RIH Founders Present Regenerative AI Data Center Model at 9,200-Attendee AI Infra Summit
Katie Hilborn and Christopher Gee present Regenerative Intelligence Infrastructure™ at Silicon Valley gathering featuring leaders from NVIDIA, Google, Amazon, Intel, Meta and OpenAI
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — September 17, 2026 — Regenerative Infrastructure Holdings founders Katie Hilborn and Christopher Gee presented their whole-system model for regenerative AI data centers at the 2026 AI Infra Summit in Silicon Valley, which drew approximately 9,200 registered attendees from across AI infrastructure, data centers, energy, compute, capital and technology.
The Summit’s speaker roster included senior executives and technical leaders from NVIDIA, Google, Amazon, Intel, Meta, OpenAI, Oracle, AMD, Qualcomm and Dell, among others, including Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, NVIDIA VP Ian Buck, Google Fellow Dave Patterson, Amazon SVP Peter DeSantis, Meta Head of Infrastructure Santosh Janardhan and OpenAI VP of Compute Strategy & GPT-Infra Sachin Katti.
Hilborn and Gee’s fireside chat, “The Conditions of Creation: Building AI Data Centers That Regenerate the Places They Power,” took place on the AI Data Center Track and brought a larger question into the conversation:
What are the conditions in which artificial intelligence is being formed?
From AI Infrastructure to Regenerative Infrastructure
The Summit’s speaker roster included senior executives and technical leaders from NVIDIA, Google, Amazon, Intel, Meta, OpenAI, Oracle, AMD, Qualcomm and Dell, among others, including Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, NVIDIA VP Ian Buck, Google Fellow Dave Patterson, Amazon SVP Peter DeSantis, Meta Head of Infrastructure Santosh Janardhan and OpenAI VP of Compute Strategy & GPT-Infra Sachin Katti.
As global demand for AI compute accelerates, much of the industry is focused on GPUs, megawatts and speed-to-power.
RIH is focused on what sits underneath them: energy, land, water, capital, governance, ecology and the communities that host AI infrastructure.
“The conditions of creation shape what is created,” Hilborn said. “We are at a moment where the world is building an extraordinary amount of infrastructure for artificial intelligence. We have an opportunity to decide what kinds of systems we build underneath it.”
RIH is pioneering a whole-system approach to regenerative AI infrastructure through its Regenerative Intelligence Infrastructure™ model.
Two Layers of Regenerative AI Infrastructure
Regenerative Intelligence Infrastructure™ operates on two levels: the physical technology itself, and the conditions in which intelligence is formed.
The first is the physical infrastructure. RIH’s data centers are designed around circular principles, including renewable energy, advanced cooling, water-efficient design, waste-heat capture and reuse, and noise mitigation.
The second is the system surrounding the intelligence — the energy, capital, governance, ecology, community participation and human conditions in which AI is trained and operated.
RIH’s premise is that both layers matter: the infrastructure should operate more circularly, while the systems around it should strengthen the places and people that make it possible.
The model is organized around four interconnected dimensions — Natural Intelligence, Distributed Prosperity, Sovereign Futures and Human Coherence — connecting renewable energy and ecology with local economic participation, governance and human-centered design.
A central mechanism is the Community Trust, designed to circulate a portion of infrastructure-generated value back into the communities connected to each project.
The objective: build AI infrastructure that leaves a place more capable than it was before.
A Concept That Predates the Current AI Boom
The roots of the model stretch back well before the current AI infrastructure surge.
Hilborn first conceived the underlying idea in Nepal in 2019. At the time, the digital infrastructure component was envisioned as a renewable hydro-powered Bitcoin mining operation — using energy-intensive compute as an economic engine for community development.
In 2022, she further developed those principles through a Regenerative AI Data Center project in British Columbia, Canada that remains in development today.
That work ultimately evolved into the whole-system architecture now being advanced through Regenerative Infrastructure Holdings. The technology evolved from Bitcoin mining to AI compute. The underlying thesis remained: digital infrastructure should strengthen the systems around it and return value to the places that make it possible.
Nepal: A 100 MW Regenerative AI Data Center Campus
RIH is now bringing the model back to Nepal, where the original concept began.
The company is advancing a planned 100 MW regenerative AI data center campus built around Nepal’s renewable hydropower resources, local infrastructure partnerships, AI training capacity and Community Trust governance.
Hilborn brings an established execution track record in Nepal, including the completion of three critical-infrastructure projects and both her and Gee bring 20 years each of work across community development, energy and finance. Following the 2015 earthquakes, she watched significant outside resources enter communities in need and eventually flow back out — an experience that helped shape a central question behind the RIH model:
What if the economic engine itself were designed so value continually returned to the place that produced it?
Expanding the Model Internationally
RIH is designing Regenerative Intelligence Infrastructure™ as a repeatable framework that can adapt across markets and energy systems.
In addition to projects in Nepal and British Columbia Canada, the company is in discussions around potential developments in several African countries and multiple U.S. states. The core principle remains consistent: infrastructure should create value not only for investors and operators, but also for the places that host it.
The Chain of Inheritance
At the center of Hilborn and Gee’s AI Infra Summit presentation was what they call the Chain of Inheritance.
Natural intelligence emerges from living systems. Human intelligence develops within those conditions. Artificial intelligence is now being formed within systems designed by humans.
Each inherits something from what formed it. “If artificial intelligence is going to inherit the systems we build beneath it,” Hilborn said, “we should be asking what we want those systems to pass forward.”
The conditions of creation shape what is created.
About Regenerative Infrastructure Holdings
Regenerative Infrastructure Holdings, LLC (RIH) develops Regenerative Intelligence Infrastructure™ — regenerative AI data centers, AI training centers and the ecosystems in which they operate. RIH originates, structures and governs infrastructure through joint ventures with local energy, construction and infrastructure partners. Its model integrates renewable energy, circular technology, regenerative design, Community Trust governance, local participation and long-horizon capital structures. RIH is currently advancing projects and development opportunities in Nepal, British Columbia and additional international markets.
