Texas Data Center Intel

Recent Texas data center news

• Feb 24, 2026

  These data center developers asked Trump for an exemption from pollution rules

  Novva and Thunderhead Energy Solutions requested presidential Clean Air Act exemptions from the EPA under the Trump administration to allow increased generator use at data centers.

  • Main announcement: Novva sought a two-year exemption to run 96 diesel generators without limits while finishing a 200 MW natural gas plant (the plant was earlier described as taking until 2027 to be built, though the article also says the gas plant is “expected to be operational in the coming months”). Thunderhead requested exemptions for 11 data centers consuming a combined 23 GW across Texas, Montana, and Illinois and proposed (in filings) a 5,000-MW gas plant in Winkler County, while publicly announcing a 250-MW plant in Ector County.
  • Background and process details: Companies submitted requests to a special EPA presidential-exemption inbox created under the Trump administration, arguing two required criteria: technology to comply is not available and operations are in the national security interest. An Environmental Defense Fund analysis of obtained records found that of more than 500 exemption requests it reviewed, roughly a third were granted; the EPA said it “played no role” and directed questions to the White House.
• Feb 23, 2026

  Logix Ramps Up Fiber Networks as Texas Data Centers Boom

  Logix Fiber Networks has announced plans to build new high-capacity fiber routes in Texas connecting South Dallas (Wilmer, Red Oak, Lancaster, Midlothian) and the Austin-to-Bastrop County corridor to Dallas-Fort Worth carrier hubs; the company did not disclose the size of the investment.

  • Main action: Logix will build new high-capacity fiber routes in two corridors — South Dallas (serving Wilmer, Red Oak, Lancaster, Midlothian) and the Austin-to-Bastrop County corridor — to connect growth zones to primary carrier hubs in downtown Dallas and Fort Worth; the company operates more than 300,000 fiber miles, serves over 3,000 on-net buildings, and connects to more than 80 third-party data centers. Logix also deploys 400G wavelength services on an 800G backbone statewide. The company did not disclose investment size.
  • Background & context: The announcement cites AI- and cloud-driven growth in both regions: Dallas-Fort Worth counted 190 data centers as of late 2025, with projects including Stack Infrastructure’s 220 MW campus (Lancaster, >100 acres), Google’s $600 million commitments across Red Oak and Midlothian, and QTS Realty Trust’s $650 million planned construction near Wilmer/Lancaster; CBRE projected the DFW market would double to 425.1 MW of colocation activity, and Central Texas saw 463.5 MW of construction in 2023-2024 (Mordor Intelligence valued Austin at 1.54 GW in 2025).
• Feb 23, 2026

  JLL: Hyperscale and AI Demand Push North American Data Centers Toward Industrial Scale

  JLL has published the North America Data Center Report Year-End 2025 outlining a shift from cyclical real estate behavior to industrial-scale, infrastructure-like growth in digital infrastructure.

  • Key announcement: JLL’s report finds North America at 39 GW installed capacity (19 GW leased colocation, 20 GW hyperscaler-owned) and 35 GW under construction, with vacancy at 1% and 92% of construction pre-leased; JLL also reports 64% of new builds are in frontier markets and highlights potential for Texas (unified) to surpass Northern Virginia by 2030.
  • Background/details: JLL expanded methodology to include owner-occupied hyperscale capacity and 40+ additional markets, resetting baseline; it documents capital market activity including debt origination rising from $27B (2020) to $92B (2025), a $40B consortium acquisition of Aligned Data Centers (expected 2026 close), a $30B Blue Owl–Meta JV, and $17B of asset-backed securities issuance in 2025; it flags multi-year grid interconnection timelines (avg ~4 years), interim use of mobile natural gas turbines, and rising BESS deployments.
• Feb 23, 2026

  Braemont Capital Invests in Vero

  Braemont Capital announced an investment in VFN Holdings, Inc. (Vero Networks) in partnership with Hamilton Lane and Delta-v Capital.

  • Transaction details: The investment will accelerate Vero’s expansion of FTTP and wholesale fiber networks and support continued strategic M&A across U.S. markets; Brent Burnett and Peter Udbye (Hamilton Lane) and Wali Bacdayan (Braemont) will join Vero’s Board as value-add partners, while Rand Lewis (Delta-v) will remain on the Board.
  • Background and advisors: Vero is founded in 2017 and based in Boulder, Colorado, serving customers including education, government, hyperscale and data centers; legal and advisory firms on the deal include Hogan Lovells, Cruz-Abrams Seigel, Morgan Lewis, DLA Piper LLP, TVG Consulting LLC, BSP Technical Advisors, Bank Street Group, and Kirkland & Ellis. Hamilton Lane reports $1.0 trillion in assets under management and supervision (with $146.1 billion discretionary and $871.5 billion non-discretionary as of Dec 31, 2025) and Delta-v Capital manages over $1.3B in assets.
• Feb 23, 2026 · Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

  Internal Value Chains Remain Dependent on China Even as Multinationals Shift Production to America

  The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) report argues that although advanced manufacturers from East Asia are expanding investment into the United States, many of their internal value chains remain anchored in China, creating strategic vulnerabilities; it recommends U.S. policymakers pursue both defensive monitoring and offensive financial incentives to reduce PRC leverage.

  • Main findings and concrete examples: The report finds many firms follow China-Plus-One/China-Plus-Many patterns—adding U.S. production without relocating high‑value inputs and IP from China. Case studies include Inventec (phase-one U.S. retrofit; board‑approved $85M expansion; phase-two $50M estimated, completion projected June 2026; Texas plant to ship B300 servers by Q1 2026), LS C&S / LS GreenLink (750,000 sq ft subsea cable factory in Chesapeake estimated at $681 million, broken ground April 2025; a proposed additional Chesapeake factory ~$689 million under feasibility review), and Resonac (consortia- and R&D-focused U.S. engagement while maintaining China‑filed patents and production presence). The report also highlights Fortune Electric (Project Stargate contract ~$63 million) as a target firm for U.S. outreach.
  • Policy recommendations and timelines: ITIF recommends incorporating China‑dependency monitoring into Commerce/ITA work (create a NIST-backed Strategic Dependency Index), tie industrial incentives (CHIPS/IRA/states) to reduced PRC supply‑chain dependency or to matching upstream China capabilities, expand supply‑chain stress testing via the NSC and agencies, and evaluate targeted financial interventions (time-limited subsidies or contingent equity) to induce relocation of critical upstream capabilities. Implementation steps and program adjustments are described as near‑term priorities (analytical and reporting changes immediately; project funding and conditional incentives phased through typical federal/state grant and procurement cycles).
• Feb 20, 2026

  Renewal Fuels Moves to Become American Fusion, Names 3 to Kepler C‑Suite

  Southlake-based Renewal Fuels Inc. has announced it is changing its legal name to American Fusion Inc. and has appointed three senior leaders to Kepler Fusion Technologies after Kepler became its wholly owned subsidiary following a December 2025 merger.

  • Main announcement: Renewal Fuels filed to change its legal name to American Fusion Inc. in January 2026, confirmed that Kepler Fusion Technologies (Midland, TX) is now a wholly owned subsidiary after the December 2025 merger, and appointed John E. Brandenburg, Ph.D. (CTO), Dwight Cartwright (COO), and Travis Yakimishyn (Chief Electrical & Power Systems Officer); the company plans a power-as-a-service model with long-term PPAs starting at 6.25 cents per kilowatt-hour and targets industrial sites and data centers for Texatron deployment.
  • Background and next steps: Kepler is developing the Texatron aneutronic fusion platform (development stage) and reported more than 238 patents in the pipeline; the company is interviewing candidates for independent board positions and completing steps for a listing on a major exchange (noting the Texas Stock Exchange as a potential fit).
• Feb 19, 2026

  From Lab to Gigawatt: CoreWeave’s ARENA and the AI Validation Imperative

  CoreWeave has announced CoreWeave ARENA, a production-scale AI lab that lets customers validate, benchmark, and optimize real AI workloads on infrastructure that mirrors live deployments.

  • What was announced:CoreWeave ARENA, a production-scale validation platform that runs full workloads on production-grade GPU clusters (including support for NVIDIA’s GB300 NVL72), integrates Mission Control observability, standardized storage/network paths (including Local Object Transport Accelerator), and tooling such as Weights & Biases; CoreWeave positions ARENA as guided, engineering-backed validation rather than a self-serve sandbox.
  • Context and related actions/details:NVIDIA and CoreWeave expanded collaboration to accelerate building >5 gigawatts of AI factories by 2030 supported by a $2 billion NVIDIA investment; Vertiv reported Q4 2025 net sales of $2.88 billion, backlog ~$15 billion, provided 2026 guidance (net sales $13.25–$13.75 billion), and completed the ~$1.0 billion acquisition of PurgeRite; Vertiv also announced product capacities (e.g., MegaMod HDX up to 10 MW, EnergyCore Grid modular BESS from 1 MW to 200+ MW) and a CoolPhase Ceiling launch Q2 2026.
• Feb 19, 2026

  Accelerating Science with Digital Twins

  Berkeley Lab is advancing and deploying AI-powered digital twins across multiple scientific instruments and domains.

  • Main announcement / action: Berkeley Lab is developing and installing AI-driven digital twins for particle accelerators, tsunami forecasting, chemistry and materials discovery, building energy systems, fusion plasma, and biological bioreactor scale-up—leveraging DOE facilities such as NERSC (Perlmutter), ESnet networking, and DOE programs including LDRD and the Genesis initiatives; projects include the StFT AI model, the BELLA beamline digital twin, DTCS for chemistry, and a biological twin for lipid production for jet fuel.
  • Background and implementation details: Funding and support come from DOE offices and programs (LDRD, DOE Office of Electricity, Advanced Fuels and Feedstocks Office, Genesis/AmSC); work uses high-performance computing (Perlmutter, Polaris) and low-jitter ESnet circuits (OSCARS) to enable real-time data flows; the tsunami digital twin used NERSC and won the 2025 ACM Gordon Bell Prize, and accelerator efforts plan to standardize APIs and deploy across facilities under the Genesis Mission framework.
• Feb 19, 2026

  Enhanced geothermal systems could expand geothermal power generation

  Fervo Energy is constructing the first large-scale commercial enhanced geothermal system (EGS) power generator in the United States (Cape Generating Station), planned to come online in June 2026.

  • Main announcement:Fervo Energy’s Cape Generating Station is under construction with a planned maximum capacity of 53 MW (28 MW net summer capacity) and is scheduled online June 2026; two additional 53 MW units at the same location are expected to begin operation January 2027, and Fervo has signed two PPAs totaling 320 MW with Southern California Edison for further expansion in 2028.
  • Background and other details: Ongoing federal and commercial efforts include DOE-sponsored FORGE research, Department of Defense partnerships with six geothermal developers to power bases in California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas, a Rodatherm Energy Corp. closed-loop pilot expected by January 2028, and a Meta–SAGE agreement to supply up to 150 MW of new geothermal power east of the Rocky Mountains.
• Feb 19, 2026 · Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

  The Grid Act Is the Wrong Way to Protect Consumers from Price Spikes

  Senators Hawley (R-MO) and Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced the Guaranteeing Rate Insulation from Data Centers Act (GRID Act), proposing strict obligations and penalties for large data centers to prevent alleged increases in residential electricity rates.

  • Main action: The GRID Act would require data centers with demand of 20 megawatts or more to either fully supply their own electricity (on-site generation/microgrids) or pay “rate effect credits” equal to any measured increase in local residential rates as determined by an annual DOE study; facilities that fail to comply face civil penalties up to $1 million per day.
  • Background and context: The article is an opinion/analysis piece arguing the bill misattributes market-design failures to hyperscalers; it contrasts the GRID Act with Texas SB 6 (2025), which conditions access for loads above 75 megawatts on automated curtailment, offers faster interconnection priority, and provides capacity-style payments; the piece cites an example where utilities might otherwise wait to build $500M+ in transmission upgrades.