TL;DR · 30-second read
The Short Version
A company that rents out space and computing power for artificial intelligence just paid $60 million in cash for two industrial sites in rural North Carolina.
The buildings matter less than the electricity. The sites are expected to get enough power to start, and could eventually draw roughly as much as a small city, if the local utility signs off.
The catch: no customer has signed a binding deal for the new sites yet, and equipment trouble at the company’s first North Carolina site interrupted service and delayed payments from its customer.
WhiteFiber (Nasdaq: WYFI) has completed its $60 million all-cash purchase of two industrial properties in Yadkin County, North Carolina, designated NC-2 and NC-3. According to an 8-K filed November 3, the deal closed on October 28 through WhiteFiber’s Canadian subsidiary Enovum Data Centers Corp.; the seller was Unifi Manufacturing, Inc., a subsidiary of Unifi, Inc. The properties cover about 120 acres with 500,000 square feet of existing warehouse space, roughly 55 miles from WhiteFiber’s NC-1 campus in Madison.
The filing says each property is expected to receive at least 30 megawatts of gross electrical supply, 60 megawatts combined, with up to 69 more megawatts per property possible within seven years, for a combined maximum of up to 198 megawatts, subject to a confirmation process. WhiteFiber is targeting initial ready-for-service capacity in late 2027 and disclosed that switchgear problems had delayed full billing at NC-1.
Executive Summary
WhiteFiber has bought the right to build roughly 60 megawatts of AI data center capacity in North Carolina, with a path toward about 200 megawatts over seven years. The $60 million price, paid in cash, works out to about $1 million per megawatt of the minimum initial power supply and roughly $303,000 per megawatt if the full 198 megawatts is eventually confirmed.
The purchase came before any definitive customer contracts for the new sites. WhiteFiber holds non-binding letters of intent, some from investment-grade counterparties, and says construction spending will follow signed agreements and financing. That structure fixes the cost of the site now while keeping the much larger build-out cost contingent.
The same announcement disclosed that switchgear commissioning issues interrupted service and billing at NC-1, the company’s operating North Carolina campus, and that financing for that deployment has not closed. NC-1 is the closest available guide to how NC-2 and NC-3 may unfold.
Divide by Megawatts, Not Square Feet
WhiteFiber paid $60 million for 120 acres and 500,000 square feet of buildings. In conventional real estate terms, that is about $120 per square foot or $500,000 per acre. Neither the company’s November 3 press release nor its 8-K describes the property that way. The 8-K defines each of the two properties by its electrical supply: a minimum of 30 megawatts of gross power apiece, plus potentially up to 69 more per property within seven years. Divide the price by the 60-megawatt minimum and WhiteFiber paid about $1 million per megawatt of initial utility capacity. If all 198 megawatts arrive, the effective figure falls to roughly $303,000 per megawatt.
That is the sense in which this deal prices power rather than buildings. The warehouses are a shell WhiteFiber says it will retrofit, and parts of them are not even vacant: Unifi Manufacturing keeps the right to occupy portions under occupancy and partial leaseback arrangements. What makes the Yadkin County land worth $60 million to an AI infrastructure company is the electrical service the sites are expected to receive. The 8-K notes that even that figure is ‘subject to the confirmation process contemplated by the Purchase Agreement.’
A caveat for anyone comparing numbers. ‘Gross utility capacity’ is the total power delivered to a site. Some of it goes to cooling, power conversion and other building systems, so the capacity left for customers’ servers, the ‘IT load’ that data center operators actually sell, is lower. WhiteFiber describes NC-1 in IT megawatts (a 40 MW contracted deployment) and NC-2 and NC-3 in gross megawatts. The two sets of figures are therefore not directly comparable, and the company has not said how much IT capacity it expects the new sites to yield.
The $60 Million Is Spent; the Build-Out Is Optional
WhiteFiber closed on October 28 holding non-binding letters of intent from prospective customers for NC-2, NC-3 and expansion space at NC-1. A letter of intent signals interest but commits neither side. Some proposals come from investment-grade counterparties, meaning companies with strong credit ratings. Others include investment-grade credit support, such as backing from a highly rated parent or guarantor. The company says it is in advanced discussions but has not reported a definitive agreement for the new sites.
The structure separates two kinds of risk. The site and its expected power position are already paid for in cash, with a $2.25 million earnest-money deposit applied at closing. The far larger cost, converting warehouses into AI-ready data halls, is something WhiteFiber says it will align with definitive customer agreements and financing. In effect, the company has bought an option on capacity: it has fixed the cost of land and power access, and it will decide how much to build once tenants sign. The seller’s leaseback is expected to offset part of the carrying cost while that happens.
The contractual protections are modest. Representations and warranties survive twelve months. Unifi Manufacturing’s indemnity obligation applies only once losses reach $0.1 million and is capped at 3% of the purchase price, about $1.8 million. The deal’s value therefore depends on the power being confirmed and customers converting, not on recourse to the seller. That matters for shareholders, who carry the $60 million outlay, and for prospective tenants, whose signatures effectively trigger construction.
NC-1’s Switchgear Delay Is the Relevant Test Case
The announcement also showed how execution risk surfaces. At NC-1 in Madison, switchgear-related commissioning issues interrupted service and billing for the first 20 MW IT data hall. Switchgear is the heavy electrical equipment that distributes and protects high-voltage power inside a facility. The problems pushed the ramp to full contracted billing past the August timeframe WhiteFiber had anticipated. About 35 MW of the 40 MW contracted IT deployment is now operating, with work continuing on the last 5 MW.
WhiteFiber says capital spending for that deployment is substantially complete and total costs are expected to stay within the initial budget. However, financing for the NC-1 deployment, under negotiation with a previously disclosed prospective lending group, has not closed, and the company states there can be no assurance it will. NC-2 and NC-3’s late-2027 target depends on the same ingredients: equipment delivery and commissioning, utility confirmation, signed customers and financing. The company credits its retrofit-first strategy with faster time to market and better capital efficiency. That claim will be tested on whether those pieces line up on schedule.
Prospective tenants weighing a late-2027 start, lenders evaluating NC-1 and shareholders all have a near-term checkpoint. WhiteFiber reports third-quarter 2026 results on November 10 and has said it will provide further financial and operating updates then.
Background
WhiteFiber, Inc., headquartered in New York and listed on Nasdaq as WYFI, is an emerging growth company that provides AI infrastructure. It owns high-performance computing data centers and offers cloud services, and it describes its model as vertically integrated: colocation (renting space, power and cooling for customers’ hardware), hosting and cloud services built for generative AI workloads. Its Canadian subsidiary, Enovum Data Centers Corp., was the buyer of record for NC-2 and NC-3.
WhiteFiber’s first North Carolina campus, NC-1 in Madison, is built around a 40 MW contracted IT deployment. The company first disclosed the Yadkin County purchase agreement, dated August 16, 2026, in an 8-K filed August 17, and completed the deal on October 28. Source: WhiteFiber Acquires Two North Carolina Data Center Properties For $60 Million With Potential For 200 MW Of Capacity — Pulse 2.0 coverage of WhiteFiber’s NC-2 and NC-3 acquisition and NC-1 update. Primary sources: WhiteFiber, Inc. Form 8-K Current Report, filed November 3, 2026; WhiteFiber Completes Acquisition of Two North Carolina Data Center Development Sites and Provides NC-1 Update (Exhibit 99.1 press release, November 3, 2026).Sources