AI Training Campus Construction in Texas

A gigawatt is the figure now attached to AI campuses announced in far west Texas, on the central plains and in the Panhandle, and at that scale the building is almost the smallest part of the project. Training clusters pack accelerators into racks that draw far more power and shed far more heat per square foot than the cloud halls built a few years ago, and the plant that feeds and cools them is measured in acres.

We build for that density by working from power and cooling first. The electrical path from substation to rack, the liquid cooling loop from heat exchanger to cold plate, and the water or dry cooler plant that finally rejects the heat all have to be sized, routed and built before the halls can accept equipment. The structure is designed around those systems: heavier floors, more overhead capacity, wide mechanical galleries and generous clear height.

AI owners also move fast. Hardware product cycles run on a cadence shorter than a construction schedule, so the campus has to be buildable in blocks, adaptable between blocks, and clean enough at turnover that the first racks can power on without rework.

An AI hall is a long, structurally stout room with a robust slab for heavy racks, a ceiling plane that carries cable trays and liquid headers, and a mechanical gallery or yard that holds pumps, heat exchangers and controls. Floor loading is higher than a typical enterprise hall, and the floor is flat enough to roll full racks to position. Penetrations for pipes and conduits are planned in the slab pour instead of cored afterward.

Our AI high-density data hall work covers the shell, the slab and the room envelope, and our liquid cooling infrastructure coordination ties the owner's cooling design to the structure so headers, drains and leak detection land where the building can support them.

Public reporting describes large AI projects across Texas, and we treat them as market context, not as our work. A secondary source describes an AI campus in Abilene operating at 1.2 GW with more than 6,400 workers on site; that figure should be confirmed with the operators. A separate report describes an El Paso campus expected to reach 1 gigawatt with an online date in 2028. The Fermi America website describes a private power and AI campus on about 8,400 acres in the Panhandle at 17 GW, with about 6 GW described as permitted.

These numbers show a pattern: very large, very remote sites with their own power strategies. Our Abilene and Amarillo pages describe the ground, wind and road conditions in those regions from a builder's viewpoint.

Heat rejection is the quiet question at every AI campus. Closed-loop liquid systems reduce on-site water use but require large dry cooler fields and strong electrical service for fans; evaporative systems use water but shrink the cooler footprint. Texas voters approved Proposition 4 in November 2025, authorizing up to $1 billion a year starting in 2027 for water supply projects, which signals how seriously the state treats water, and owners should expect scrutiny of cooling water.

We carry cooling water supply and reuse lines in the estimate when the owner chooses evaporative or hybrid cooling, and we coordinate the central utility plant with the halls so pipes, power and controls share rights of way.

On an AI campus the building shell is a minority of cost. Switchgear, transformers, generators or battery systems, cooling plant and distribution account for most of it, and price moves with the market for that equipment. We therefore show owners the shell, the site and the plant separately and track equipment escalation as a distinct line.

Other drivers include earthwork on a thousand-acre site, haul roads for oversized deliveries, and temporary power for construction itself. Large pours, rebar and structural steel quantities scale with the number of halls, so repetition is the single biggest lever on unit cost.

ERCOT interconnection requests reportedly total about 474 GW, roughly 90 percent of them data centers, and ERCOT stated it will not complete its Batch Zero study by April 9, 2027. For an AI owner, that means the first block of power may arrive on a date the contractor cannot control. We plan temporary generation for commissioning, hold shell completion near the energization date and keep the later blocks flexible.

Because the grid and the hardware both set pace, we build in decision gates. At each gate the owner can accelerate the next hall, hold it, or add battery storage as a bridge; our battery energy storage yard page explains that last option.

Many AI campuses are built by or for cloud operators and GPU providers who also run conventional halls. Our hyperscale data center page covers the broader campus structure, and our page for AI and GPU cloud operators covers how we engage with owners who move on short cycles and rely on one accountable builder.

AI halls involve heavy equipment set in tight sequences: racks on skates, heat exchangers on rigging frames, pumps and tanks with fluid inventories. We plan every pick with a rigging engineer, keep travel routes clear and protect finished floors under hardboard.

Fluid systems add flushing, pressure testing and leak detection to the closeout, and each loop is cleaned and tested before it is connected to cold plates. Dust control is strict, because particulate in a closed loop or on a board costs more than any schedule saving. Workers on large campuses also need heat and wind protection, which we build into the daily plan.

Give us the target load, cooling approach and site. We will return a phased plan with plant, halls and a schedule tied to energization.

How is an AI hall different from a cloud hall?

Density. Racks draw more power and reject more heat per square foot, so the floor, the roof structure and the mechanical space are larger, and liquid cooling is part of the building design. The shell looks similar from the outside, but the structure and plant inside are heavier.

Do AI campuses use more water?

It depends on the cooling design. Evaporative systems use water, dry coolers use electricity and land. Owners are weighing both, and water supply is a live state issue. We design for the owner's chosen approach and keep the option to change in later blocks.

How remote can an AI site be?

Very remote, if power and fiber arrive and workers can reach the site. Far west and Panhandle sites show this pattern. Remote sites need worker housing plans, haul roads and heavy equipment logistics, and we price them.

What if the interconnection date slips?

We stage the work so the shell and plant are ready while power catches up, use temporary generation for commissioning where permitted, and avoid committing later blocks until the energization date firms up.