Key Takeaways
Silicon Hills, the nickname for Austin’s growing tech cluster, is getting a massive 2-gigawatt data center park.
Data center acquirer Tract purchased a 1,515-acre property in Uhland, just south of Austin along Highways 230, 235, and 270, an area where many of the city’s startups and tech companies reside.
To put it in perspective, 2GW is equivalent to powering approximately 1.5 million homes. The facility expects initial utility delivery of 360MW in the first half of 2028.
Uhland’s mayor, Lacee Duke, expressed excitement about welcoming Tract to the region.
“We worked hard to ensure that Tract’s development will bring jobs and investment that will benefit all Uhland residents,” said Duke.
This location is strategic as Caldwell County welcomes “a wave of new residents and businesses,” explained County Judge Hoppy Haden.
“Tract’s willingness to invest alongside the County and State into an expansion of FM2720, a key new transportation project, shows they are invested in the future of Caldwell County,” Haden said.
The FM 2720 project aims to upgrade 7.2 miles of road in Caldwell and Hays counties by widening sections to four lanes, adding turn lanes, and improving intersections.
The Bigger Picture
All these details are part of Texas’s larger plan to turn the Lone Star State into a national tech and infrastructure hub, which Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been pushing toward for years.
“Texas is where the future of innovation is building, including in advanced technologies,” said Abbott.
He added that the new data center development will bring jobs, bolster the power grid, and enhance the IT infrastructure.
“We look forward to working with corporate partners like Tract to further expand Texas’s economic might and develop our state as the epicenter of technological advancement,” said Abbott.
In 2023, Abbott signed the Texas CHIPS Act, which created the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund (TSIF).
The state legislature allocated nearly $700 million to support semiconductor research, design, and manufacturing.
It’s just one more data center plan in the cards for Texas: It all comes at the same time as Nvidia-backed Lambda takes a lease in Plano, about 215 miles north of Austin.
Lambda Inc., a cloud computing company backed by Nvidia, plans to occupy a $700 million data center that is being built in Plano.
Lambda’s Robert Brooks said Plano is a prime location because it’s “a growing center for AI and tech development, with strong infrastructure and access to key talent.”
About 550 miles south, Texas is also set to welcome more wind-powered data centers with the launch of Project Hedy, a 120MW facility shared with and powered by a 200MW wind farm in Cameron County.
Project Hedy will bring the company’s total planned data center capacity to more than 598MW, which, in perspective, can power about 450,000 homes.
In March, a Houston-based company announced plans to construct a 50,000-acre data center hub near Laredo, which is about 220 miles south of Austin. It will be called “Data City, Texas.”
Investors say Data City will be a behind-the-meter data center hub powered by green energy using hydrogen and salt cavern storage to deliver round-the-clock, 100% renewable power.
These projects are all set to start soon, so data center investors and operators should keep an eye on Texas in the coming years.
