5C Group to Drive Business Growth in HPC and AI Data Center Deployments
In early April 2025, Hypertec Cloud, a division of the Montreal-based Hypertec Group, announced the acquisition of 5C Data Centers, leading to the formation of the 5C Group. This was a strategic move by the Hypertec Group aimed to address the growing demand for AI-optimized infrastructure.
By combining Hypertec Cloud's expertise in high-performance computing with 5C Data Centers' significant data center footprint across the U.S., 5C Group hopes to leverage the combined expertise of the two companies to drive significant business growth for them in HPC and AI deployments.
AI Infrastructure Strategy
In uniting Hypertec Cloud and 5C Data Centers, the 5C Group will be able to offer a comprehensive AI digital infrastructure solution tailored for AI-native enterprises and large-scale clients.
The combined platform should enable faster deployment of large-scale AI clusters, targeting the industry need for rapid infrastructure rollout.
By leveraging advanced cooling technologies like direct-to-chip and immersion cooling, the 5C Group aims to support higher rack densities and achieve significant energy savings allowing the new company tio address customer’s sustainability goals.
Jonathan Ahdoot, the new CEO of 5C Group, said of the combined capabilities:
The biggest challenge in AI infrastructure today is alignment—between what AI compute requires and what the physical hosting environment can deliver. We've solved that by integrating the two sides together. With this acquisition, we bring together deep expertise in performance-optimized AI compute infrastructure and the design and operation of large-scale, world-class data center campuses. That combination allows us to accelerate deployments, push density further, and deliver unmatched efficiency for the largest and most demanding AI users for years to come.
Data Center Campus Roadmap
The new company plans to deploy 600 MW of capacity across the US within the next 6 to 18 months. Three of the four data center campuses operated by 5C are in the midst of significant growth, with even greater capacity planned for 2027 and beyond.
The four campuses are:
- Columbus, OH: With 52 MW of capacity available in 2025, and planned growth to 77 MW in 2026. The post 2027 plans are targeting 900 MW of capacity
- Charlotte, NC: 50 MW, with planned 2026 growth to 450 MW, and projected post 2027 growth to 1600 MW
- Memphis, TN: Currently offering 20 MW though 2026, projections expect growth to 60 MW post 2027
- Phoenix, AZ: The fourth data center is in Phoenix and the current plan shows it remaining an 18 MW facility for the foreseeable future.
5C also operates a dozen owned and collocated data centers worldwide, with a footprint that goes beyond North America to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The data centers represent greater than 2 GW of combined capacity with 800 MW available in the 2025-2026 timeframe for large and extra-large AI and HPC deployments.
Hypertec Group which is a family-owned business, is understandably bullish on the creation of the new entity spun off from their existing company, with Simon Ahdoot, CEO of Hypertec Group saying:
The spin-off of Hypertec Cloud marks a pivotal moment for Hypertec Group, With the acquisition of 5C Data Centers, the newly formed 5C Group is positioned to deliver AI Digital Infrastructure designed for the scale, speed, and complexity of tomorrow's industry. Together, as partners, we'll continue to advance compute, storage, and data center technologies—delivering real value to power the future of AI innovation.
Additionally, 5C's Jonathan Ahdoot, focused on the importance of the acquired expertise of the new company on delivering AI infrastructure quickly and effectively, reminds us that:
We’ve been in the space of high-performance computing for a long time. It’s not only about setting it up - it’s about testing it so you can actually get the performance and output you need for AI workflows.
Demonstrating Their Skills
Last year, AI Acceleration Cloud Together AI approached Hypertec Cloud aith an extreme request: Get a 2,000 GPU AI cluster up and running in 30 days.
Vipul Ved Prakash, co-founder and CEO of Together AI had received estimates of six to 8 months for project completion and found Hypertec Cloud, who just said “Yes, we can do it.”
This wasn’t a matter of just plugging in all the IT workload components; it was soup-to-nuts solution delivery involving:
- Getting a data center: It was necessary to find a data center facility, assess its suitability to task, and do a custom retrofit to meet the needs of the GPU cluster
- Build the infrastructure: Source all of the required components, from servers to cooling, to networking, and get them installed and operational
- Validation testing: Run all of the necessary testing on systems and hardware to validate the installation and its operation before turning over a turnkey solution to Together AI.
The companies worked so well together to deliver this solution that they have since moved on to a partnership relationship from their previous customer/vendor relation. Seeing what the future held for AI infrastructure, Hypertec Cloud, now 5C, has since taken the steps to expand capacity to support up to 100,000 GPUs in an AI cluster by the end of the year. The company also announced that, along with partner Together AI, they would be deploying a 36,000 GPU cluster using built around Nvidia GB200 Blackwell designs.
Vipul Ved Prakash, CEO of Together AI, said of the project:
We are excited to partner with Hypertec Cloud to expand our highly performant and reliable Together GPU Cluster footprint, serving the exponentially growing computational needs of our global customers. Hypertec's strategically located data centers and Together AI’s fleet of GPU Clusters — featuring innovations like Together Kernel Collection — customers can now achieve industry-leading performance and cost-efficiency in training frontier models and running inference at scale."
About the Author
David Chernicoff
Voices of the Industry
