Texas Data Center Intel

Recent Texas data center news

• Dec 23, 2025

  Cipher Mining Announces Acquisition of 200 MW Site in Ohio

  Cipher Mining Inc. has announced the acquisition of a 200 MW data center site in Ohio, named “Ulysses,” including land, power capacity, and interconnection approvals for high-performance computing (HPC) and bitcoin mining.

  • Site acquisition covers 195 acres in Ohio, 200 MW of secured capacity from AEP Ohio, all required utility and interconnection agreements for participation in the PJM wholesale electricity market, with energization targeted for Q4 2027 and suitability for HPC hosting due to diverse fiber paths and proximity to a major metropolitan area.
  • Ulysses is Cipher’s first site outside Texas, increasing its development pipeline to 3.4 GW across 8 sites, and supports the company’s strategy to expand and diversify its industrial-scale data center footprint for bitcoin mining and HPC hosting nationwide; the release also provides standard forward-looking statements disclaimers and directs investors to SEC filings and Cipher’s investor website for further information.
• Dec 23, 2025

  Google Parent $3.7 Trillion Alphabet with Minority Stake to Buyout United States $15 Billion Data Center Intersect at $4.75 Billion Valuation (Cash + Assume All Debt) Excluding Operating Assets in Texas and Operating & in-Development Assets in California (Supported by Existing Investors TPG Rise Climate, Climate Adaptive Infrastructure & Greenbelt Capital Partners), Intersect Founded in 2016 by Sheldon Kimber

  Alphabet has announced a minority-stake buyout of U.S. data center owner Intersect.

  • Main announcement:Alphabet (parent of Google) will acquire a minority stake in Intersect at a $4.75 billion valuation (Cash + assume all debt); the deal excludes Intersect’s operating assets in Texas and operating & in-development assets in California.
  • Background and details:Intersect was founded in 2016 by Sheldon Kimber and states it has $15 billion of assets in operation or under construction across the U.S.; the transaction is supported by existing investors TPG Rise Climate, Climate Adaptive Infrastructure, and Greenbelt Capital Partners.
• Dec 23, 2025

  Google agrees to acquire infrastructure builder Intersect to accelerate capacity development

  Alphabet announced it will acquire Intersect for $4.75 billion to accelerate data center and energy project capacity and development, with the deal expected to close in the first half of 2026.

  • Deal and scope: Alphabet/Google to acquire Intersect for $4.75 billion, expected close H1 2026; Google will absorb Intersect’s team and “multiple gigawatts” of energy and data projects already in development (including a co-located data center and power site under construction in Texas), while some existing Intersect Texas assets and California projects will remain independent and are not included in the transaction. The companies will jointly continue work on the included projects and build out new ones.
  • Background and related initiatives: Google is pursuing diverse energy pathways — 115MW of geothermal with NV Energy to Nevada’s grid, work with Energy Dome on CO2 battery long-duration storage, and support for carbon capture at Broadwing Energy (Broadwing to capture ~90% of its CO2 emissions and Google committed to buying most of that power). Analysts (Info-Tech Research Group, Greyhound Research) frame the move as a response to upstream constraints (interconnection queues, substation upgrades, permitting) and advise tying energy strategy to capacity planning and extending energy contracting timelines.
• Dec 22, 2025

  Data center energy needs: A looming challenge for US power grid

  The Conversation’s Theodore J. Kury outlines how U.S. states are experimenting with regulatory and contractual approaches to allocate the cost of new electricity infrastructure needed for rapidly built data centers.

  • Main announcement/action: States and utilities are adopting varied rules to manage demand uncertainty from data centers, including Kentucky conditionally approving two natural gas-fired generators for Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities, Ohio AEP’s use of a “demand ratchet” (current month or 85% of highest monthly demand over prior 11 months) and a 50% credit guarantee requirement, and Florida approving contracts that may require data centers to pay 70% of agreed demand. Key timelines: data centers: 9–12 months to build; new power plants or large generation projects: ~2.5–3 years, and utilities may need to start generation or storage 1–2 years before data center construction.
  • Background and other details: Regulators review utility spending to decide which costs can be passed to ratepayers, creating three possible payers: utilities, data center customers, and other system customers. The article notes contractual risk (e.g., subsidiaries like “Westside Data Center LLC” that could default), and mechanisms to return revenue (e.g., Missouri returning 65% of extra revenue to other customers) and to monetize data center flexibility to offset shared investment risk.
• Dec 22, 2025

  Powering the Future: Renewables, Resilience, and the New Data Centre Playbook

  The iMasons Innovation Committee hosted a panel with Enchanted Rock, RE24, and Southwire on how shifting power delivery models are changing modern digital infrastructure and data center operations, particularly under Texas’s new SB 6 framework.

  • Panelists from Enchanted Rock, RE24, and Southwire discussed limitations of diesel backup, lessons from Winter Storm Uri, and how onsite, more reliable and sustainable power alternatives can support long-duration events, overcome fuel logistics, and meet hyperscaler resilience expectations.
  • Texas Senate Bill 6 (effective 2025) establishes a regulatory framework for loads over 75 MW, directing the Public Utility Commission of Texas to manage large-load interconnections and grid impact, effectively telling large customers they must bring their own power as ERCOT faces projected >65% peak demand growth by 2031 driven by hyperscalers, semiconductor fabs, and crypto loads.
• Dec 22, 2025

  Alphabet Buying Clean Energy Developer to Support Data Centers

  Alphabet has announced it will acquire Intersect for $4.75 billion in cash, plus the assumption of debt.

  • Main announcement: Alphabet will acquire Intersect for $4.75 billion in cash, plus assumption of debt, acquiring Intersect’s team and multiple gigawatts of energy and data center projects in development or under construction (including a co-located data center and power site under construction in Haskell County, Texas). The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is anticipated to close in the first half of 2026.
  • Background and details: Intersect’s existing operating assets in Texas and its operating and in-development assets in California are excluded from the acquisition and will continue as an independent company supported by TPG Rise Climate, Climate Adaptive Infrastructure, and Greenbelt Capital Partners. Intersect will remain a separate brand led by Sheldon Kimber, partner closely with Google’s technical infrastructure team, and Alphabet plans to advance commercialization of advanced geothermal, long duration energy storage, and natural gas with carbon capture, while deploying AI to accelerate grid connection of new power plants.
• Dec 22, 2025

  Vantage Breaks Ground on $15B Stargate Campus in Wisconsin

  Vantage Data Centers has broken ground on the Lighthouse data center campus in Port Washington, Wisconsin.

  • Project details: Lighthouse is a four-data-center campus on 674 acres delivering 902 MW of IT capacity; the project is described as driven by a $15 billion investment and the $8 billion first phase is being built by Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, The Weitz Company, Michels Corporation, and a Turner–McCarthy joint venture, with expected completion by 2028.
  • Program context and partners: Lighthouse is part of Oracle and OpenAI’s Stargate initiative (a broader consortium including SoftBank, MGX, Arm, Microsoft, and Nvidia); Stargate is an ambitious $500 billion program aiming to deliver 10 GW of capacity over the next four years, with confirmed U.S. sites (Abilene TX; Shackelford County TX; Milam County TX; Doña Ana County NM; Lordstown OH) and international plans (Norway, UAE, UK, Argentina).
• Dec 22, 2025 · RMI

  Reality Check: How to Grow the Grid, but Not Electricity Costs

  RMI’s Mark Dyson outlines three New Year’s resolutions for US utilities and policymakers to expand the power grid while keeping electricity affordable.

  • Resolution 1 urges embracing new technologies such as gas turbines, wind, solar, batteries, advanced geothermal, and potentially fusion, alongside energy efficiency as a major, low-cost resource, drawing on US leadership in geothermal and international examples from Germany, Australia, and China for further cost reductions in clean energy.
  • Resolution 2 and 3 call for faster project build-out by cutting interconnection and permitting delays (with examples from Texas and Virginia) and for better use of existing grid assets via virtual power plants, coordinated flexible demand (e.g., 100,000+ home batteries in California), and grid-enhancing technologies like sensors and controls demonstrated in New York, combined with modern regulatory incentives and policy toolkits to align utilities with affordability outcomes.
• Dec 22, 2025

  Analyzer delivers real-time insights for US power grid

  Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee have developed a Universal GridEdge Analyzer that provides real-time, high-resolution insight into electric grid behavior and has won an R&D 100 Award.

  • Device capabilities and deployment: The compact analyzer measures 60,000 samples/second of voltage and current waveforms, then compresses, encrypts, and streams the data to centralized servers; it can be embedded in power electronics, installed on distribution lines, or plugged into wall outlets, and is already being used by utilities in Hawaii and Texas to monitor fast grid dynamics and power electronics behavior.
  • Context and applications: Building on UT’s FNET/GridEye network of ~200 U.S. sensors and ~100 worldwide, the new analyzer captures high-speed incidents that older systems miss and is specifically used to understand how data centers and distributed energy plants with batteries interact with the grid, including voltage fluctuations at AI data centers that can trigger rapid switches to backup power.
• Dec 22, 2025

  Top 5 Data Center Industry Trends and Predictions for 2026

  Melissa Reali (Data Center Frontier) assesses top data center, AI and digital infrastructure trends for 2025 and issues predictions for what will determine winners in 2026.

  • Main assessment: The piece argues that data centers must secure power independence, policy alignment, connectivity, supply certainty, and sophisticated capital stacks to deliver AI-scale capacity. It highlights concrete metrics and commitments including ~30% of sites using onsite power by 2030 (Bloom Energy citation), >650 billion dollars in announced AI/data center capex across ~150 projects, and ~170 billion dollars of PE-owned assets in development or repositioning. It also notes state-level incentives (e.g., Texas committing over a billion dollars in data center subsidies in a single year) and that 15 U.S. states tie incentives to job or environmental metrics.
  • Background and details: The article documents measurable supply-chain and grid constraints—multi-year transformer and switchgear lead times, lengthening interconnection queues, and modular on-site generation deployments (gas turbines, fuel cells, batteries) as transitional solutions. It describes policy shifts: federal directives to streamline permitting and extend financial tools, encouragement to reuse federal lands/brownfields, and the rise of sovereign AI zones in countries including the UK, India, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia.