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THE FRONTIER LINE
Hosts Wayne Aston and David Murray explore the critical global pillars of infrastructure development and energy production, from traditional methods to future-forward advancements. The Frontier Line covers the latest industry news, energy innovations, and sustainability trends that are shaping the future. Through expert interviews with industry leaders in renewable energy, utility-scale battery storage, and waste-to-energy technologies, the podcast provides insights into the evolving landscape of energy efficiency and sustainable infrastructure. By focusing on the intersection of innovation and the politics of energy, The Frontier Line highlights transformative ideas and technologies poised to deliver cost-efficient, resilient, and sustainable solutions for global industries.
THE FRONTIER LINE
Company Spotlight -QTS Data Centers
Welcome back to the show. Friends of the Frontier Line, Dave, good afternoon.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone. Hello, good afternoon, wayne, or good morning, good afternoon, good night, yeah, where are we? We cover it all depending upon whenever and wherever you are listening.
Speaker 1:That's right. I think it's midnight in Dubai, so I know they're listening there still Still, all right? Well, listen, guys, we have a great company spotlight for you today. We and guys, we have a great company spotlight for you today. We've had a lot going on the last several months, obviously covering the headlines. You know we're constantly meeting new exciting people and you know making lots of plans as we move. You know, our Valley Forge initiative forward further down the field, and we thought today would be a great opportunity to highlight a company we've got a high level of respect for and that would be QTS Data Centers.
Speaker 1:Qts Data Centers is I'm going to just go on a limb and say maybe the juggernaut in data center development and operations. They're an operator, and so for the listeners to distinguish the difference between, like a Meta or a Google or the hyperscalers, qts is the company that'll kind of go in and buy the land, build the campus and then manage operations for the Metas of the world, then manage operations for the metas of the world, and QTS stands for Quality Technology Services. These guys were founded in 2005, headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, and they are definitely a global leader when it comes to the data centers, co-locating with power hybrid cloud solutions. Locating with power hybrid cloud solutions. They've got over 75 facilities worldwide and over nine million square feet of space managing and they manage for all of the majors, I mean google, microsoft, meta, jp, morgan, um, ea games and, and there's a list, and and it just goes on and on and on with their client base. So a very impressive company.
Speaker 1:Dave and I are so excited to cover qts for you today. That's kind of the intro, dave. How are you feeling about it today?
Speaker 2:it's, you know they are. They are, uh, the giant organization for sure in the world, you know. Know they? I've seen it written about them, I know they've said it largest independent data center operator in the world. And that's, you hit it on the head. Specializing co-location services, custom data center development, cloud managed infrastructure. And then, and then you know that that's, that's just massive in and of itself. They were acquired by Blackstone for $10 billion in 2024, and that's very recently. That's nuts. Yeah, it's no joke. And Blackstone obviously knows what they're doing and acquired them for a reason. Yeah, you know. And they've already announced a partnership Blackstone has with QTS and they're investing $25 billion in Pennsylvania's digital and energy infrastructure just in one area. So that just you know, to paint to our listeners, how big this organization is and what scale they're playing on. You might have never heard of them. I mean, if you've been in the space, maybe for a while, you've heard of them, but probably most people haven't heard of QTS. It'd be like, okay, what's QTS?
Speaker 1:It's one of the bigger companies you haven't heard of. How about that? That's right. And they're more than just a data center developer. As you dig into what they do, they actually have a service delivery platform, sdp, which is a software divine, excuse me a software defined tool for real-time monitoring and control of data center operations. So the power, the cooling, the network performance so these guys are, this is a tech company by trade, like by inception, inception, and it's kind of. It's kind of grown and evolved into this, this massive developer operator. Right, I mean, they, they support these high density workloads particularly geared for AI, which is critical to meet the boom right now, and they've currently got over two gigawatts of power under management, according to public information.
Speaker 1:So what I thought was interesting, dave, is when I was doing some research, I didn't expect to see the diversity of the diversification of all the clients. Yes, and because you hear the headlines and you hear Meta and Google and Microsoft and Amazon those are like the top four we hear all about but to see JPMorgan Chase and these banks showing up as data center users, that makes sense. Things like banging transactions have to have a very low latency, very high, you know, connectivity speeds and but. But it was just. I guess it hadn't clicked.
Speaker 2:I guess I was thinking that companies like jp morgan, as huge as they are, would have their own data centers, and that's apparently not the case well, you know, you see, maybe you stay in your lane and, like you figure out, you bring in the people you need to bring in, or you bring in the groups you need to bring in, because they do it. They do it as better than anybody and you know I would. I would say that they probably recognize we want to do this, we know we need to do this, but we need, we need this type of partner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:Uh, and they, I mean, and you know their trajectory is impressive and just kind of how they're rolling out. I mean, they, you know they're here in the US, they're expanding overseas and they're just not stopping. And you know, with this transition this last year internally, you know, founded by I think you mentioned by Chad Williams, Chad.
Speaker 2:Williams, I mean they bought him out for $3 billion. Chad Williams, chad Williams, I mean they bought him out for $3 billion. He's the founder and they now have co-CEOs and they are driving this vision into the next decade. And everything that I've read, that you've read, that we've talked to them about. They are not stopping. They're very smart, very pragmatic and they understand this market space as well as anyone and they understand the needs today, the needs tomorrow and what it needs to look like.
Speaker 2:And you know again, if you haven't heard of QTS, you're going to at some point, because they are going. People are going to start to realize that they're behind everything. It's the intel inside. It's pretty soon it's going to be like oh well, they're just everywhere. They've done all of these things that are all around, you know, all across the United States, all kinds of places in the world, and I think it's, you know that's the trajectory I think they're on right now. I mean, I know they, you know they, they. They recently announced major developments in the UK, midwest U S, including the 1.1 gigawatt campus in Northumberland, 750 million build in Cedar Rapids, iowa. Yeah, these are just a few of some of the projects they're tackling.
Speaker 1:Well, I think, I think think you know that, to truly do them justice, dave talking about it's one thing to go develop a data center or develop a large data center campus, and I think I think the mainstream, like public, like perception, is okay, that's, that's totally happening you read that in the newspaper every day.
Speaker 1:But an opportunity for distinction to make about QTS in my mind is the fact that they're doing like eight projects simultaneously in like six different states and overseas. From a land developer's perspective, that is a feat in and of itself of staffing and management, project management and with a lot of levers and a lot of moving parts and I just thought that was incredible. And for all the big clients leading Meta's major, they're talking about four gigawatt project.
Speaker 2:that's qts I, I mean, we know this. But to imagine, you know, uh, considering these massive projects like the one you know we would consider, I think we're involved in a very, very large project, but to contemplate having to oversee that times 10, that times 15, and to consider that, that, that that's. That is that that in and of itself, is impressive about how you scale and you keep that, because that's always, it's always the big company issue. We'll see this. They get taken over or they have an infusion of cash.
Speaker 2:Can you grow smartly?
Speaker 2:Because it's one thing to grow your business.
Speaker 2:It's another thing to grow your business smartly and then not implode on yourself, and there are plenty of cases of where businesses grew too fast or didn't go right and they're always having to adjust.
Speaker 2:So, being able to grow, keep your reputation up, still service the clients, being able to hit your goals and continue to evolve, as the industry you're in is evolving and changing, it's quite a feat and that just goes to, I believe, their leadership and who's running their company today and that ecosystem, and you and I've had an opportunity to at least talk to at least one major person in their ecosystem and it very quickly becomes obvious as to why they are who they are, these are, these are very committed people and they, they have an amazing company culture, right, yeah, and it comes across when you talk to them. This is, this is a group that is very committed to company culture. It's not just about growing for growing sake. It's we're growing based around these principles, the way we want to grow with the people we want to grow with and I want to maybe there's so much to talk about about their culture.
Speaker 1:I think we could take maybe the last half of the show and just focus on just that, because there's like two or three areas that are really close to home for us and I'd like to represent that category. I wanted to lay just some details out on maybe the top five projects so our listeners can start kind of putting pins in the map and seeing what the magnitude and scale of what QTS is doing here. So I've got a short list of the top projects that I wanted to just give a couple highlights on. So they're currently working on a project called the Homer City Redevelopment in Pennsylvania, and this one garnered a lot of attention in the news in the last few weeks. Or you may have read the headlines about the Pennsylvania reindustrialization not a seminar but the big conference and you heard about the new $95 billion commitment for investment into Pennsylvania. Well, this Homer City redevelopment project is garnering a lot of that. It's 3,200 acres with 4.5 gigawatts designed or planned just for that project, and that's 4.5 gigawatts for data Okay, so that's incredible. Now in Pennsylvania they're talking about natural gas coal plant conversion Okay, so that's a $10 billion project in and of itself. Next, you've got their Tracked Campus project that's located in Caldwell County, texas, also very large a little over 1,500 acres and approximately two gigawatts for data, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:Next, we've got the Crusoe Blue Owl joint venture, and I know everyone in the industry knows about this. This is Abilene. We keep talking about Abilene. We're talking about Stargate and we're talking about the $500 billion announcement that President Trump made. This is a part of that. Okay, that's right now. We're talking about 1.2 gigawatts of power for data in that joint venture.
Speaker 1:And then you've got the Meta campus in Richland, paris, louisiana. Okay, they have not yet specified how much land that involves, but it does include a plan for four gigawatts of nuclear power. Okay, and that and, by the way, that is the largest for Meta all the way out through 2030, at least as far as what Meta is aware of right now. And then the last one I wanted to bring up that's significant here is the Atlas Development, otherwise known as Project SAIL, and that's in Coetta County, georgia 832 acres. They haven't specified how much power this is going to need, but we're talking about nearly 15 million no, excuse me, nearly 5 million square feet of data center buildings. That's 13 buildings on that campus. So you can do the math of what kind of power that's going to take. So isn't that incredible? I mean, every single one of those projects is a legacy project.
Speaker 2:Right, and did you? Did you mention Project Excalibur in Fayetteville?
Speaker 1:I think well, I did meant. No, actually I did not. I only bring that up, because, bring it up, I read about it.
Speaker 2:I just put it in my top five. No, I, it's it, that's. That's a 7 million square foot across 16 buildings, buildings, campus, and that's six 615 acres Incredible, another gigawatt scale. You know campus, I you know, and that's I saw. Similarly, it was like wow and just like just project after project after project, you know, gigawatt after gigawatt after gigawatt, right, it's, it's, it's incredible what they're involved in.
Speaker 1:Truly, so you know what I, what I really love so much about that is, we go back three years.
Speaker 2:Oh, I not to not to stop you, I'm going to stop. They're actually also. There is announced Eagle Mountain, utah. They're in development, their discussion. I've seen that out there publicly and we've heard about it privately. They're trying to figure out what to do in Eagle Mountain too, and Eagle Mountain, obviously in Utah, being a place that already has Meta and we know they're down there too and they're trying to figure out something there as well.
Speaker 1:So I mean even close to home to us, they're, they're trying to figure out something there as well. So I mean it's even close to home to us. You know they're, they're out there. You know, when you bring up eagle mountain, it brings up a few of the nuances that they're running into with all of these projects. Public, you know, this is, this is in the it's in the media.
Speaker 1:You, you, you imagine that we need ai so much, we need power so much that maybe in some perfect world these projects, you know fully capitalized, would just be rolling out smoothly. Not so much the case in eagle mountain. And we, we have deep insight in eagle mountain. We, we know the folks out there, we've met with them in person. We, we have a good pulse on Utah and they're power constrained. And Eagle Mountain isn't the only one. I think when we look at each of these projects we just discussed, they're either facing power constraint or they're facing pushback from the community around, whether it's around noise, whether it's around nuclear, whether it's around just the data center itself consuming the available power on legacy grid systems. So major concern on bottlenecking the grid if the community were to allow the project to move forward. So these are really interesting challenges that they're facing and it's going to be fun to see how those get resolved.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and they are, and they're complex challenges, and I think now we're seeing in certain communities there's definite pushback on all kinds of fronts. Some of it is the perception that traditional utilities are, you know, traditional utilities are passing along, you know, you know, expanded rates to cover infrastructure expansion and that's not sitting well with a lot, it seems. Seemingly it's not sitting well with certain communities. Whether or not that is actually the case or not, the perception is that that's the case and so, and especially in areas where we've seen, you know, a lot of growth, and so communities are also now going into it in ways they haven't before and saying, well, wait a minute, we want to. You know, we're, we're, we're going to, we're going to put up, we're going to put some brakes on this, and so things that didn't exist just even maybe a year or two ago or are starting to pop up as far as just making this a very complex thing to solve as far as just making this a very complex thing to solve.
Speaker 1:Well, it's really complex, dave, and if you look at the Fayetteville Georgia project particularly and having residents actually protest, the high voltage lines affecting like 100 plus homes leading up to the neighborhood subdivisions and then fears of imminent domain that type of backlash has also been seen in Wisconsin that can really have an impact delaying approvals. When you've got city councils trying to serve their constituents, their resident constituents, and serve the interests of the commercial corporate growth and that is a direct impact on municipal tax revenues, they have to kind of serve two masters right and it's dicey and it is and and when we and you and I have covered this all along.
Speaker 1:It's like when we're depending on legacy grid systems, legacy utility companies, plus you've got, you know, local involved.
Speaker 2:That's a lot to manage. It's a lot to manage. You're right, wayne, it's a lot to manage, and you know that you say the serving of the two masters. You know, I think in our discussions with elected officials and people, everybody wants the best for the community.
Speaker 2:The elected officials also say look, we want, we want, you know, in order to do what we need to do and to grow appropriately, we need a good tax base. We need these kinds of things to be able to come in. We can't just grow, we have to also be able to pay for it. And so we have to look at, you know, these industries and how can we leverage them in order to, in order to secure a good tax base for the future, so that we can do the things we want to do. At the same time, we need to balance out the needs and the wants of the community. And so it's as we see, you know, we see, on every state and every local municipality, everyone seems to be everyone, especially in these corridors where there's a lot of stuff is trying to thread that needle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2:And it's not necessarily an easy needle to thread, because on one hand, you have I think you have a lot of officials trying to do the best by the community, trying to understand where this is going to go, what the long-term impacts are going to be, and trying to take advantage of this. As we've talked you and I have talked about Wayne so many times, this is a once, almost a generation. It's a once in a couple hundred year kind of a thing. There are so many things that have come together right now, at this time that is changing the face of energy and infrastructure across the US and the world, that I think the politicians and I think the savvy politicians, the smart politicians are realizing look, like anyone else, we need to be able to capitalize on this opportunity, do it smartly and do it so that it benefits our communities the best way possible, and then working with the people to say, okay, this might change a little bit, but this is going to be better for us in the long run.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And again that's what we see a lot of right.
Speaker 1:Well, it's really interesting when you dive really into the weeds of, like, the politics around all of this. I mean when you talk about, you know, fragmented local permitting processes that lead to the extended reviews, rezoning denials, legal challenges. You know, in Virginia and Arizona QTS has projects that have deferred or withdrawn and you've got bipartisan opposition in some of these areas and it's challenging on environmental and on tax issues. And what I think is so intriguing about the state of the union, as it were, is how companies like QTS are leaning into relationship capital, leaning into boots on the ground and having a finger on the pulse of things and going into the environments that are the most supportive environments, which is so exciting for us, because that's what Valley Forge embodies.
Speaker 1:Like you know, we just covered you know for you guys out there, we covered the legislative renaissance under Governor Cox of the last five years and again, to kind of tooth the horn of our Utah legislators, we're looking at all these other projects and all these other circumstances that QTS is dealing with in real time.
Speaker 1:And then we look at Utah and we say, wow, the legislative landscape is prepared for this. We are power constrained for now, but you know what we've got going and what others have going on in the state. I don't think that power constraint is going to be. It's not going to be an issue for long and when you've got the legislative sandbox to kind of make things all work and you have bipartisan support to make things work, that's a that's a dynamic environment and I think QTS is going to definitely have a larger presence in Utah outside of Eagle Mountain. I think that'll continue to expand. We know that as the legislative enhancements move towards supporting municipalities and self-generating or generating within a municipality, or new energy communities and new regulations, it's going to be exciting to watch that grow.
Speaker 2:It is. It is, I agree, and I think that it's again, in talking to them, they are also as a company QTS is a company, wayne they have figured out, I believe, how to navigate this between communities and cities and be that connective tissue, if you will, that connective like look, we can solve it for everyone. We know we've done this, we know how to make this work for everyone, and they really do, kind of they seem to have taken that tactic of like, we understand what all the parties need and we know how to deliver what all the parties need. Um, because we have we now have the legacy experience to be able to do that. And, uh, that's one of the things that stands out to me is they, you know, as a company, they're going in and inserting themselves right into the middle of these things and saying, okay, we can, we can, we can figure this out, we can figure out a way forward. And they're doing it effectively, you know, while at the same time building these, uh, these massive developments and overseeing these massive developments.
Speaker 1:So it's impressive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it takes a special, it takes a special kind of a group to be able to pull that off. It really, truly does.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. You know, one of the cool things that I appreciated about meeting with the folks in Eagle Mountain, utah city planners, was to hear all the good that they had to say about Meta being there. In the news you're getting all kinds of mixed messaging, you know, and about social media and then trying to really understand a company or you know, is it really bad for the community, is it really good? Eagle Mountain had nothing but good to say about Meta being there. And you have to, you have to acknowledge QTS role in that. That, like focusing on the community benefits, entering a new market and an Eagle mountain specifically.
Speaker 1:You know, city officials talked about how great it was they that meta and had agreed and just kind of leaned into paving new roads, putting new roads in handling infrastructure, not not because the city asked for it, but that's because they felt like it was a good thing to do. And I think it's that type of mentality and those types of practices that are going to make or break deals moving into the future. Is that willingness to be the tide that allows all the ships to rise on that tide. That's a critical mentality that I know QTS embraces, embodies and so do we, and so that's a critical, a critical mentality that I, I know qts embraces or embodies, and so do we, and so that's a nice alignment to see it is.
Speaker 2:It is, and just mentioning that, you know in in talking to eagle mountain, I mean they have they had amazing things to say about their partner in meta and what meta has done for the community, right, I mean that was actually I didn't know all the things they had done and they've. They've come in, they've come in there and done's done for the community, right, I mean that was actually I didn't know all the things they had done and they've come in there and done a lot for the community and it seemed then these are things that I had. Yeah, we hadn't heard about.
Speaker 2:And that was very refreshing to understand the level of commitment, right, because the faceless big companies you don't see to your point't, you don't see to your point, you don't see that stuff, you don't hear about that stuff all the time. But when you talk to people they're going oh no, it's been great, we did this, we did this, they did this, they've sponsored this, they've allowed us to build this. You start to see some of those real, those, as you say, those community benefits and it's so it's been really. It was really refreshing to hear that. So it was really refreshing to hear that.
Speaker 1:Let's touch on some of their highlights in the sustainability category, because they've got some really remarkable achievements. Number one they were named the most sustainable data center company by World Finance Magazine in 2019 and 2020. And that's part of what they call the RE100 initiative for 100% renewable electricity. Now I I find I want to focus on that for a second, dave, because it's it is, it is commendable and it's very altruistic. But looking at the vintage 2019, 2020, yeah, in those days, in those years, that was the rage. That was the whole commitment to sustainability and the whole ESG and all of the tax credits and the things around the sustainable data center. That was where it looked like the future was headed.
Speaker 1:Now things have shifted a little bit. It's 2025. We've got the Trump administration in. They've rolled back into one big beautiful bill A lot of the tax credits that were associated with wind and solar and renewables in general. We see the Green New Deal kind of being dismantled or unmarshalled. Qts's sustainability commitments are more far-reaching than just how they're powering things, because it's in their fabric. It's in their fabric to figure out ways of being efficient and maybe we just bring up. You know, we had an interesting opportunity to have a conversation with Nick Blessing at QTS recently. What a great guy.
Speaker 2:Fantastic.
Speaker 1:Fun guy to talk to, kind, human, very, very focused on purpose. And you know we talked a little bit about the sustainability commitments and you know everyone's adapting right now. Everyone's adapting into the, you know, to the kind of the new administrative executive orders. Everyone's adapting to power, power drives, all of this, you guys, and so we and you've heard us say this for two years it's not necessarily a doable deal to just say we're going to just do all this on renewable energy anymore, to just do all this on renewable energy anymore, because when you look at the scale that we just shared with you of gigawatts and gigawatts and gigawatts, you really have to start embracing that pragmatic approach of all the things Like let's look at, let's get everything on the table and let's go with the cleanest and best, most efficient approach.
Speaker 1:At Valley Forge we're developing very, very strong water management policies and agricultural modernization policies, advanced aquifer injection systems and water reclamation technologies and water harvesting technologies. And as we do that, we're doing it because we're Utah guys and we care about Utah and we care about the valley we're in and we care about the water circumstances of the valley and its community. But it's really great to hear, you know, guys like Nick, talk about their commitments to the same things. So you know you can do business with a company like that because that's the way they think. And, coincidentally, dave and you can add your two cents to it. But not all hyperscalers are equal.
Speaker 1:No, they're not the same when we talk about water and their policies on water efficiency or conservation.
Speaker 2:No, often they're chasing a number and that's it, and they're saying what's the cheapest, we can do it. And sometimes that's it. And you know, uh, they're, they're saying what's the cheapest we can do it, and sometimes that's the cheapest means uh, that say water infrastructure, uh wasn't ever considered and so they don't. They're not trying to save water. The good news is is that you know the costs have come down. So, for example, you've got a high, you got hyperscale using a lot of water because they're still on old, outdated uh systems and these are the ones you know yeah, injection systems and and, and it does use a lot of water, like a lot of water, and and so they say, okay, well, do we want to replace infrastructure or do we just kind of keep going? Well, right now, you know they're in kind of situation, but like a qts doesn't build data centers, that aren't they. They actually want, they don't. They build them so that they are almost they use very, very little water because there are better technologies. Do they cost a little bit more?
Speaker 2:Yes, long-term though, what's that cost and I think that's where they get into is like okay, long-term, we're in communities and so if we've now dried up an aquifer. That doesn't serve us well. So now all this infrastructure, all the money we've put in over, say, a decade into this area, becomes a lot less valuable because we've now just made the entire area uh, you know uninhabitable or very difficult for water. So that's not a it's not a smart use of resources. It's not. It's not, doesn't you know? If we maybe save millions up front, what is it costing us down the road? So it can even be a business decision, and it's still the best business decision, which is you spend a little bit of money, you do these things better and you are going to come out down the road a lot better off. And that's the stance that they've taken, and it was, you know. It's refreshing to hear refreshing to hear.
Speaker 1:Well, to put it in terms of like actual statistics for you guys listening on, you know, just by implementing these advanced cooling designs that dave is talking about and you know we've been talking about the, you know the liquid cooling we talked about motive air with snyder electric and all the things and there's a lot of competition out in and really advancing cooling but.
Speaker 1:But with qts their cooling designs have saved 48 million plus gallons of water each year. So put that number on. That is a significant number. And beyond that in water efficiencies they also have a development tree program with the American Forests that replants thousands of trees every year. So that's really cool when you talk about and working with Gensler has been fun because Gensler has really helped us tune into the frequency of efficiency, tune into the efficiency or tune into the frequency of building for the future, being cognizant of emissions profiles and heat profiles and carbon and um, you know carbon, uh, carbon initiatives and all of it. And you know, putting all the trees in and leveraging water efficiencies means that we got a better emissions profile in that community, right. So that's also very exciting and commendable.
Speaker 2:It is and it makes and it has it, it's made. It makes good sense. You know, and we know that we know, for example, in these areas there's so much technology and so many things that are that are coming that maybe that maybe most people don't know about um, that you can take a project like this or any data center and there's all of these things that you can do with it. So obviously, data centers put out a lot of heat, even with a liquid. Well, there's all kinds of things you can do agriculturally with waste heat. It's just about pre-planning that out. Just it's about pre-programming that and saying, okay, we're gonna have an agricultural part that sits over here next to data center because they're gonna use the waste heat. So this is good because it's waste heat. It's waste, that's right it's doing nothing.
Speaker 2:It's going into the atmosphere.
Speaker 1:Into the atmosphere.
Speaker 2:yeah, it's in the atmosphere. So now, right, so if you can capture it and channel it and do something with it, well, now you start to get a symbiotic system to where? That's what I, you know, strikes me about Q and Gensler. They've figured out some of the. They understand some of these symbiotic mechanical systems of how this works best, what you can do with the, say, a waste heat, and how you design that into your build. And now, all of a sudden, you have perhaps an entirely separate vertical off of something that 10 years ago or five years ago was just going in the atmosphere, and that's a revenue vertical that didn't exist. So that allows you as an operator to be able to reduce. That's what helps add to the bottom line. It's like, well, now I can do these things, because now I'm going to pay for this, because now I can take advantage of this and in the end, who benefits? The community?
Speaker 2:That's right you know's right, you know if, if you can, if you do indoor growing or you can, you know 300, you know 365 days a year and you've got places for the community to always grow. Well, all this from a from, from waste, heat or doing whatever you're going to do. This is where this all gets exciting. I know you and I geek out of like how this just starts to become an organism you know in and of, but it all starts back to power and a data center and and these, these major infrastructure things and what you can do from that. If you do it, if you plan it, it's impressive. It's impressive.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so being I'm going to, I'm going to segue to the next big thing and this is the commitment to veterans.
Speaker 2:Right, Well, we talked about it. I mean, you said we're going to get into kind of their stuff and this is it. This is it yeah.
Speaker 1:Guys, this is mind-heart cohesion. Here, coherence is like Dave and I in the Invictus Sovereign team, as you know because you've been paying attention, you're listening me being a veteran team. As you know, because you've been paying attention, you're listening me being a veteran us being very committed, very patriotic, very committed to. You know US initiatives, but you know building workforce programs and benefits packages and you know priority treatments for veterans is a very big deal for us and it was so exciting to find out that very big deal for us. And it was so exciting to find out that QTS shares the same heartfelt initiative supporting veterans and they actually have a history of veteran-focused initiatives. In fact, over 20% of their workforce is former service members. That's a big number.
Speaker 2:It's a huge number. It's a huge number, it's a huge number.
Speaker 1:They work through partnerships like Recruit Military. They do community events supporting military families. They have supported sending care packages overseas to deployed active military personnel and it's a rare thing to see corporate America standing for Americans and American values and standing up for troops this way and veterans this way, and it's very commendable. And we've been supporting our own charitable organizations like Warrior Rising and others, and so it's a really great alignment. I think we need more of that, more than ever actually in this country, as divisive as our political landscape has been.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, Megan QTS also holds, if I'm not mistaken, the Military Friendly Employer Gold Award At least they got that in 2025. And that recognizes a best for vets, employer by military, by the military times. That's incredible, Right. So another, they, they, so they walk the walk, they talk to talk. They're getting recognized for I'm glad in there, you know, but it's again, in conversations with them, it becomes very apparent very quickly that they are exactly this, this group of people.
Speaker 2:They care very much internally about their organization and it's about their identity. That's the important part. They're getting that right and I can only speculate. But they committed to doing a company, building a company a certain way, and doing and having it look a certain way, and they knew good things would come out of it. Yeah, the right kinds of things would come out of it and it and it is um and and and it's and it's working, and so it's great to see when companies do that and they commit to an identity, they stick with it, and then that and and that becomes part of the and that, just it's, it's the fabric of that company and it and it, uh, it's so important and it's so, uh, it carries them well, they, they, it's a great flag, Well, a great flag to carry, because they this has helped them move forward as a company. You can see that this is, this is a pride thing. You know they're people of pride. They're, they're proud to be part of QTS.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Yep, you know I I let myself uh vision all the time. I'm always kind of dreaming of the future, not to be focused on a band and categorized as a dreamer, but I I've always got an eye for the future, and you know I'm. We've talked about having a training facility. We've talked about specifically veteran retraining programs like post-deployment train them, all of the advanced next-gen systems, and it would be so cool to put programs like maybe a scholarship fund together or co-collaboration on a training facility that's truly in volume, making an impact, providing these training opportunities for our veterans to get jobs, and then, obviously, job fairs and placements within all of these ecosystems that we're developing uh, I agree.
Speaker 2:Well, and they, I mean and you know, qts is a great example of what they do on that I mean, they they started. This is what I. I do know because I've had the department they participate in the department of defense's skill bridge program, bridge program, which offers internships for transitioning service members to gain hands-on civilian experience. To your point, we've talked about this many times. I guess the big business community hasn't, corporate America hasn't figured out how to translate oftentimes their skill sets out of the military into civilian service. I know, you know, and anybody who's ever worked with anybody from the military knows they come out with amazing skill sets.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right and but that, but, but, but. The corporate America typically doesn't understand what that means.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And so, you know, I love to see that QTS is doing this. I know we want to do that because it's not about it's retraining, but it's also it's taking the skills they they have. And this, this comes back to you and I've talked about this on the podcast, the, the, the soft skills which I would, you know, some would call, I would call the hard skills of business and life.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Uh, these are the things that that I think are incredibly important, and it's the thing that that if you're, if you spend any time in the military, you come out and you've honed a lot of those soft skills.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so, really, it's just about taking the, taking that and putting them in. You know, taking a veteran and putting them in the right thing and and getting them acquainted with whatever, whatever you know, whatever that that is in front of them, they can do it, given their expertise and their, their mastery of these, these, these skills. Yep, so, and I and qts seems to be they they understand that, they get it. That's that's why they're participating. I hope we do as well. That's something I know we want to do as well.
Speaker 2:We see, similarly, rural America. There's a lot of very talented people there that have these soft skills in spades. They just they get this stuff. Just they, you know, they get this stuff, they. I I'm so impressed by people who grow up in rural america because they just they're kind of all, they're all well-rounded, they, they don't, they just can do everything and and they've got all these things. It's just about like, okay, well, now we've got a really cool opportunity. Those things, you know, we just need to get you acquainted with this. This kind of industry, yeah, and I think industry yeah, and I think they'll flourish. We both think they'll flourish.
Speaker 1:I agree Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Did you see their program, qts's program, called VET?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's called Veterans Empowering Technology.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's cool. Okay, of course, I don't know if you saw that.
Speaker 2:So it's to support veteran employee and their families. Organized activities in cultivate community. It's. It's basically what we're what you talked about. They, they're, they're doing it. You know, um, I also saw that they coordinated a partnership with troopster. Yeah, uh, you, I think you, you that was the care package initiative.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think. It think it was like 10,000 or 100,000 care packages overseas a big number.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, and then something that's close to our hearts is they also. You know, qts is also, you know, mental health, and stopping soldier suicide is a huge initiative for them.
Speaker 1:And that's our core tenet, like our core foundational, why, before Invictus Sovereign was born, we came together and we said, look, we got to do something about this veteran suicide situation and teen suicide, because those are actually quite related. And when you talk about the causality of all of it and how it all interplays, we decided we needed to create a foundation or create an effort to do something about it. And the only way to do that would be to build business first that could capitalize that kind of an effort and actually make an impact. And that's the road that we set on years ago and that's been our core, that's been our core belief. Our core ethos, you know, is building business that can, you know, capitalize with enough revenue, long-term, sustainable that we can really move the needle on the suicide issue. So anytime there's an opportunity to work with someone who shares that passion long-term, sustainable that we can really move the needle on this suicide issue. So anytime there's an opportunity to work with someone who shares that passion, I think that's. That's a really great alignment, agreed, we're coming up on the top of the hour. Hopefully.
Speaker 1:You guys have learned a lot about QTS we have. We're so excited and impressed about them. It was a great opportunity to talk to Nick Blessing and you know we're eager to get to know him better and we're going to be cheering QTS on as they deal with these community issues and the pushbacks and the obstacles they're facing. We hope they'll be able to resolve them. We look forward to you know, figuring out how we might be able to contribute to their success. So that's my final thought on QTS, dave.
Speaker 2:It's a great final thought. I, you know I hope for their best. It's great to come across and meet the people in a company that is doing so many good things and doing things that I think we would say you're doing the right things, you're doing the things for the right reasons, the right way, and it's just great to be engaged with you and talking with you. And it's good to wish them the best and just watch them grow, because we will all be better for it To have more companies like QTS.
Speaker 1:Agreed Well. Thank you guys for listening to another episode of the frontier line.
Speaker 2:Yeah, until next time.
