The expansion of artificial intelligence applications is pushing U.S. data center construction to a new scale. Large projects being developed by Meta, Google, OpenAI, xAI, Oracle and their partners in Texas, Indiana and Michigan generally plan for 1 gigawatt (GW) or more of power capacity, with some campuses approaching the scale of a city.
The U.S. currently has more than 3,000 operating data centers and over 1,500 additional facilities in development, most of them in rural areas. U.S. data centers consumed about 313 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2025, close to 40% of global data center consumption and more than Australia’s total electricity use during the same period. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates that data centers could account for 11.8% of U.S. electricity demand by 2030, up sharply from about 4.4% in 2023.
For investors and local utilities, planned capacity is a key public measure of the potential computing scale of an AI campus. Turning that capacity into an operating facility, however, requires grid upgrades, generation assets, cooling water, tax incentives and long-term power contracts. Residents in Texas and Utah have already raised objections over noise, property values and local environmental effects, while New York State temporarily halted the construction of new large AI data centers.
Meta advances two large Indiana campuses
Meta’s Lebanon campus in Indiana is one of the company’s larger projects under development worldwide and its second data center in the state. Construction began in early 2026. The project is expected to require a $10 billion investment, cover about 1,500 acres and have planned power capacity of 1 GW. Completion is targeted for early 2028.
Nearby residents have complained about nighttime lighting during construction. Some Indiana residents have also called for clearer state rules governing data centers, particularly regarding electricity demand and who should bear the associated costs.
Meta’s data center in El Paso, Texas, broke ground in October 2025. The site covers about 1,000 acres and is also planned to have 1 GW of capacity. The project was initially expected to cost $1.5 billion, but that estimate later increased to $10 billion. Once complete, it is expected to employ more than 300 people directly, while about 4,000 workers are expected to be involved during construction. The target completion date is 2028. The project has also drawn opposition from local residents.
OpenAI-linked projects span three states
OpenAI and SoftBank’s Stargate AI infrastructure initiative initially outlined up to $500 billion in investment across the United States. Project Freebird in Milam County, Texas, near Austin, is one of the projects included in the initiative. It is planned to have 1.2 GW of capacity and cover about 595 acres.
The project is being developed by SB Energy, an infrastructure company backed by SoftBank. Its first phase is expected to be completed in October, with further construction continuing through 2028. The first phase is expected to cost about $470 million, while total investment in the project is estimated at between $1.8 billion and $3 billion.
The Barn in Saline Township, southwest of Ann Arbor, Michigan, is also linked to Stargate. Data center developer Related Digital is building the campus for Oracle in cooperation with OpenAI. The plan calls for three data centers with combined capacity of 1.4 GW. The project is valued at about $16 billion and backed by Related Digital and investment firm Blackstone. The first facilities are expected to begin operating by the end of 2027.
Local residents have organized protests over potential effects on the power grid and pollution levels. The project’s financing arrangements, power infrastructure and commissioning schedule will determine how quickly it can support additional AI computing demand.
Project Jupiter in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, near the Texas border, is being developed by STACK Infrastructure and BorderPlex Digital Assets. It is another Stargate project and is intended to provide infrastructure for OpenAI AI computing operations contracted by Oracle. Construction began in September 2025, and the site’s power system could include as much as 2.45 GW of Bloom Energy fuel cells.
In May, Oracle abandoned plans to build a natural-gas power plant for Project Jupiter. The project had previously considered a power arrangement centered on gas turbines and diesel generators. The revised plan highlights how AI data center development depends not only on servers and buildings, but also on whether a site can secure a stable and sustainable local power supply.
Several Texas projects exceed 1.2 GW
The Stargate data center outside Abilene, Texas, is being developed and built by Crusoe with planned capacity of 1.2 GW. Construction began in June 2024, and the first phase is already operating. The second phase remains under construction and is backed by a joint venture between Crusoe, Blue Owl Capital and Primary Digital Infrastructure. The $15 billion expansion will add six buildings, bringing the campus total to eight, across about 875 acres.
The Stargate Frontier Campus in Shackelford County, near Albany, Texas, is being developed by Vantage Data Centers. The site covers about 1,200 acres and is planned to have 1.4 GW of capacity for high-density AI workloads. Vantage plans to invest more than $25 billion, with the overall buildout expected to be completed by 2028. Construction began in late 2025.
CloudBurst San Marcos Data Center I covers 706 acres and has planned capacity of 1.2 GW. Guadalupe County approved $500 million in tax incentives for the project. CloudBurst and its partner Evolve Holdings broke ground in November 2025. The first phase will provide 50 megawatts and is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, while the full project is scheduled for completion in 2029.
San Marcos residents opposed the data center over water and energy concerns. The city later became the first in Texas to prohibit new data center construction. Because the CloudBurst site lies outside the city limits, however, the ban does not affect the project’s progress.
Google campus fuels debate over power costs
Google began construction in 2024 on a $2 billion data center campus in Fort Wayne, Indiana, primarily to support AI and cloud computing operations. Once fully built, the campus is expected to require as much as 1.2 GW of electricity.
Local debate has focused on new generation capacity and how the resulting electricity costs should be allocated. If the data center requires new local power facilities, questions remain over how grid investment, transmission lines and long-term supply costs should be divided among the company, utilities and residential customers. For large-scale computing projects, electricity costs affect not only operating expenses but also whether local governments continue to offer tax incentives.
Nebius project faces lawsuit
Amsterdam-based AI cloud infrastructure company Nebius is developing a data center in Independence, Missouri, on a site of about 400 acres. The project is planned to have up to 1.2 GW of capacity. Construction began in May and is expected to create about 1,200 construction jobs and 130 permanent positions.
Nebius has not disclosed the project’s total investment. Independence expects to begin receiving related tax revenue in 2028. At the same time, a group of local residents has sued the city government and companies involved in the project, bringing 16 allegations, including violations of Missouri’s Sunshine Law. The plaintiffs say the parties failed to provide a final data center development plan. Nebius did not comment.
xAI expands Colossus 2 in Tennessee
Elon Musk’s xAI is building Colossus 2 in Memphis, Tennessee, to provide computing capacity for the Grok chatbot on the social platform X. Construction began in 2025, and the company plans to expand the campus to 1.5 GW. Research group Epoch AI estimates that the project currently has about 946 MW of capacity.
The dispute over the project’s power supply has centered on gas turbines. Environmental justice groups, including the NAACP, have sued xAI, alleging that the company installed and operated gas turbines near Southaven, Mississippi, for Colossus 2 without obtaining the required air-emissions permits. Mississippi regulators approved xAI’s construction and operation of a new group of gas turbines in March.
Local residents have also filed a class-action lawsuit against xAI, MZX Tech and SpaceX, alleging that noise and vibration from the turbines have disrupted daily life and damaged nearby property values. The cases could affect the project’s operating arrangements and its acceptance within the surrounding community.
From Meta’s individual campuses to Stargate’s multi-state infrastructure network, U.S. AI data center construction has entered a period of large-scale capital investment. The central issues for current projects are not limited to whether buildings can be completed on schedule. They also include whether planned power capacity can be delivered, how generation and transmission costs will be allocated, and how disputes over noise, water use, air emissions and land use will be addressed.