Goldman Sachs Completes $3.2 Billion AI Data Center Campus in Midtown South

NEW YORK -- Goldman Sachs formally opened its new AI data center complex in the Midtown South neighborhood on Thursday, completing a $3.2 billion construction project that the bank says is the largest private data center investment in New York City's history. The 14-story structure on West 18th Street -- built on land Goldman acquired in 2023 from a former commercial printing facility -- will anchor the bank's proprietary trading infrastructure and provide the computational backbone for a suite of client-facing AI tools the firm plans to roll out later this year.

Goldman CEO David Solomon described the campus at the ribbon-cutting ceremony as a signal of long-term confidence in New York as a financial and technology hub. 'We are not building this because it is convenient,' Solomon said. 'We are building this because we believe New York remains the center of global finance, and that the future of global finance runs on computation.' The remark landed to applause from a crowd that included Mayor Mamdani, Governor Hochul, and several members of the state legislature's finance committees.

The project required Goldman to negotiate a custom power delivery agreement with Con Edison, which installed dedicated infrastructure to provide the campus with up to 120 megawatts of electricity. That level of consumption makes the complex one of the single largest power users in Manhattan, a status that drew early criticism from environmental groups who argued that the city's grid is not yet clean enough to power large data centers without increasing net carbon emissions. Goldman said it has entered into renewable energy agreements covering the facility's full energy load, with a mix of offshore wind and upstate solar projects.

The 850 permanent jobs Goldman is committing to at the site include software engineers, AI researchers, infrastructure specialists, and cybersecurity analysts, with a median salary the bank estimates at $185,000. City economic development officials said the employment commitment was a key factor in a package of city and state incentives that included accelerated permitting and a partial commercial rent tax abatement. Independent economists noted that the direct employment figure understates the full labor market impact, since large corporate facilities typically support a wider ecosystem of contractors, service providers, and ancillary businesses.