswire.

Loudoun Blinks: 3.25 Million Square Feet Rejected, a Moratorium on the Table

Loudoun County's Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend denial of Spring Valley Technology Park — 12 buildings, 3.25 million sf, three substations and utility-scale storage on roughly 325 acres near Beaverdam Reservoir — after more than 500 residents showed up in opposition. The Board of Supervisors separately voted 6-1 to have staff study whether a temporary moratorium on new data center applications is even legal, with staff reporting back September 15. This is Data Center Alley, the densest concentration of data centers on the planet, contemplating a full stop on intake.

The campus is mega; the consequence isn't. It landed the same week Hillsboro, Oregon passed a four-month pause, DeSoto County, Florida a one-year, La Conner, Washington six months, Paulding County, Georgia its own, and Akron moved to require a council vote plus disclosed power, water, and noise specs per project. If NoVA pauses intake, every already-entitled, already-powered sub-75 MW site in Loudoun and its spillover metros — Richmond, Culpeper, Frederick — just picked up a scarcity premium without lifting a finger. Entitlement is becoming the asset.

Deal specs. Sponsor: Spring Valley Technology Park developer · Site: ~325 acres near Beaverdam Reservoir, unincorporated Loudoun County, VA, adjacent Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve · Footprint: 3,250 ksf across 12 buildings + 3 substations + storage · Load: n/d — 780 MW reported but unverified in primary documents · Density: n/d · Structure: legislative rezoning — Planning Commission recommended denial; Board action pending; countywide moratorium study due Sept 15 · Source: DCD.

What to Watch Next Week

Vineland, NJ — Wednesday, August 5. The Planning Board decides whether DataOne's partially constructed data center can proceed. A live test of mid-Atlantic entitlement risk on a build that's already out of the ground.

Moratorium calendar. Marshalltown, Iowa holds a public hearing on a four-month pause August 10; Harrison County, Kentucky's fiscal court votes on its own August 11. The county-by-county map keeps redrawing itself weekly.

Bisnow DICE South, Dallas–Fort Worth — August 12–13. Expect term-sheet chatter on DFW mid-size colo and powered land. Denver follows August 20.

Box Elder County, UT — August 18. The MIDA board takes up the contested Stratos project; a water permit filing is promised by end of August.

Piedmont, OK — before August 24. Cloverleaf Infrastructure owes the council a peer-reviewed water and wastewater study ahead of a re-vote. And circle September 15 for Loudoun's moratorium study returning to the Board.

Disclaimer: Edge Cases is Barrio Energy's deal-flow product. Nothing here is investment advice, a recommendation to transact, or a substitute for your own diligence. Specs are sourced from public filings, press, and reporting; verify before you wire anything.