What Duke is building
Duke University has started construction on a two-story GPU center on Central Campus, a $23 million facility the university says will open next year to support research. The building sits along Yearby Avenue, near Duke's electric substation and water chiller plant.
The center will start at 1.5 megawatts and has room to expand to 3 megawatts. That is a fraction of the hyperscale AI campuses drawing 100 megawatts or more, a scale that has triggered protests elsewhere in North Carolina.
Duke's environmental case
Duke says the facility is designed under its Climate Commitment. The university plans to cool the data center using its own water plant, then redirect the hot water to heat campus buildings. The center will be built and operated without cost to the public, the university said.
That pitch has not fully settled faculty concerns. Some have questioned whether energy- and water-intensive data centers could undermine Duke's climate goals, even at this scale.
The faculty debate
A February report from Duke's committee on AI policy urged the university to stop competing with large tech companies on general-purpose computing and instead build infrastructure tailored to its interdisciplinary mission. The Central Campus facility is framed as that kind of targeted investment.
Provost Alec Gallimore told the Academic Council in March that Duke could expand beyond this building, citing potential sites at schools and hospitals. Academic Council minutes from April noted the data centers could also help attract faculty.