Aurora’s quiet stretch of Bilter Road is turning into a serious AI hotspot. This week, Edged broke ground on a second AI-optimized data center at its Chicago campus in Aurora, at 2835 Bilter Road. The single-story building is being purpose-built for dense AI training and inference and is slated to enter service in Q2 2027. It follows the campus’s first 24 MW facility, which opened earlier this year.
What the new building will deliver
According to Edged US, the new building will deliver about 72 MW of critical capacity and will be outfitted with a closed-loop, waterless cooling system from sister company ThermalWorks that supports liquid to chip densities exceeding 200 kW per rack. The company says the facility is expected to go live in Q2 2027 and that the campus will consume no water for cooling at full operation. The release adds that the groundbreaking was attended by Edged operations and construction leaders and representatives from construction partner FCL Builders.
How the waterless cooling works
ThermalWorks describes its modular, waterless system as capable of supporting up to roughly 70 kW per rack with air cooling and up to 200 kW per rack with plug-in liquid cooling, and says similar campuses can save hundreds of millions of gallons of water at full build-out. The vendor’s closed-loop approach uses recycled glycol and ambient air strategies to cut energy overhead while allowing much higher rack densities than traditional air only designs. That combination is central to the Edged pitch that AI compute can scale without the heavy water draws tied to older cooling systems.
Local impact and capacity plans
Local officials have framed the project as an economic and infrastructure win for the western suburbs, and planning with the local utility is already underway as the campus expands. According to the Aurora Regional Economic Alliance, ComEd participated in the ribbon-cutting for the campus’s first building, and city leaders highlighted job and tax base benefits. Data Centre Dynamics reports the Aurora site will offer up to 90 MW at full build out and that the first 24 MW building launched in February 2025. City planners and grid operators will be watching how incoming AI tenants specify power, energy sourcing, and on-site resilience as the campus scales.
Who owns Edged and what’s next
Edged operates under the Endeavour umbrella, a sustainable infrastructure group founded by industry veteran Jakob Carnemark that is rolling out the Edged platform across Europe and North America. Per Endeavour, the company pairs its Edged platform with complementary technologies and partners to accelerate deployment; PR Newswire coverage of MERLIN Edged projects in Europe shows the same model applied to larger AI campuses overseas. Expect more announcements about which hyperscalers or cloud operators will take space as the site moves through permitting and construction milestones.
Bryant Farland, president and CEO of Edged US, said in the company release, "Safety and performance are at the core of everything we do," and characterized the build as part of a push for "ultra efficient, resilient, and secure data centers that protect both people and the planet," according to Edged US. Analysts say the Aurora project will be a useful early test of regional demand for high density AI racks and how quickly the local grid and supply chain can absorb large, concentrated loads. For full technical specifications see Edged US. For additional details on the company’s timeline, see Data Centre Dynamics.
