Quantum Loophole's data center dominion

A fiber-connected development of almost 3.5 square miles in Maryland's largest county aims to introduce a new way to plan for and accommodate hyperscaler growth and whatever the computing needs of AI will demand next.

Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief

April 23, 2024

It's not a data center operator or a telecom service provider. Still, Quantum Loophole could influence both kinds of companies in the Northeast corridor of the US as it continues to develop its 2,100-plus-acre data center "master-planned community" in Frederick County, Maryland.

The development is more than twice as large by acreage as New York's Central Park. In this podcast, Rich Paul-Hus, the SVP for sales and development at Quantum Loophole, discusses exactly what the company is building and its plans.

Paul-Hus details why Quantum Loophole wanted to become a development specialist for companies looking to locate their computing and connectivity resources just a few miles from the world's old-school Internet exchanges and data center hives.

He said his company's ability to quickly provision the land, water, power and fiber that hyperscalers and data center developers need could get those companies to market more quickly and in a way that doesn't wreck the environment.

Now, Quantum Loophole is constructing an over $100 million, 43-mile fiber loop that will link its campus with the sprawling data center alley in Ashburn, Virginia. Paul-Hus said the QLoop, as it's called, can hold 34 conduits with a full capacity of more than 235,000 strands of fiber. "When complete, the system is designed to connect Quantum Frederick to the Ashburn internet ecosystem in under one-half millisecond," the company said last year.

The buildout is big, and the vision is, too. According to Paul-Hus, Quantum Loophole's CEO and founder, Josh Snowhorn, is putting together a mix of tech, land, policy and resources that "will protect our customers' abilities to develop data centers over the next 20 years."

About the Author

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

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