Texas is building “Data City,” a massive 50,000-acre server complex near Laredo powered entirely by green energy. The facility will operate independently from Texas’s strained power grid, using natural gas initially before shifting to hydrogen. With 5-gigawatt capacity supporting 15+ million square feet of servers, it’s designed for AI development while consuming ten times more energy per square meter than homes. The ambitious project might just put Texas at the forefront of the tech revolution—if it delivers.
Texas is building a monster. A 5-gigawatt beast that will devour natural gas, sunlight, and wind—then spit out enough computing power to maybe, just maybe, birth artificial general intelligence. This isn’t your average tech project. It’s Data City: 50,000 acres of server farms near Laredo that’ll be completely disconnected from Texas’s notoriously finicky power grid.
Let’s get real about the scale. We’re talking 15+ million square feet of space dedicated to humming machines. The first chunk—a mere 300 megawatts powering a million square feet—launches in 2026. Child’s play compared to the final vision.
The genius part? It’s 100% green energy, 24/7. No asterisks, no fine print. They’re starting with Texas natural gas (because, of course) but evolving to hydrogen over time. The adjacent Hydrogen City facility isn’t just for show—it’s a 2-terawatt-hour storage solution buried in salt domes. Pretty clever.
Texas already has an energy problem. Data centers gulp down 8.8% of the state’s power, and ERCOT is scrambling to double capacity by 2030. Half that growth? Data centers and crypto mines. Lawmakers are understandably nervous, floating ideas like emergency “kill switches” during grid emergencies.
But Data City sidesteps all that drama. By going behind-the-meter and fully islanded, they’re saying “thanks but no thanks” to grid dependence. This development is critical considering data centers use ten times more energy per square meter than typical American homes.
For tech giants desperate for massive power allocations, this is manna from heaven. Their AI dreams need juice—lots of it—and this project delivers with liquid cooling systems supporting the latest NVIDIA chips. The facility will provide essential infrastructure for Austin’s explosion in demand for AI and machine learning expertise.
The project’s reliance on wind energy follows global trends as it’s become the second-largest renewable electricity source worldwide after hydropower.
The bigger picture? America wants to win the AI race. This is infrastructure on steroids, designed to put the U.S. ahead. Three hundred gigawatts of global data center demand by 2030 isn’t a typo. It’s reality.
And Texas, with its cheap electricity and business-friendly attitude, is betting big it can lead the revolution.
