01 · Who's here

Working Session · First Light

5 May 2026 · 17:00 PT · 30 minutes · 20 in the room

Watercolour aerial map of San José Regional Wastewater Facility, the adjacent industrial parcel including the Prologis STEM Park site, and the surrounding South Bay landscape
Joining from NVIDIA
  • Jumbi Edulbehram, PhDVP Global BD, Public Sector · host
  • Andria ZouSr Director, Global AI DC Strategies
  • Jared CarlGlobal AI Data Center Lead
  • Karthik MandakolathurProduct Manager, Magnum IO
  • Elad BlattHead BD, Telco Networking
  • Ben GueretTechnical Program Manager
  • Danny ZaidifardBD, Strategic Partnerships
  • Alex PazosSr BD Mgr, Smart Spaces
  • Claudio FassiottiEMEA Smart Spaces, Sales
  • Wendy Zhu, PhDValidation, partner-adjacent
  • Chris ChoCloud and partner technical
  • Rodney ShetlerPre-sales and Solutions Eng.
  • David MessinaInception VC Alliance, adjacent
In the room · MicroLink Data Centers
  • Nick SearraCEO and Co-Founder
  • Sancha OlivierCEO, Design
  • Shane PatherChief Technology Officer
  • Andrew ThomasChief Commercial Officer
  • David HasslerHead of Sales
  • Jeff SvedahlCEO, MicroLink Edge
  • Deniz AkgulCapital & Investment Advisor
01 · Thesis

Stacking MHP and compute waste heat at San José

A thermal-fit thesis for the ADFU upgrade and the Jacobs–MicroLink technology integration partnership.

Jacobs' Microbial Hydrolysis Process and MicroLink's compute waste heat are made for adjacent jobs at the San José–Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility. MHP is a post anaerobic digestion sidestream reactor at 75 °C that lifts biogas yield up to 36 percent at this site. MicroLink's 50 °C closed-loop waste heat sits at exactly the right tier for mesophilic digester heating and raw sludge preheat.

The thermal stack is additive: MicroLink takes the low-grade duty that today consumes recoverable cogen heat, freeing 8 to 12 megawatts of high-grade thermal capacity for the new MHP module and freeing the post-upgrade biogas surplus for monetisation through renewable natural gas injection at roughly $45 per MMBtu all-in.

San José–Santa Clara RWF aerial at golden hour, mountains in distance IMAGE — Hero San José RWF aerial, post-2022 cogen and dewatering builds, looking from north-west toward the bay. img-1-1
The core claim

A 10 MW MicroLink deployment captures 8.5 MW thermal (85% of IT load), delivers ~6 MW to the digesters at 55–60 °C, and generates 2.3 MW of behind-the-meter electricity through an on-site molten carbonate fuel cell on freed biogas. Net grid draw drops 21%. CO₂ avoided: ~11,750 tCO₂e per year. We propose to anchor this as the first-of-kind reference deployment of a generalisable Jacobs–MicroLink integration system.

San José–Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility at sunset, looking east toward the foothills
San José–Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility at sunset · the flagship deployment site, 11 km from NVIDIA HQ.
02 · MicroLink

Build, Own, Operate Data Centers Inside of Industrial Facilities

01 Wastewater treatment

Server reject heat returns to anaerobic digesters at 35 to 38 °C. Biogas powers the load through molten carbonate fuel cells.

02 Breweries

Reject heat at 60 to 70 °C feeds wort heating and clean-in-place water as a baseload thermal source replacing steam.

03 Hotels and hospitality

Sub-MW edge pods deliver 60 °C water for laundry, kitchens, hot water, and pools. Gas displacement plus on-property compute.

04 Hospitals

Hospital-grade 24/7 baseload heat with the redundancy hospitals already have. Thermal resilience plus campus compute.

05 District heating

Direct feed of 65 °C water into a district network return loop. A year-round, weather-independent heat source.

06 Research campuses

University utility plants with district heating networks and on-site research compute demand. UW Seattle is canonical.

MicroLink glass-fronted facility, evening
Service · 01

Sovereign AI for the public sector

Public-sector AI compute that the public sector actually controls. Sovereign weights, sovereign data, on land the host already owns, inside facilities the host already operates. The technology is confidential by construction. The relationship is structural, not contractual.

I lived in Lagos for five years. Then Nairobi for five more. In 2001, if you weren't in the same room as someone in Nigeria, they were unreachable. No reliable post. No working landlines for most of the country.

Then GSM arrived. Half a million subscribers in 2001. Eighty million by 2010. Two hundred and twenty million today.

Our current moment could be an even greater shift. It seems only right to ensure it's another good one.

Nick Searra
CEO and Co-Founder
02.A · The portfolio · six projects, six host categories, one model
01 · Wastewater

San José and Santa Clara RWF · California

The city-owned regional wastewater facility, 11 km [7 mi] from NVIDIA HQ. Site identified, characterised, and shortlisted as the lead candidate for a sovereign municipal AI cloud deployment. NVIDIA engagement is opening across multiple channels, of which this working session is the first.

WORKING SESSION TODAY
11 km · 7 mi TO NVIDIA HQ
5 → 15 MW PHASED
San José–Santa Clara RWF at sunset
02 · Wastewater

MWRD Stickney · Chicago

The largest wastewater treatment plant in the world. Engagement spans five MWRD teams across multiple working sessions. MWRD requested a deployment proposal, which we delivered. Proposal currently under MWRD legal review. Site supports a multi-phase deployment from first phase through scale.

LARGEST WWTP GLOBALLY
45 MW PHASED
124 COMMUNITIES
MWRD Stickney WWTP — aerial along the Sanitary and Ship Canal at sunset, Chicago skyline in distance
03 · Wastewater

Newtown Creek WRRF · Brooklyn, NYC

10 MW deployment integrating with the eight egg-shaped digesters that have made the site one of NYC's most photographed civic infrastructure landmarks. The first East Coast sovereign municipal AI candidate.

EIGHT DIGESTER EGGS
10 MW DEPLOYMENT
EAST COAST ANCHOR
Newtown Creek WRRF — silver digester eggs and waterfront pavilion with Manhattan skyline in distance
04 · Brewery

Anheuser-Busch · St Louis

The largest beer production site in North America. Brewery as host category, with reject heat into wort and clean-in-place water as the deployment hypothesis. Initial engagement with the AB InBev technology team established the corporate-track framing. Pipeline qualification ongoing.

LARGEST US BREWERY
60–70 °C TO WORT
AB InBev TRACK
Anheuser-Busch brewery, St Louis — historic brick complex with twin smokestacks and clock tower
05 · District heating

University of Washington · Seattle

A pod at the West Campus Utility Plant Annex (P-4), tied into UW's Energy Renewal Plan. Phase 1 at 1 to 2 MW IT load, Phase 2 scaling to 3 to 5 MW. Reject heat at 65 °C feeds the new Primary Heating Water loop directly.

WCUP ANNEX P-4
1 → 5 MW PHASED
UW ENERGY RENEWAL
UW West Campus Utility Plant Annex — modern facility with curved zinc roofline in industrial setting
06 · Hospitality

Choice Hotels · 25-site pilot

A 25-site initial deployment scaling to 200 properties under Phase 2, structured as the MicroLink Edge SPV. Sub-MW pods per property using NVIDIA Jetson Orin and IGX at the host edge, federated back to regional cores at MicroLink WWTP and brewery sites.

25 → 200 PROPERTIES
SUB-MW PER POD
MicroLink EDGE SPV
MicroLink Edge SPV cabinet with copper-piped thermal coupling, deployed inside hotel mechanical room

The MicroLink technical thesis was first articulated by Jacobs itself. Debbie Seibold Egeland's 2023 Driving Sustainability in Data Centers white paper identified the colocation of compute infrastructure with wastewater treatment as a structural decarbonisation opportunity. Jacobs published the thesis. We have built the technology that makes it deployable. The opportunity at San José is unique: the City has just contracted Jacobs to build the largest active MHP deployment in the United States, on a site with approximately 750 acres of freed industrial-zoned footprint inside the operating fence line, where the cogeneration system rejects 8 to 12 megawatts of recoverable heat to atmosphere today.

San José–Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility — clarifier basins and treatment cells
Fig. 02.B · RWF site San José–Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility — clarifier basins and treatment cells. img-2-B

Server coolant never touches the host's pipes. A plate exchanger transfers heat across the boundary, delivered at the temperature the host process requires. A dry cooler always backstops the rejection path, so host and compute carry no operational dependency on each other. The host generates value from infrastructure it never paid for: zero capex, 85% of IT load returned as usable heat, year-round thermal output that doesn't depend on weather.

MicroLink data centre rendered in architectural isometric, embedded in operating streetscape — cars, bus, pedestrians, street trees, full urban context

Architectural isometric · the data centre as a building, in context.

Eight zones of collaboration. Each one with a named owner.

This is how we'd like to work with you. Click into any zone to see the scope, the open questions, and to schedule a working session with the named owner on each side.

Cluster A · The build

Engineering

Grid independence, heat recovery, fabric, monitoring, design. Four zones, four NVIDIA technical owners.

Cluster B · The product

What gets sold

Sovereign public-sector AI on the NVIDIA stack. Sustainability and climate reporting. Two zones, two routes to market.

Cluster C · Contributions

What flows back

Open-source, datasets, semantic conventions. Workforce with SJSU and NVIDIA DLI. Two zones. We want to fill the contribution lane.

Zone 01 · Build

Grid independence and heat recovery

Diesel-free 2N power topology. MCFC on biogas as prime, LFP for transient, PEM hydrogen for ramp. Server reject heat into host process loop. The closed thermodynamic loop.

NVIDIAEnergy team + Jared Carl
MicroLinkShane Pather
Explore further Zone 02 · Build

Inter-pod and multi-site fabric

Quantum-X800 + AC SU at 576 GPUs, twin-plane fat tree. Spectrum-X for multi-tenant scale-out. Site-to-site federation via Spectrum-XGS. Edge-to-core hierarchy with Jetson at sub-MW host sites.

NVIDIAKarthik Mandakolathur
MicroLinkShane Pather
Explore further Zone 03 · Build

Monitoring and control

DCGM, NVML, Mission Control at IT layer. Metropolis for building-as-managed-asset. Omniverse / DSX Blueprint for digital twin. Jetson / IGX Orin for facility-side control loops.

NVIDIAPlatform team · Pazos · Fassiotti
MicroLinkShane Pather
Explore further Zone 04 · Build

Data centre design

Liquid-cooled from day one. Sized for next-gen hardware envelopes (B300, Vera Rubin path). Architectural shell with civic intent. Co-developed reference architecture for the canonical pod.

NVIDIAJared Carl + Andria Zou
MicroLinkSancha Olivier
Explore further Zone 05 · Product

Sovereign public-sector AI

Confidential Computing on Hopper / Blackwell. BlueField-3 multi-tenant isolation. Run:ai per-tenant clusters. Llama-Nemotron sovereign fine-tuning on local weights. Six customer segments.

NVIDIAEdulbehram · Pazos · Gueret
MicroLinkAndrew Thomas
Explore further Zone 06 · Product

Sustainability and climate reporting

Co-authored white paper. ERF, WUE, CUE, PUE published metrics. EU EED 2027 waste-heat compliance. California SB 253 / SB 261 / AB 1305. Net Grid Energy Position. ISO 14064-3 third-party assured.

NVIDIAAndria Zou
MicroLinkDeniz Akgul
Explore further Zone 07 · Contributions

Open-source contributions

Heat-coupled control loop to LF Energy. FacIT semantic conventions to OpenTelemetry. DSX Max-P module co-developed. OCP liquid-cooling spec. Thermal Lab dataset. Apache 2.0 default.

NVIDIADanny Zaidifard + Wendy Zhu
MicroLinkShane Pather
Explore further Zone 08 · Contributions

Workforce and ecosystem

SJSU AI Infrastructure Apprenticeship with NVIDIA DLI. NCA-AII entry, NCP-AIO exit. Three sub-tracks: liquid cooling, fuel cell, AI infrastructure operator. Inception startup hosting at preferential rates.

NVIDIAEdulbehram · DLI · SJSU
MicroLinkNick Searra
Explore further

Every name on this page is in this room or one degree from it. The four sub-pages below carry the working detail behind Cluster A.

Energy balance 2 of 4
Design · Energy balance

San José energy balance, today and post-ADFU

The case for MicroLink at San José is not heat supply gap-filling. The plant has more cogen heat available than it needs. The case is thermal substitution: MicroLink absorbs the low-grade duty currently met by cogen, freeing high-grade cogen capacity for the new MHP module and freeing the post-upgrade biogas surplus for monetisation.

TodayPost-2022 cogen, pre-ADFU
Plant electrical demand~11 MW
Cogen output11–14 MW
Cogen recoverable thermal17–19 MW
Plant thermal demand5–7 MW
Heat rejected to atmosphere8–12 MW
Biogas production50,000–65,000 m³/d
Biogas energy600–900 MMBtu/d
Post-ADFU + MicroLink2028–2029
Plant electrical demand12–13 MW
Cogen output14 MW nameplate
Cogen recoverable thermal17–19 MW
Plant thermal demand7–9 MW
Heat rejected to atmosphere→ 0 MW (absorbed by MicroLink)
Biogas production85,000–120,000 m³/d
MCFC electricity (BTM)2.3 MW (FuelCell SureSource 3000)
MCFC thermal output1.8 MW
H₂ capability (tri-gen)up to 1,200 kg/day
Net grid draw at 10 MW IT8.9 MW (−21%)
CO₂ avoided11,750 tCO₂e / year

Two simultaneous shifts. First, biogas production increases by 60 to 80 percent through the combined MHP uplift and FOG co-digestion. Second, plant thermal demand increases only modestly because the new MHP module concentrates duty at 75 °C, not at the mesophilic temperature where most of the existing demand sits.

The combined effect: a substantial biogas surplus the existing 14-megawatt cogen cannot consume at full duty cycle, paired with a heat-rejection problem that has not improved. Both are resolved by a colocated thermal partner.

Aerial site plan, San José–Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility DIAGRAM — Sankey Biogas energy flow at the post-ADFU plant — cogen consumption, digester thermal duty, MHP HFR duty, and surplus available for monetisation. img-5-1

Site plan — RWF and surrounding context.

S-section cross-section, integrated facility

Integrated facility section — compute on top, mechanical below, host process beyond.

The integrated facility section illustrates how a MicroLink deployment occupies a compact vertical envelope adjacent to the host process, with the thermal interface running horizontally between them at digester level. The MCFC sits behind the compute envelope, fed by the freed biogas line from the digesters.

Freed value 3 of 4
Design · Freed value

Three pathways for the freed biogas at 2026 California prices

The freed biogas — both the MHP and FOG yield uplift and the cogen displacement that MicroLink enables — has three monetisation pathways. We have priced each at 2026 California market terms, drawing on CARB LCFS quarterly transfer reports through February 2026, CPUC Decision 24-08-007, the IRS final rule on Section 45V, the OBBBA, and the Jacobs McLeod and Horrax 2022 hydrogen series.

A
Cogen export and behind-the-meter offset
PG&E SRAC · BioMAT Cat 1 · retail offset
$19/MMBtu
range $8–33
Annual at 5–10 MW IT scale
$0.6–4M / year
Recommended
B
RNG injection with LCFS + D3 RIN
PG&E G-BIO interconnection
$20/MMBtu
range $15–25
Annual at 5–10 MW IT scale
$1.5–7M / year
C
Hydrogen via Pathway 5 SMR
Biomethane upgrading + SMR
$30/MMBtu
range $22–60
Annual at 5–10 MW IT scale
$3–18M / year
Range reflects 45V status uncertainty post-OBBBA.

Pathway B is the primary monetisation route at San José. The all-in value reflects 2026 California market conditions: CARB LCFS pathway value at $5–10 per MMBtu (post-2025 LCFS market amendments), federal D3 cellulosic RIN value at $5–10 per MMBtu, gas commodity at PG&E citygate at $3–4 per MMBtu, and avoided distribution charges. PG&E's Schedule G-BIO interconnection programme provides the technical pathway. SB 1440 capital incentives offset interconnection capex up to $3 million for non-dairy WWTPs. WWTP biogas carbon intensity is structurally distinct from deeply-negative-CI feedstocks like dairy or food-scraps RNG; the figures here reflect a realistic +30 to +55 gCO₂e/MJ Tier 2 pathway.

DIAGRAM — LCFS price trend California LCFS credit price, 2024–2026, with diesel benchmark and CNG-equivalent pricing overlaid. img-6-1
Aggregate value · central case

Combined gross value at the post-ADFU plant, with a 6 to 10 megawatt MicroLink IT deployment:

approximately $7 to $16 million per year

Freed-biogas pathways: $5–14M/year. Plus the MCFC tri-generation layer adds ~$1.8M/year of behind-the-meter electricity at avoided-cost rates. This is the prize. The commercial structure between MicroLink and the City — the value share between host and developer — is a separate negotiation. This figure illustrates the magnitude, not the proposed allocation.

Two-track partnership 4 of 4
Design · Partnership

A two-track partnership proposal

The partnership we propose is structured to protect each party's interests, to fit the ADFU project's design schedule, and to support MicroLink's ability to raise the capital required for the eventual deployment. It runs on two parallel tracks anchored on a sequenced commitment instrument: Expression of Interest, Letter of Intent, Definitive Agreement.

Track 1

The stub-out and the EOI

A future-ready thermal interface, designed and built by Jacobs as a defined scope addition to the existing $200 million ADFU progressive design-build contract.

Three interfaces
Tap on the mesophilic digester recirculation manifold; parallel branch on the cogeneration jacket-water return loop; tap on the raw sludge feed line.
Sized for
A future 5 to 10 megawatt thermal interface, designed by Jacobs to specification, owned by the City as part of the ADFU asset.
Funded by
MicroLink at approximately $1 million, contributed to the City under a Cost-Sharing Agreement structured through San José Charter §1217 (developer carve-out) layered on a Government Code §4217 finding (energy-services framework).
First commitment
A short-form Expression of Interest signed within 30 days, scoped to authorise inclusion of the stub-out concept in the ADFU design-basis discussion. Three EOIs together — City of San José, NVIDIA, Jacobs — anchor the equity raise that funds the stub-out and the eventual deployment.
Track 2

The LOI and the Definitive Agreement

Within 90 days of EOI signature, both parties commit to a full Letter of Intent. Within 9 months, the Definitive Agreement is signed.

Letter of Intent
Captures the technical specification, the commercial framework principles, and the timeline for Definitive Agreement negotiation.
Definitive Agreement
Land licence or lease for the future MicroLink facility on the freed footprint; thermal services agreement; biogas monetisation framework; operational protocols, performance standards, and dispute resolution; right of first negotiation for MicroLink on thermal interface use post-commissioning; information rights on plant operating data; performance milestones and termination provisions.
Trigger
The Definitive Agreement triggers escrow release on the stub-out funding. ADFU stub-out construction proceeds in base scope. MicroLink construction begins, with the modular first-deployment structure operational in the 2028–2029 window.
DIAGRAM — Escrow flow Escrow mechanics: EOI signed (Day 30) → LOI signed (Day 90) → Definitive Agreement signed (Day 270) → escrow releases on the stub-out funding. Capital protected on either path. img-8-1
The trigger

The two tracks are connected by a single trigger structure. The $1 million stub-out funding is held in escrow against execution of the Expression of Interest and releases on signature of the Definitive Agreement. If the Definitive Agreement does not sign — for any reason — the stub-out is value-engineered out of ADFU at no cost to the City, and the escrow returns to MicroLink.

This protects MicroLink's capital, gives the City a structured commitment, gives Jacobs a clean engineering scope, and creates a sequenced set of signed instruments — EOI, then LOI — that supports MicroLink's fundraising.

Eventual deployment scale
Eventual deployment capex$80–120 million
Stub-out contribution$1 million (~1%)
Term of host paymentsTBD in DA

MicroLink team: Nick Searra, CEO & Co-Founder · Sancha Olivier, Design, Site Inspection & Review · Shane Pather, CTO · David Hassler, Sales & Customer · Andrew Thomas, CCO · Deniz Akgul, Capital & Investment Advisor.

03 · Site · The Plant 1 / 3

The site MicroLink will operate inside

San José and Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility. The City just contracted Jacobs to build the largest active Mesophilic Hydrolysis deployment in the United States. Inside the operating fence line, approximately 750 acres of freed industrial-zoned footprint sit beside a cogeneration system rejecting 8 to 12 megawatts of recoverable heat to atmosphere today. This is the site.

San José–Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility — site plan, clarifier basins and treatment cells
Fig. 03.0 · RWF site plan Site plan, clarifier basins and treatment cells. img-3-0

Operating under a Joint Powers Agreement between the City of San José (80%) and the City of Santa Clara (20%), serving 1.4 million residents across eight cities. Treats 416,000 cubic metres per day at design capacity 632,000. Sits on 1,053 hectares of city-owned land, 11 km from NVIDIA HQ.

South Bay aerial at sunset, salt ponds and tidal flats around the San José–Santa Clara catchment

South Bay aerial at sunset · the San José–Santa Clara catchment.

The site is on the City's master plan as the anchor of a new industrial-cluster zoning corridor. Jacobs is the design engineer for the active capital programme. The cogen system rejects 25 to 30 megawatts thermal continuously and the facility purchases approximately 25 MW of grid power. The thermal opportunity is structurally independent of the grid constraint.

03.B · Who is already at the table

We are walking a process.
And it's started.

Four at the table. Eight queued. One adjudicated.

Status legend Engaged · met · ongoing Adjudicated · live Engagement queued
Engaged · met · ongoing
City of San José · ESD
Joél Cabrera, PE

Senior PM · RWF Digester Upgrade (ADFU)

Our primary technical counterpart on the thermal tie-in. The person rebuilding the digesters that receive our heat.

Jacobs Engineering
Deborah Seibold Egeland

Environmental Regional Solutions Director · data-centre ESG

Our bridge between Jacobs' RWF work and thermal integration. Duke + Stanford.

Prologis · STEM Park
Kevin Havermann

Investment Manager · Data Center capital deployment

Covered STEM Park RFQ from Prologis's side. We've walked adjacency and lease structure.

PG&E · adjudicated, live
Los Esteros 230 kV

June 2025 agreement · 250 MW within 30 to 36 months

Rule 30 (Nov 2024) provides upfront-funded interconnection. Power adjudicated.

Engagement queued · well-understood paths
Mayor's Office
Matt Mahan

Mayor of San José

The narrative principal. AI-forward agenda, GovAI Coalition founding member city, public stand on civic AI.

City of SJ · ESD
Kerrie Romanow

Director · ESD & Chief Sustainability Officer

Landlord and carbon-story signer. Unusual alignment of both portfolios.

City of SJ · ITD
Khaled Tawfik

CIO · Chair, GovAI Coalition

Founder of the ~900-agency coalition NVIDIA signed with in Dec 2024.

Mayor's Office
Stephen Caines

Chief Innovation Officer · Budget Director

Triple-hat role: narrative, budget, senior advisor to the Mayor.

Jacobs Engineering
Maddy Fairley-Wax, PE

Process Engineer · ADFU project lead

Process design lead on the digester upgrade. Owns the technical interface where MicroLink heat enters the host's loop.

San José State University
Cynthia Teniente-Matson, EdD

President · SJSU

Across the freeway from the RWF. Workforce pipeline, applied research partner, civic anchor for the sovereign AI story.

City of Santa Clara
Jovan D. Grogan

City Manager & SVP CEO

Co-landlord of the RWF and NVIDIA's home-city executive.

Santa Clara County
Office of the CIO

Technology Services & Solutions · hosting county

Board ordered countywide AI policy on 24 March 2026. Defined procurement window open.

03 · Site · ADFU · The project 1 / 2

The Additional Digester Facility Upgrades programme

On 21 January 2026, the City selected Jacobs as progressive design-build contractor for the $200 million Additional Digester Facility Upgrades.

The base scope covers structural, mechanical, electrical, and instrumentation renewal of the eight mesophilic digesters, replacement of floating covers with fixed covers, electrical upgrades, a new fats/oils/grease receiving station, and integration of Jacobs' proprietary Microbial Hydrolysis Process.

The project is currently in Phase 1 progressive design-build (preliminary services, $9.54 million envelope, plus up to $10 million in pre-authorised Early Work Packages). Phase 1 closeout and Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) execution are projected for late Q4 2026 to Q1 2027. The actionable window for low-six-figure cost on incremental scope is April through August 2026 — before the 30% design milestone in late summer. After that, scope additions process as formal change orders at materially higher cost.

A note on the Silicon Valley context. Digital Realty's SJC37 (48 MW) and Stack Infrastructure's SVY02A (48 MW) in Santa Clara are both fully constructed and entirely vacant — Silicon Valley Power's $450 million grid upgrade does not complete until 2028. The MicroLink site sits in PG&E territory with a 250 MW Implementation Agreement already in place. Modular containerised compute can be energised in 12 to 16 weeks, bypassing the multi-year grid queues that have stalled every other Silicon Valley deployment.

ADFU project site model — Jacobs press release, 21 January 2026, contract award announcement
Fig. 03.A · ADFU site model Jacobs press release, 21 January 2026 — ADFU contract award announcement. img-3-2
MicroLink data centre interior, glass corridor with server racks and cooling control infrastructure visible inside
Fig. 03.A.2 · Inside the building Inside the building · server corridor and cooling controls. img-3-A-2
03 · Site · Strategic context 3 / 3

Why this site, why now

Two clocks are running. The City of San José needs the entitlements vote on the Jacobs MHP capital programme before November 2026. NVIDIA's reference designs for state, local, and international public-sector AI compute are still being written. The site, the timing, and the political vehicle align once.

The political clock

Mayor Mahan is running for California Governor. The entitlements vote on the wastewater capital programme must land before November 2026 to clear the campaign window. The MicroLink integration sits inside the same capital programme package the City has already authorised Jacobs to design. The vote that approves the MHP build approves the host site for MicroLink in the same instrument.

The technology clock

The NVIDIA Cloud Partner programme has no public-sector sub-track today. DGX-Ready Colocation is the realistic first path. NCP is a longer horizon. The San José deployment is positioned as the reference build that informs what an NVIDIA public-sector reference design looks like for state, local, and international non-federal compute.

The site clock

The 750-acre industrial-zoned footprint inside the operating fence line is freed by the cogen-to-MHP transition. Once the cogen plant is decommissioned, the new use of that land is determined for the operational life of whatever lands there. The window to be the anchor occupant of that footprint is the same 18-month window as the entitlements vote.

South Bay aerial, San José–Santa Clara catchment
Fig. 03.C · South Bay catchment South Bay aerial, San José–Santa Clara catchment. img-3-C

Three clocks, one window. This is why this site, this partnership, this November.

MicroLink data centre, watercolour architectural sketch — pen and watercolour study, building from oblique angle with planting and figures in foreground

Architectural study · MicroLink data centre, watercolour sketch.

Two motions 1 of 4
05 · What's ahead · Beyond today · Beyond San José
1 North America 2027 · Co-published

Reference architecture for sovereign municipal AI

Every US city with a wastewater plant or district energy network can use the template.

AnchorNVIDIA Public Sector
2 NCP commissioning H1 2028 · Joint

Heat-recovery commissioning playbook

A one-off integration becomes a deployable pattern.

OutputDGX-Ready Colocation pattern
05.B · Three next steps
01 Primary

NCP onboarding track.

A working session on certification, NCX Infra Controller integration, ISV validation suite. We bring the live pod spec; you bring the playbook.

Andria Zou Senior Director, Global AI Data Center Strategies
02 Technical

Live digital twin of every deployment.

A streaming thermal and compute telemetry layer for every MicroLink deployment, rendered in Omniverse for operator and partner view. Validates the integration pattern in real time. We would build it on your stack; you would see every site's live state. We have the field data to validate.

Karthik Mandakolathur Product Manager, Magnum IO
03 Ecosystem

One named civic customer.

Route us to the City of San José as a sovereign AI cloud customer for the RWF deployment. The City already runs the GovAI Coalition with ~900 member agencies. Civic workloads on a colocated, locally-hosted sovereign cloud, eleven kilometres from your headquarters. San José is the customer we want NVIDIA to make warm.

Danny Zaidifard BD, Strategic Partnerships
We've spoken enough

The link will be shared in the chat.

The eight zones live there. Click into any one. Schedule a working session with the named owner. The first follow-up belongs to whoever wants it most.

05.C · Motion two · the Choice Hotels edge rollout

Choice Hotels is the edge.

A 25-site Phase 1 with Choice Hotels, scaling to 200 properties in Phase 2 and to thousands in Phase 3 across the broader hospitality network. Sub-megawatt pods at each property using NVIDIA Jetson Orin and IGX at the host edge, federated back to regional cores at MicroLink wastewater and brewery sites using Spectrum-XGS for site-to-site collective bandwidth.

The motion connects MicroLink's flagship sites to a distributed network of host-coupled edge nodes. Each hotel is a thermal sink and a regional inference point. The sovereign AI cloud delivered at San José becomes accessible to every property under the same commercial framework.

I lived in Lagos for five years. Then Nairobi for five more. In 2001, if you weren't in the same room as someone in Nigeria, they were unreachable. No reliable post. No working landlines for most of the country. Then GSM arrived. Half a million subscribers in 2001. Eighty million by 2010. Two hundred and twenty million today.

A continent didn't get phones. A continent got each other.

The shift we are inside today is the same scale. AI infrastructure is the next thing that becomes invisible because it's everywhere. It can be done well, or it can be done expediently. We are here to do it well, with the people in this room, starting at one site we can all be proud of.

Nick Searra · CEO and Co-Founder

05.D · Path forward

What we'd like to build, together

This brief is prepared for one conversation with one person. We have built a thesis that we believe sits in your domain, your judgement, and your intellectual interest. What follows is what we would love to do together — not what we are asking from you. Each invitation is structured around your authority and your sense of timing.

MicroLink reference architecture at sunset
Closing thought

We want to build the operational template, with you, here. Then take it everywhere.

Two motions 2 of 4
05 · What's ahead · Beyond today · Beyond Blackwell
H2 2026 Current

Vera Rubin

NVL144 · HBM4 · 3.6 EF FP4

The generation we design First Light around. Drop-in compatible with NVL72 infrastructure. 3.3× compute of Blackwell Ultra. The platform ML-SJ10 ships on.

ML-SJ10Energizes 2027
H2 2027 Next

Rubin Ultra

NVL576 · Kyber rack · HBM4e

Four reticle-sized GPUs per socket. 600 kW per rack. 14× the GB300 NVL72. The rack architecture ML-SJ10 was designed for from the loop up.

Pre-release targetReady day one
2028 Horizon

Feynman

Rosa CPU · LP40 · BlueField 5

3D die stacking. Custom HBM. NVLink switches with co-packaged optics. The first generation where San José physical-AI workloads mature into production at city scale.

Pre-release targetGlobal reference
2029 + Future

Post-Feynman

Annual cadence · public-sector-ready

The generations not yet named publicly. MicroLink's sovereign-compute architecture scales across every generation that comes after.

Hub replicationGlobally

What we validate in San José, MicroLink deploys everywhere. Pre-release hardware access is what lets the public sector ship on release dates, not 18 months after.

The deployment hub
Every generation
Market case 2 of 4
05 · Path forward · The market case

What this becomes, beyond San José

San José is the first instance of a model that travels. The defensible US addressable market is 276 large wastewater resource recovery facilities operating anaerobic digestion. Roughly two thirds of those plants sit inside Jacobs' active client orbit. The European market roughly doubles the long-run prize. Sources: EPA Clean Watersheds Needs Survey 2022; EPA Opportunities for CHP at Wastewater Treatment Facilities; ENR rankings; Jacobs FY2024 reporting.

Universe Plants IT load addressable Annual revenue Annual EBITDA
US large WRRFs with anaerobic digestion 276plants 750MW IT $1.5Bper year $0.75Bper year
Jacobs active-client subset (~65%) ~180plants 500MW IT $1.0Bper year $0.5Bper year
EPA CWNS 2022 17,544 publicly owned treatment works.
EPA CHP Opps 435 plants >10 MGD; 276 with anaerobic digestion.
ENR / Jacobs FY24 300+ water and wastewater facilities under engagement.
Methodology

Plant counts drawn from EPA's 2022 CWNS for the 17,544 POTW total and from EPA's "Opportunities for CHP at Wastewater Treatment Facilities" plant-size distribution. The 276 figure is the subset operating anaerobic digestion at production scale. MW of absorbable IT load is calculated by site-size band: 1–2 MW thermal absorbable per 10 MGD plant, scaling to 5–15 MW per 100 MGD plant. Revenue at MicroLink's 2026 wholesale rate of $170 per kW per month. EBITDA at 50% margin reflecting NOAK unit economics. The Jacobs channel slice triangulates from ENR ranking, Jacobs' 2024 disclosure of "300+ water and wastewater facilities" under engagement, and a public-record sweep of major design-build, EPCM, and O&M contracts from 2022 through January 2026.

European optionality

Roughly 690 large WRRFs across the EU and UK could host more than 1 MW of IT load each. Germany leads (around 220 sites), the UK (around 120), and combined Italy/Spain/France (around 200). Districts with established fourth-generation district heating networks — Denmark, the Netherlands, southern Sweden — substantially expand the absorbable thermal sink because excess heat above digester demand can flow into the local network rather than into a dry cooler. Capturable EU revenue over a ten-year horizon is between $1.0 and $1.6 billion.

Geography Plants Capturable revenue (10-yr)
EU + UK ~690large WRRFs $1.0–1.6B10-year horizon
Political framework 3 of 4
05 · Path forward · The political framework

Three entities. One pathway. A coordinated public-sector AI infrastructure model.

The opportunity at San José is not just a deployment. It is a template for how the public sector partners with industry to stand up AI compute infrastructure responsibly. Three entities, working together, define the pathway: NVIDIA as the certified compute partner; Jacobs as the engineering authority; MicroLink as the heat recovery infrastructure operator. Together we bring government — Mayor's office, City Council, the Treatment Plant Advisory Committee, and the State of California — into a coordinated structure that delivers public infrastructure value at zero ratepayer cost.

The compute

NVIDIA

NVIDIA Cloud Partner programme certifies the deployment. The two-track partnership covers this site and a global public-sector partnership for sovereign and municipal AI compute. Final NCP approval expected within two weeks.

The engineering

Jacobs

Jacobs Solutions, ranked #1 in wastewater treatment by ENR for nine consecutive years, holds the City's $200 million ADFU contract. The integration system is co-developed with Jacobs as the technical authority on digester process and resource recovery.

The heat recovery

MicroLink

MicroLink owns the thermal architecture (ML-IND-001), the heat recovery operation, and the relationship with the public-sector host. We deploy the modular compute facility, operate the heat recovery, and deliver the value share back to the host.

Three entities NVIDIA · Jacobs · MicroLink
Centre Government
Outcome Public-sector AI infrastructure
Outcomes: zero ratepayer impact · 6–10 MW of municipal AI compute capacity · $5–14M/year of unlocked biogas value · 8–12 MW of waste heat captured · a category-defining public-sector AI infrastructure model.

The mayor brings the political alignment. NVIDIA brings the customer demand. Jacobs brings the engineering authority. MicroLink brings the heat recovery thesis and the deployable asset. Together we define how cities, states, and nations stand up AI infrastructure on existing public-sector sites — with engineering rigour, political legitimacy, and climate integrity.

Global benchmark 4 of 4
05 · Path forward · The global benchmark

Beyond a single deployment. A category we define together.

San José is the first instance. The category is the integration of compute waste heat with anaerobic digestion at wastewater treatment plants — a model that travels across 276 large US WRRFs, ~690 European WRRFs, and analogue infrastructure globally. We are proposing not a deployment for you to bless, but a category for you to define.

MicroLink + Maddy

We are the data centre professionals. You are the digester professional. Together we have the rare combination required to define this category authoritatively: deep operational experience on both sides of the thermal boundary, a published technical thesis (Egeland 2023; McLeod & Horrax 2022; your own WEFTEC 2024 lead-author paper on MHP), and a flagship deployment site that lets us validate the integration model at operating scale.

The work we propose is co-development of a defined integration system: pre-engineered components, validated controls logic, a repeatable deployment package, a published case study from San José, and a co-authored technical paper at WEFTEC 2026. You become the named technical anchor — the dyad pattern Tier 1 EPCs use to anchor productised offerings, with you as the public technical voice and a senior co-sponsor on the Jacobs side.

This is materially more than a paper. It is the foundation for a generalisable system that Jacobs can deploy across its WRRF client portfolio and MicroLink can offer to any compatible host site globally.

The opportunity at scale
Tier 1 — North American deployment
~180 plants in the Jacobs orbit

~500 MW IT addressable. ~$1.0 billion annual revenue at NOAK scale. ~$0.5 billion annual EBITDA.

Tier 2 — European replication
~690 large WRRFs across the EU and UK

Districts with district heating networks (Denmark, Netherlands, southern Sweden) materially expand the absorbable thermal sink. ~$1.0–1.6 billion capturable revenue over a 10-year horizon.

Tier 3 — Global category
Wastewater treatment plants with anaerobic digestion globally

APAC, Middle East, Latin America. The integration model defined here becomes the reference for how compute waste heat couples to municipal infrastructure worldwide.

The numbers are the prize. The work is the path. We are asking you to lead the technical definition of this category, alongside MicroLink, anchored to the San José deployment and extending to wherever the model travels. Tomorrow's meeting starts that conversation.

"Every city has a wastewater plant. Every wastewater plant needs heat. Every data centre makes heat. First Light is the proof that the equation closes."

MicroLink Data Centers · First Light · April 2026

Architect's sketch, building elevation

The category, sketched.

Engagement timeline
Lane
D0D14D30D90D180D2702027202820292030
EngagementMaddy → City
EOI drafting
CapitalEquity raise
Equity raise vs three EOIs
AgreementEOI → LOI → DA
LOI drafting
DA negotiation
BuildStub-out → operational
Stub-out construction
ADFU comm.
MicroLink construction

Day 0 — 29 April 2026 — this meeting. Day 14 — NCP approval expected. Day 30 — EOI signed (City + NVIDIA + Jacobs). Day 30–60 — equity raise opens against the three EOIs. Day 90 — Letter of Intent signed. Day 270 — Definitive Agreement signed; escrow releases; ADFU stub-out construction begins. 2027–2028 — ADFU project commissions. 2028–2029 — MicroLink modular deployment construction. 2029–2030 — first-of-kind site operational.

A1 · Questions

Five questions we would love your view on

Not a questionnaire. A way of opening a conversation we hope continues beyond the meeting. These are the questions we keep thinking about: the ones where your perspective would change how we think. Rank what resonates, write your own, or both.

Three MicroLink heat pump modules in a glass pavilion overlooking countryside
Three MicroLink modules. One thermal story.
01
On the next decade

Where will sovereign and municipal AI infrastructure look most different five to ten years out?

The genuine inflection points are usually visible before they become consensus. We want to know which of these you think will move the most, and which one will move first.

Rank your top three0 of 3
0 / 1500
Thank you. 0 people have shared their view on this so far.
02
On the compute and host boundary

Where does the seam between compute and industrial process go next?

Integration is happening at thermal, electrical, control, and commercial layers, each one a separate negotiation today. We want to know where the deepest unlock sits, and what blocks it inside NVIDIA's reference designs right now.

Rank your top three0 of 3
0 / 1500
Thank you. 0 people have shared their view on this so far.
03
On the public-sector path

Where is there room for state, municipal, and non-federal public buyers in NCP?

The program today reads as built for hyperscalers and federal-scale sovereigns. The gap is real, the demand is real, and it is happening with or without an NVIDIA-recognised path. We want to know what would unlock that path internally.

Rank your top three0 of 3
0 / 1500
Thank you. 0 people have shared their view on this so far.
04
On heat as a first-class output

What would make heat recovery a default specification rather than a project-by-project negotiation?

Server heat into industrial process is standard in district heating across Northern Europe and is becoming standard in our deployments. We want to know what would tip it from edge case to expected default.

Rank your top three0 of 3
0 / 1500
Thank you. 0 people have shared their view on this so far.
05
On San José

What is the question you would most want this site to answer first?

San José is one site, one set of conditions, and a chance to learn things that scale to other public-sector deployments. If you were sitting in the design review, what would you most want this site to settle?

Rank your top three0 of 3
0 / 1500
Thank you. 0 people have shared their view on this so far.
A2 · LIBRARY

The collection of MicroLink Briefings.

Domain knowledge we accumulate as we work with partners. Each briefing is a working document.
WRRF REFERENCE · V1 · APRIL 2026 COMPLETE

Wastewater treatment, a working reference.

A briefing on wastewater treatment processes: anaerobic digestion, MHP, thermal hydrolysis, cogeneration, biogas pathways, and how MicroLink integrates with them. Originated from a technical conversation with Maddy Fairley-Wax (Jacobs Solutions).

Open briefing →
NCP ARCHITECTURE · IN DEVELOPMENT OPEN INVITATION

The 1 MW pod, in detail.

Quantum-X800 + AC SU at 576 GPUs, three-loop thermal architecture, diesel-free 2N power topology. We want to write the reference architecture for the canonical pod with NVIDIA, so the document reads as a joint template that other deployments can adopt.

Build it with us→
SOVEREIGN MUNICIPAL AI · IN DEVELOPMENT OPEN INVITATION

The product, end to end.

Confidential Computing on Hopper / Blackwell, BlueField-3 multi-tenant isolation, Run:ai per-tenant clusters, Llama-Nemotron sovereign fine-tuning. We want NVIDIA's product and public-sector teams to co-author this with us, so the stack is documented the way both organisations would describe it.

Build it with us→
More briefings to follow, added as the work continues.
A2 · References

Glossary, sources, and citations

Technical terminology used throughout this brief, followed by the primary, regulatory, and industry sources behind the figures and claims.

Glossary
ADFU
Additional Digester Facility Upgrades; the $200 million Jacobs progressive design-build contract awarded by the City of San José in January 2026.
CDU
Coolant Distribution Unit; isolates the chip-side fluid loop from the facility loop and provides redundant pumping.
CI
Carbon intensity, expressed in grams of CO₂-equivalent per megajoule, used by CARB LCFS.
CIN / TAN / SMN
The three Ethernet/InfiniBand fabrics in the NCP architecture: cluster interconnect, tenant access, and secure management.
D3 RIN
Federal cellulosic Renewable Identification Number under the EPA Renewable Fuel Standard, Pathway Q for RNG dispensed as transportation CNG.
DA
Definitive Agreement; the substantive partnership contract concluding the EOI → LOI → DA sequence.
DTC
Direct-to-Chip liquid cooling; cold plate mounted directly on the GPU/CPU package.
EOI
Expression of Interest; the short-form first-commitment instrument signed within 30 days of the meeting, scoped to authorise inclusion of the stub-out concept in the ADFU design-basis discussion.
GMP
Guaranteed Maximum Price; the second-phase commercial structure of the ADFU progressive design-build contract.
HFR
Hydrolysis Fermentation Reactor; the 75 °C sidestream vessel in the Jacobs MHP three-vessel architecture.
HRT
Hydraulic Retention Time; reactor volume divided by daily volumetric feed.
LCFS
Low Carbon Fuel Standard; California's transportation fuel decarbonisation programme administered by CARB.
LOI
Letter of Intent; the second-stage commitment instrument signed at Day 90, capturing the technical specification and commercial framework principles.
MCFC
Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell; produces electricity, recoverable heat, and hydrogen from biogas at ~47% electrical efficiency.
MHP
Microbial Hydrolysis Process; Jacobs' proprietary biological hydrolysis process at 75 °C using Caldicellulosiruptor bescii.
MMBtu
Million British thermal units; standard unit of energy commerce in US gas markets.
NCP
NVIDIA Cloud Partner; NVIDIA's reference architecture and partner programme for AI compute facilities.
NVL72
NVIDIA's 72-GPU rack-scale unit (Blackwell GB200 and successor GB300 Vera Rubin); the atomic compute unit of an NCP facility.
PUE
Power Usage Effectiveness; the ratio of total facility energy to IT equipment energy in a data centre.
RNG
Renewable Natural Gas; biogas upgraded to pipeline-quality natural gas for injection into utility distribution.
RWF
Regional Wastewater Facility; the San José–Santa Clara plant.
TPAD
Temperature-Phased Anaerobic Digestion; the staged thermophilic-then-mesophilic digester train at San José.
TPAC
Treatment Plant Advisory Committee; the City of San José advisory body overseeing the RWF.
VSR
Volatile Solids Reduction; percentage of organic solids destroyed during digestion.
WRRF
Water Resource Recovery Facility; the contemporary term for a wastewater treatment plant operating with resource-recovery functions.
Sources and citations
Primary sources & regulatory documents
  • City of San José Council Item 26-02813 January 2026 — ADFU contract authorisation.
  • City of San José Capital Improvement ProgramAdditional Digester Facility Upgrade project page.
  • City of San José Climate Adaptation & Resilience PlanMarch 2026 (Provenzano).
  • US Patent 12,359,225Microbial Hydrolysis Process (Jacobs).
  • BAAQMD Title V Permit A0778RWF combined air permits.
  • CARB LCFS Reporting ToolQ3 2025 transfer reports.
  • EPA Clean Watersheds Needs Survey 202217,544 publicly owned treatment works.
  • EPA Opportunities for CHP at WWTPs2011 update; plant-size distribution and AD subset.
  • IRS final rule — Section 45VOne Big Beautiful Bill Act, July 2025.
  • CPUC Decision 24-08-007Avoided Cost Calculator.
  • Keyser Marston Addendum No. 2June 2025 — RFQ structure for up to 99-year leases on the freed footprint.
Industry sources & technical literature
  • Jacobs press release — 21 January 2026ADFU contract award.
  • Egeland 2023Driving Sustainability in Data Centers, Jacobs white paper.
  • McLeod & Horrax 2022Hydrogen from Wastewater, Jacobs six-part series.
  • Fairley-Wax, Parry, Nielsen — WEFTEC 2024Application of the Microbial Hydrolysis Process on an Existing Anaerobic Digestion System.
  • Jacobs 2025 StrategyChallenge Accepted.
  • Smart Water MagazineADFU coverage, January 2026.
  • ENR Top 500 Design FirmsWastewater rankings, FY2024.
  • Argus MediaLCFS pricing analysis, 2025.
  • IETA — September 2025California Low Carbon Fuel Standard brief.
  • Bioenergy NewsVVWRA SB 1440 first contract, March 2026.