Hyperscale Campus Construction in Texas

One gigawatt of eventual capacity is the figure attached to the AI campus a hyperscale operator announced in northeast El Paso in October 2025, and it is a useful way to think about what a campus build is. A campus is not one big building. It is several data buildings, a central utility plant, a substation, a fuel and generator field, roads, laydown and a security perimeter, all brought up in phases against a power ramp the utility controls.

The reported project covers roughly 1,039 acres and about 1.2 million square feet of building, with a peak construction workforce of 1,800. Numbers like those turn the builder's job into logistics. Parking, gate control, concrete supply, material staging and inspection access have to be designed as carefully as the halls, or the site chokes long before the buildings are finished.

We build hyperscale campuses the way the power arrives: in blocks. Each block gets its own energization date, its own commissioning window and a clear boundary from the next phase so that live equipment is never working beside an active excavation.

The El Paso announcement describes a campus that is expected to reach one gigawatt, with operation targeted for 2028 according to a company spokesperson. Another example sits in the Panhandle, where a developer's own website describes a private power and AI campus of 17 gigawatts on about 8,400 acres next to a federal defense site, with about 6 of those gigawatts already permitted. We treat that description as the developer's claim, not as a verified fact, but it shows how far the market is pushing campus scale.

What these projects share is that the generation, transmission and building decisions are being made together. A campus owner is often a power buyer first and a building owner second. We find that our best conversations start with the load schedule, in blocks, and the date each block needs its feed. The hyperscale cloud providers we talk to use that schedule as the contract spine.

The opening months of a campus job decide most of what follows. Temporary power, a concrete supply plan, haul roads that survive a wet month and a clear traffic scheme for deliveries are all needed before the first foundation is poured. We lay out the site so the heavy equipment path to the central plant never crosses the labor parking route, and so inspectors can reach each building without walking through an open trench. Early work on mass grading and site development sets the platform for everything else.

A campus on this scale also has to plan for people. With a peak construction workforce reported at 1,800 for one El Paso project, the project needs restrooms, break areas, a safety orientation point and a way to count who is on site. We make those part of the logistics drawing from day one and keep them on the weekly look-ahead. Work near energized equipment later in the job follows the access rules we describe in construction cleanliness and safety.

On a campus the critical path moves between disciplines. Early it runs through earthwork and underground utilities, then through foundations and slabs, then through the electrical gear set and the cooling plant. We keep the work that decides each handoff under our own supervision, and we hold every trade partner to the same tolerances and the same documentation.

That matters most at the seams: a duct bank stub that lands six inches off, a slab edge that misses the equipment pad, a pipe sleeve that was not cast. We review shop drawings against the structural and electrical sets before a pour, and we walk each pad with the electrician before gear is set. Those habits are dull, and they prevent most campus rework. The utility and substation site work that feeds the campus gets the same treatment.

Campus pricing is driven by four things: the electrical path, the cooling method, the soil and the phasing plan. A substation on site, a long duct bank run between buildings and a large fuel field raise the cost of the power side. Air-cooled chillers, water-cooled plants and liquid cooling each reshape the mechanical yard. Soil conditions change foundations and slabs. Phasing decides how many times we mobilize and how much temporary infrastructure is thrown away.

We price phasing explicitly. Doing phase one with the road and utility stubs for phase two already in place usually costs more up front and saves on the second phase, but only if phase two is real. We lay out the trade clearly in phased expansion build-outs so an owner can choose with the numbers in view.

Hyperscale sites in Texas tend to be far from the metros where trade partners and suppliers cluster. We work with that. For far-west sites such as El Paso and Panhandle sites around Amarillo, the cost of getting people, concrete and steel to the site is part of the estimate, and we say so early instead of burying it in general conditions.

We also plan around the weather and the ground in each region, because they differ widely across the state. Anyone comparing sites should read the design guidance for a hyperscale data center alongside the site-specific geotechnical report, since the two together decide foundation type and the yard layout.

Share the block sizes, the target energization dates and the acreage you control, and we will return a logistics plan, a phasing option and an order-of-magnitude scope list. If you are comparing several sites, send them together and we will lay the build-out and haul-route differences side by side.

How many buildings does a campus usually include?

There is no fixed number. A campus is defined by the power plan: the number of data buildings follows from the load blocks the utility will serve and the way the owner wants to stage tenants or workloads. A reported example in El Paso describes roughly 1.2 million square feet of building on about 1,039 acres, which shows that the land is often several times the building footprint once yards, roads and buffers are counted.

Who is responsible for the substation on a campus?

It depends on the utility and the voltage. Sometimes the utility builds and owns the substation and we build the pads, duct banks and access. In other arrangements the owner builds a customer-owned switching yard that connects to the utility's line. We write the interface into the scope early so civil work, grounding and equipment pads are not left in the gap between two parties.

Can phase two be built while phase one is energized?

Yes, with discipline. We separate the phases physically with fencing and routes, establish rules for work near live gear, and keep dust and vibration controls in place. The commissioning team needs clean, quiet space, so the schedule has to avoid heavy excavation near halls that are in testing. Some owners choose to pour phase two slabs early to shorten the second phase.

What should we expect from the sitework package?

Large grading volumes, drainage that has to handle the whole campus, detention, internal roads for heavy haul and a long underground utility run. We also plan for temporary construction power and, on dry sites, dust control. The sitework estimate is usually revised several times as the geotechnical and utility information is finalized.

Should we commit to long-lead gear before the building is designed?

Often yes. Transformers, switchgear, generators and chillers can be reserved with the manufacturer while the building is still being drawn, if the electrical path and the cooling method are fixed. We help owners sequence those commitments against the interconnection study and the financing milestones so the gear is neither late nor sitting in a yard.