Data Center POST connected with Raul K. Martynek, Chief Executive Officer of DataBank Holdings, Ltd., ahead of PTC’26. Martynek joined DataBank in 2017 and brings more than three decades of leadership experience across telecommunications, Internet infrastructure, and data center operations. His background includes senior executive roles at Net Access, Voxel dot Net, Smart Telecom, and advisory positions with DigitalBridge and Plainfield Asset Management. Under his leadership, DataBank has expanded its national footprint, strengthened its interconnection ecosystems, and positioned its platform to support AI-ready, high-density workloads across enterprise, cloud, and edge environments. In the Q&A below, Martynek shares his perspective on the challenges shaping global digital infrastructure and how DataBank is preparing customers for the next phase of AI-driven growth.

Data Center Post (DCP) Question: What does your company do?  

Raul Martynek (RM) Answer: DataBank helps the world’s largest enterprises, technology, and content providers ensure their data and applications are always on, always secure, always compliant, and ready to scale to meet the needs of the artificial intelligence era.

DCP Q: What problems does your company solve in the market?

RM A: DataBank addresses a broad set of challenges enterprises face when managing critical infrastructure. Reliability and uptime are foundational, as downtime can severely impact revenue and customer trust. We also help organizations meet security and compliance requirements without having to build costly internal expertise. Our platform allows customers to scale infrastructure without large capital expenditures by shifting to an operating expense model. In addition, we provide managed expertise that frees internal teams to focus on strategic priorities, simplify hybrid IT and cloud integration, improve latency for distributed and edge workloads, strengthen cybersecurity posture, and mitigate talent and resource constraints.

DCP Q: What are your company’s core products or services?

RM A: Data center colocation, Interconnection, Enterprise Cloud, Compliance Enablement, Data Protection. Powered by expert, human support

DCP Q: What markets do you serve?

RM A: DataBank serves customers across a broad geographic footprint in the United States and Europe. In the western United States, the company operates in key markets including Irvine, Los Angeles, and Silicon Valley in California, as well as Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. Its central U.S. presence includes Chicago, Denver, Indianapolis, and Kansas City. In the southern region, DataBank supports customers in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, and Waco. Along the East Coast and Midwest, the company operates in markets such as Boston, Cleveland, New Jersey, New York City, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. Internationally, DataBank also serves customers in the United Kingdom.

DCP Q: What challenges does the global digital infrastructure industry face today?

RM A: The industry is facing a convergence of challenges, including power availability and grid constraints, sustainability and carbon reduction requirements, cooling demands for high-density AI and HPC workloads, supply chain pressures, land acquisition and zoning issues, and increasing interconnection complexity. At the same time, organizations must contend with talent shortages and rising cybersecurity risks, all while supporting rapidly expanding digital workloads.

DCP Q: How is your company adapting to these challenges?

RM A: We are building in markets with available power headroom and designing scalable power blocks to support future growth. Our facilities are being prepared for AI-era density with liquid-ready designs and more efficient cooling strategies. Sustainability remains a priority, with a focus on lowering energy and water usage. We are standardizing construction to improve efficiency and flexibility while expanding interconnection ecosystems such as DE-CIX. Additionally, our managed services help fill enterprise talent gaps, and we continue to invest in operational excellence, security, and company culture.

DCP Q: What are your company’s key differentiators?

RM A: DataBank differentiates itself through strong engineering and operational management, future-ready platforms, and deep compliance expertise. Our geographic focus allows us to serve customers where they need infrastructure most, while our managed services provide visibility and control across complex environments. We are also supported by patient, long-term investors, enabling disciplined growth and sustained investment.

DCP Q: What can we expect to see/hear from your company in the future?  

RM A: Customers can expect continued commitment to enterprise IT infrastructure alongside expanded AI-ready platforms. We are growing our interconnection ecosystems, advancing sustainability initiatives, modernizing key campuses, and expanding managed and hybrid IT services. Enhancing security, compliance, and customer success will remain central, as will our focus on talent and culture.

DCP Q: What upcoming industry events will you be attending? 

RM A: AI Tinkers; Metro Connect; ATC CEO Summit; MIMSS 26; DCD>Connect 2026; ITW 2026; 7×24 Cloud Run Community Festival; CBRE Digital Infrastructure Summit 2026; AI Infra Conference; TMT M&A Forum; MegaPort Connect; TAG Data Center Summit; Supercomputing 2026; Incompany; DE-DIX Dallas Olde World Holiday Market

DCP Q: Do you have any recent news you would like us to highlight?

RM A: DataBank has recently announced several milestones that underscore its continued growth and long-term strategy. The company expanded its financing vehicle to $1.6 billion to support the next phase of platform expansion and infrastructure investment. DataBank also released new research showing that 60 percent of enterprises are already seeing a return on investment from AI initiatives or expect to within the next 12 months, highlighting the accelerating business impact of AI adoption. In addition, DataBank introduced a company-wide employee ownership program, reinforcing its commitment to culture, alignment, and long-term value creation across the organization.

DCP Q: Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about your company and capabilities?

RM A: DataBank is building the digital foundation for the AI, cloud, and connected-device era. Its national footprint of data centers delivers secure, high-density colocation, interconnection, and managed services that help enterprises deploy mission-critical workloads with confidence.

We are designing for the future with liquid-cooling capabilities, campus modernization, and expanded interconnection ecosystems. We are equally committed to responsible digital infrastructure: improving efficiency, reducing water use, strengthening security, and advancing compliance.

Above all, DataBank we are a trusted infrastructure partner, providing the expertise and operational support organizations need to scale reliably and securely.

DCP Q: Where can our readers learn more about your company?  

RM A: www.databank.com

DCP Q: How can our readers contact your company? 

PQ A: www.databank.com/contact-us

To learn more about PTC’26, please visit www.ptc.org/ptc26. The event takes place January 18-21, 2026 in Honolulu, HI.

If you are interested in contributing to Data Center POST, contact us at contributions@datacenterpost.com.

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The post Building the Digital Foundation for the AI Era: DataBank’s Vision for Scalable Infrastructure appeared first on Data Center POST.

Insights from Structure Research, Applied Digital, PowerHouse Data Centers, and DataBank

A New Era of Infrastructure Growth

At the infra/STRUCTURE Summit 2025, held October 15–16 at the Wynn Las Vegas, the session titled “AI: The Next Frontier” brought together data center leaders to discuss how artificial intelligence is reshaping infrastructure demand, investment, and development strategy.

Moderated by Jabez Tan, Head of Research at Structure Research, the conversation featured Wes Cummins, CEO of Applied Digital; Luke Kipfer, Managing Director at PowerHouse Data Centers; and Raul Martynek, CEO of DataBank. Each offered unique perspectives on how their organizations are adapting to the acceleration of AI workloads and what that means for power, scale, and capital in the years ahead.

Industry Transformation – From Hyperscale to AI-Scale

Jabez Tan opened the discussion by reflecting on how quickly the market has shifted. Just one year ago, many were questioning the durability of AI-related infrastructure investments. Now, as Tan observed, “The speed of change has outpaced even the most optimistic expectations.”

Wes Cummins of Applied Digital illustrated this evolution through his company’s own transformation. “We started building Bitcoin data centers,” Cummins said. “We were never a miner, we just built the facilities. Then, when AI took off, we realized our designs could scale. We pivoted early, and when ChatGPT hit, the entire world changed.”

That pivot positioned Applied Digital to become a key player in the new era of high-performance computing (HPC) and GPU-intensive workloads, with facilities like its large-scale campus in North Dakota exemplifying how traditional models have been re-engineered for AI.

Building for Scale – Meeting the Demand Wave

Raul Martynek of DataBank and Luke Kipfer of PowerHouse Data Centers both emphasized how scale and speed have become the defining factors of success. “As an executive developer, you have to have the conviction to bring inventory to market,” Martynek said. “If you’re building in good markets and with the right customers, there’s enormous room for growth.”

Cummins agreed, stressing that the conversation has shifted beyond simply securing power. “We’re moving past the question of who has power,” Cummins said. “Now it’s about who can build at scale, deliver reliably, and operate efficiently. Construction timelines, supply chain access, and delivery speed are the new gating factors.”

The panelists noted that hyperscalers are no longer alone in this race. New AI-focused firms, GPU as a service providers, and cloud entrants are competing for capacity at unprecedented levels, pushing the industry to think and build faster.

Site Strategy and Market Evolution – Staying Close to the Core

On the question of site selection, Martynek explained that traditional Tier 1 markets remain critical, though the boundaries are expanding. “Proximity to major availability zones is still a sound long-term strategy,” Martynek said. “We’re buying land in emerging submarkets of Virginia, for example, close enough to the core, but flexible enough to support scale.”

Kipfer added that hyperscalers’ preferences vary by workload type. “For AI and machine learning, some customers can be farther from peering points,” Kipfer said. “But for commercial cloud and enterprise use cases, Tier 1 and Tier 1-adjacent locations still offer the lowest risk and greatest performance.”

Together, their remarks reflected a balanced market dynamic, one where new geographies are gaining traction, but traditional hubs remain foundational to large-scale AI deployments.

Is This a Bubble? – Understanding the AI Surge

As AI investment accelerates, Tan posed the question many in the audience were thinking: Are we in another tech bubble?

Cummins was direct in his response. “I lived through the dot-com bubble,” he said. “This is different. The rate of adoption and real-world application is unlike anything we’ve ever seen.” He pointed out that ChatGPT reached a billion daily queries in just over two years—compared to Google’s eleven-year journey to the same milestone. “The computing power behind that is staggering,” he added.

Martynek agreed, noting that despite the hype, constraints in power, supply chain, and construction capacity make overbuilding virtually impossible. “It’s actually very hard to build too much right now,” he said. “The market is self-regulating through those bottlenecks.”

Capital Strategy and Long-Term Partnerships

A major theme throughout the discussion was the evolving capital stack supporting AI infrastructure. Martynek shared that DataBank has attracted strong investment from institutional partners seeking stable, long-term returns. “We’ve created investment-grade structures backed by 15-year commitments from top-tier customers,” Martynek said. “That gives our investors confidence and gives us visibility into future growth.”

Cummins added that Applied Digital’s focus is on securing long-term offtake agreements with the right clients, those building sustainable businesses rather than speculative projects. “These are 15-year-plus commitments from high-quality counterparties,” Cummins said. “That’s what allows us to build aggressively but responsibly.”

The panel agreed that long-term alignment between capital providers, developers, and customers will define the next phase of industry maturity.

The Future of AI Infrastructure – Speed, Scale, and Cooperation

Looking ahead, all three panelists emphasized the need for ongoing collaboration across the ecosystem. From developers to operators to hyperscalers, success will depend on shared innovation and operational agility.

Cummins summed up the moment: “The world isn’t going back. We’ve unlocked a new era of computing, and our challenge is to keep up with it. Speed is everything.”

Martynek added, “We’re not overbuilding, we’re underprepared. The companies that can execute with discipline and partnership will define the next decade of infrastructure growth.”

A Market Fueled by Real Demand

The discussion underscored that the AI-driven infrastructure boom is not speculative, it’s structural. Adoption is accelerating faster than any previous technology wave, supply is constrained, and capital is flowing toward long-term, revenue-backed projects. The result is a market with strong fundamentals, focused execution, and unprecedented potential for innovation.

Infra/STRUCTURE 2026: Save the Date

Want to tune in live, received all presentations, gain access to C-level executives, investors and industry leading research? Then save the date for infra/STRUCTURE 2026 set for October 7-8, 2026 at The Wynn Las Vegas. Pre-Registration for the 2026 event is now open, and you can visit www.infrastructuresummit.io to learn more.

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