Texas Data Center Intel

Recent Texas data center news

• Jan 14, 2026

  Emerging Data Center Markets: Key Locations to Watch in 2026

  Cushman & Wakefield reports that power and land constraints in major U.S. data center hubs are driving operators to consider secondary and tertiary markets.

  • Main announcement: Cushman & Wakefield finds power and land constraints in primary hubs (Northern Virginia, Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Atlanta, Portland/Eastern Oregon) are shifting site selection toward secondary/tertiary markets; highlights include OpenAI’s Stargate (~$100 billion) and Vantage Frontier (~$25+ billion) as large upcoming projects.
  • Details/background: Regions such as Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Central Washington, New Jersey, and Massachusetts are offering economic incentives, faster approvals, and flexible regulatory frameworks; Central Washington offers low-cost hydro power enabling 100% renewable operation but is also facing power constraints.
• Jan 14, 2026

  Industrial Builder Kicks Off New Year with Strategic Executive Promotions

  Nox Group has announced executive promotions and organizational realignments at its Phoenix headquarters and Southwest operations to support rising demand for mission-critical industrial facilities.

  • Executive promotions and reorganizations announced: Nox Group promoted leaders across its Phoenix HQ and Southwest operations, with leadership changes spanning Nox Group and four operating companies (Corbins, RMCI, Nox Innovations, Construction Labels); specific role moves include Adam Chini to President, Corbins, Brett Lytle to President, RMCI, and multiple COO, EVP and SVP appointments listed in the release.
  • Structure and regional implementation details: The announcement establishes new functions in project delivery, internal operations, scalability, fabrication, accounting, and field support, separates virtual design and virtual construction within Nox Innovations, and advances regional leaders (e.g., Lee Sneddon to SVP of scalability in San Marcos, TX; Lane Moore to lead new operations in Reno, NV).
• Jan 14, 2026

  Vistra to Bolster Gas-Fired Fleet by 5.5 GW With $4B Cogentrix Acquisition

  Vistra Corp. has executed definitive agreements to acquire Cogentrix Energy from funds managed by Quantum Capital Group in a $4 billion transaction announced Jan. 5, 2026, adding 10 natural gas plants (5,496 MW) across PJM, ISO New England, and ERCOT.

  • Main announcement & deal specifics: Vistra will acquire 100% ownership of the Cogentrix portfolio for $4 billion, adding 5,496 MW of modern natural gas capacity (10 plants) and increasing Vistra’s total generation footprint toward ~50 GW; the transaction is subject to FERC, DOJ (HSR), and state regulatory approvals and is expected to close mid-to-late 2026. The deal includes acquiring the remaining 25% interest in the Patriot and Hamilton-Liberty plants and excludes Cogentrix’s Cedar Bayou 4 (550 MW), which Cogentrix will retain.
  • Background, financing, and timing context: The acquisition follows Vistra’s October 2025 purchase of Lotus Infrastructure gas assets for $1.9 billion (2,600 MW) and is supported by capital markets actions including $2.25 billion in senior secured notes (Jan 2026) and a prior $2 billion secured notes issuance (Oct 2025); Vistra expects mid-single-digit accretion in 2027 and high-single-digit average accretion (2027–2029) to Ongoing Operations Adjusted Free Cash Flow before Growth per share. Regulatory reviews (notably FERC Section 203) will examine competitive impacts in PJM and ISO-NE.
• Jan 14, 2026

  The Challenge of Protecting Brain Health Data

  The Child Mind Institute has deployed Dell Pro Max workstations with NVIDIA RTX GPUs to run an on‑prem, multi-pass anonymization pipeline for sensitive brain health data.

  • Main announcement: The team at the Child Mind Institute (DAIR) is running a layered anonymization workflow using Microsoft Presidio and NVIDIA GLiNER on Dell Pro Max workstations with dual NVIDIA RTX professional GPUs to keep data fully local and HIPAA-aligned; this enables iterative anonymization passes (first pass, human review, second pass) while preserving clinical signal.
  • Background & implementation details: The pipeline reduces feedback loops from week-long to day-long cycles via GPU-accelerated inference and batched processing; cloud options (AWS/Google Cloud/Azure) and university shared compute were rejected due to exposure, administrative complexity, and cost. The blog notes an on-ramp to larger deployments such as the Precision 7960 rack or data-center nodes when workloads outgrow a single workstation.
• Jan 14, 2026

  Eolian and CyrusOne team up to deploy Texas data centre at site of 100MW BESS

  CyrusOne and Eolian have announced deployment of a 200MW data centre campus (DFW7) at a pre-existing grid-scale BESS site in Fort Worth, Texas.

  • Main announcement: CyrusOne and Eolian will develop DFW7, a 200MW data centre campus located adjacent to Able Grid’s 100MW Chisholm Grid BESS (operational since 2021). Eolian identified the opportunity in 2023, enabling CyrusOne to break ground in April 2025, and Eolian will modernise and upgrade the existing utility-scale BESS with the existing high-voltage transmission and substation capacity supplying energy for the initial digital infrastructure phases.
  • Background and details: The original Chisholm Grid construction began in 2020 with partners Able Grid, MAP Energy, Astral Electricity, and Mortenson; Sungrow signed a contract in 2021 to supply the integrated battery storage system. The article references a similar co-located project announced in October 2025 (Calibrant Energy supplying a 31MW/62MWh BESS to Aligned Data Centres) and notes an on-site system planned to be operational sometime this year.
• Jan 14, 2026

  Power, Not Space: The Colocation Battleground in 2026

  GridFree AI launched its South Dallas One site in December 2025, targeting to deliver more than 1.5 GW within 24 months from lease signing by operating off-grid.

  • Main announcement/action: GridFree AI’s South Dallas One will operate off-grid and aims to deliver >1.5 GW within 24 months from lease signing, outpacing the typical four-year timeline for traditional developments; this demonstrates a push toward power-advantaged site selection and accelerated delivery timelines.
  • Context and additional details: The article frames this within a broader industry shift: global colocation market forecast from $104.2 billion (2025) to $204.4 billion (2030); primary market vacancy fell to 1.6% H1 2025; ~3/4 of 5,242 MW under development in North America are pre-leased; pricing reached $184 per kW per month for 250–500 kW deployments; notable capital commitments include Anthropic’s $50 billion buildout (including a $7 billion, 15-year lease for 245 MW) and Nscale’s $865 million agreement for 40 MW. Supply-chain and memory/storage shortages are expected to persist into Q3 2026.
• Jan 14, 2026

  Texas Gets Tough on Data Center Power – Who’s Next?

  Texas enacted Senate Bill 6 (SB6), effective immediately in the ERCOT region, shifting interconnection costs and reliability obligations onto large-load customers including data centers.

  • Main action: SB6 requires large-load customers (generally 75 MW or more) to pay greater shares of transmission/interconnection costs, including a minimum $100,000 flat initial transmission screening study fee, must provide proof of site control and financial commitment, disclose on-site backup generation capable of at least 50% of demand, and mandates remote-disconnect capabilities for non-critical large loads interconnecting on or after December 31, 2025. The law is effective immediately in ERCOT with several implementation details to be defined.
  • Background/details: The bill directs PUCT and ERCOT to adopt uniform demand-response and reliability standards and enables emergency curtailment authority; certain designated critical loads have exemptions; rulemaking and detail development are expected through 2026 (comments and clarifications from Dell’Oro Group, JLL, and Omdia are cited).
• Jan 14, 2026

  Enchanted Rock Appoints Regis Malloy Senior Vice President of Data Centers to Support Hyperscale and AI-Driven Growth

  Enchanted Rock has announced that Regis Malloy has joined the company as Senior Vice President of Data Centers, leading its data center practice (announcement dated January 14, 2026).

  • Main announcement:Regis Malloy named Senior Vice President of Data Centers at Enchanted Rock (announced January 14, 2026). He will lead the company’s data center practice and expand engagement with hyperscale, neocloud, enterprise, edge, and public sector operators, focusing on accelerating time-to-market and unlocking constrained power using grid-tied onsite generation.
  • Background and implementation details: Malloy previously held senior roles at CoreSite, Sabey, Element Critical, and Flexnode; Enchanted Rock’s offering provides primary onsite generation, dispatchable capacity, and resilient backup power in one platform, backed by integrated operations and maintenance (24/7 monitoring, predictive maintenance) and a staffed Microgrid Control Center to support grid reliability and offer a lower-emission alternative to diesel generation.
• Jan 13, 2026

  Dallas’ CyrusOne Partners With Eolian on Data Center Campus in Fort Worth

  Dallas-based CyrusOne announced a partnership with Burlingame, California-based Eolian L.P. to co-locate large-scale data center capacity at the DFW7 campus adjacent to Eolian’s Chisholm Grid 100MW BESS in Fort Worth.

  • Partnership & deployment: CyrusOne will develop the DFW7 data center campus co-located at Eolian’s Chisholm Grid site (100MW BESS). Timeline: CyrusOne broke ground last April and expects to deliver capacity beginning in 2026. Infrastructure: The partners will leverage existing high-voltage transmission and adjacent substation capacity to accelerate time-to-market.
  • Eolian role & background: Eolian will modernize and upgrade one of Texas’ first utility-scale BESS systems; Chisholm Grid began commercial operations in the ERCOT market in 2021. Objectives: The campus is intended to support AI-driven compute growth, data center deployment, and long-term grid reliability while avoiding duplicative transmission or industrial real estate.
• Jan 13, 2026

  Six Stony Brook University Faculty Mentor Regeneron STS Scholars

  Stony Brook University announced that ten high school students mentored by six Stony Brook faculty were named among the top 300 semifinalists in the 2026 Regeneron Science Talent Search (Regeneron STS).

  • Main announcement: Ten Simons Summer Research Program fellows, mentored by six Stony Brook faculty, were named among the top 300 Regeneron STS semifinalists; each semifinalist and their high school will receive $2,000. The article lists faculty mentors (Benjamin Hsiao, Mohammad Javad Amiri, Yuefan Deng, Zhenhua Liu, Howard Sirotkin, Nengkun Yu) and student projects such as stormwater remediation of 6PPD, AI-enabled drug discovery for oncogenic eIF4E, and Carbon-Aware Reserve Allocation and Checkpoint Scheduling for GPU Sustainability.
  • Background and details: The semifinalists were selected from >2,600 applicants representing 46 states, Washington, D.C., Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and 16 countries; 40 finalists will be announced on January 21 to compete for over $3.1 million in awards during a week-long event in Washington, D.C., March 5–11. The piece references the Society for Science administration of Regeneron STS and notes that since 1997 about 600 semifinalists have been mentored by Stony Brook faculty.