top of page
Logo with SHSU.JPG

Beyond Science Fiction: The Real Shape of Texas Datacenters in the Age of AI

  • IHS Sam Houston State Uni
  • Apr 2
  • 5 min read

Updated: Apr 7

By: Julia Chialastri

April 2026

When I hear the words datacenter and AI, my mind conjures two competing science fiction images.  The first image is inspired by Gene Roddenberry’s bright hopeful future; a sleek, united future, where technology is so integrated into our daily lives that it doesn’t demand our attention.  The other is out of the pages of Harlan Ellison; a hulking black edifice, burrowed into a desolate city scape; an omnipresent predator waiting to absorb the unwary. In Texas, datacenters are neither. They are industrial shells and modular pods, phased megawatts and heat management built to keep AI and cloud workloads cool and powered in a hot, expanding market.

A note on scope-The current brief is focusing the population and common forms of datacenters in Texas. companion briefs on datacenter cooling, and datacenter tax exemptions will explore those areas in further detail.


Datacenter Forms and Types


In Texas, the typical data center is a standardized kit‑of‑parts adapted to site and tenant.

Most present as concrete tilt‑wall shells or purpose‑built warehouse forms; inside, the build‑out is driven by owner‑operator standards and customer requirements: power density, redundancy (N+1, N+2), interconnection, and speed‑to‑service. The term datacenter can refer to a lot of different configurations, but a few of the more common configurations are:


  • Hyper-Scale: Built for cloud and AI. High‑density, high‑intensity, usually a single owner‑operator with tight control over layout, power path, and cooling.

  • Co-Location (Colo): One company builds/operates the facility and leases power and space (wholesale halls or retail cages). Some include managed hardware; others are bring‑your‑own‑gear. Flexibility and time‑to‑market are the appeal.

  • Enterprise: Single owner‑operator serving a specific company. Many everyday apps and media live here, your backups, your streaming, your photos; on platforms engineered for reliability first.

  • Modular or Edge: Smaller, rapidly deployable footprints: often prefabricated or containerized. Useful where speed‑to‑capacity or proximity to users/industrial loads matters. They can collaborate with factories, campuses, telco sites, or substations.

  • Texas has all of the above, with more coming.AI and cloud demand are pulling capacity forward, and operators are responding with phased campuses and standardized electrical “strings.” Much of the new inventory is released ahead of energization, reflecting a market where power delivery sets the schedule.[1]


Texas Datacenter Population


Although datacenters have only recently entered mainstream news cycles, they have been part of the U.S. landscape for decades; Texas’ oldest facilities date to 1999.[2] [3] Determining how many datacenters currently operate in the state is surprisingly difficult: no definitive public list exists, and facilities are usually measured by megawatts (MW) of IT load, not by building count.


Using the industry‑standard MW approximation, Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW) is the nation’s second‑largest colocation market, with approximately 1,539 MW of operational capacity, second only to Northern Virginia’s ~5,574 MW.[4] For context, a modern nuclear reactor at Georgia’s Vogtle plant produces about 1,117 MW.[5]  And in movie terms, Doc Brown’s DeLorean demanded 1.21 gigawatts (1,210 MW), meaning DFW’s colo capacity could power the flux capacitor with plenty of surplus. [6] Because MW represents instantaneous power, not energy over time, the grid impact depends heavily on when these loads coincide with Texas peak hours.


To move beyond MW‑only metrics, I assembled a list of individual datacenter locations to understand what types dominate the market, how much space they require, and typical server‑rack densities.


Method


I began by identifying advertised facilities and collecting all qualifying data‑center projects listed on the Texas Comptroller’s website. I cross‑referenced these entries with Datacenters.com and Datacenter Map, which revealed two persistent issues:(1) duplicate listings from multiple companies operating at the same physical address, and(2) facilities appearing on both public registries and commercial aggregator sites.


  • To resolve these, I used ownership information from the Comptroller’s tax‑exemption records to locate corresponding project filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR). I matched owner names and facility details to TDLR addresses, then compared those verified locations against Datacenters.com to produce a list of unique physical sites.

  • When no TDLR match existed, I relied on news articles and industry reporting to confirm or identify addresses. A supplemental search for university‑operated data centers added four additional facilities. [7] [8] [9]

  • Square‑footage estimates were taken from TDLR project filings when available. Many online‑listed datacenters lacked corresponding project pages, so all reported average values based on the subset with verifiable filings, primarily colocation facilities.

  • Not all Comptroller‑listed facilities had matching TDLR project records; in those cases, I relied on news reports and industry coverage to identify or confirm addresses. I also conducted a supplemental search for university‑operated data centers, which added four additional facilities.


Results


  • The publicly available estimate for the number of data centers in Texas is approximately 475. Most are new, owner‑occupied builds with an average size of 232,919 sq. ft. and an average power draw of 189 MW, with individual sites ranging from 3 MW to 1,000 MW. The 475‑facility estimate should be considered approximate: some sites remain unlisted, and despite thorough address‑matching, a small number of duplicates likely remain.

  • At an average load of 189 MW per facility, the cumulative power footprint becomes significant. Small errors in facility count translate into large shifts in statewide load estimates, underscoring the grid‑scale impact of the sector. This average also highlights how rapidly large‑scale compute infrastructure is reshaping Texas’ long‑range energy planning and capacity requirements.


CONCLUSION:


We don’t choose between sci‑fi futures by metaphor; we choose through permits, power‑delivery queues, water plans, and the public terms that govern them. In Texas, that hinge point looks less like philosophy and more like infrastructure: megawatts, interconnection agreements, heat‑mitigation strategies, and the unglamorous math of reliability.

If these facilities are planned and regulated like utilities, to be transparent, efficient, and accountable, they can serve as the invisible backbone of medicine, education, innovation, and the digital services we take for granted. If not, the consequences won’t appear as a dramatic villain; they’ll emerge as stressed grids, strained resources, and communities asked to absorb private risk.

The real question isn’t whether datacenters look like pods, warehouses, or monoliths.

It’s whether we treat them as shared infrastructure with shared obligations.

 

Sources:


Data Foundry. Our History. Accessed February 24, 2026. https://www.datafoundry.com/about-us/history/.

Stream Data Centers. “Dallas Area Data Center Solutions.” Accessed February 24, 2026. https://www.streamdatacenters.com/locations/dallas-data-centers/.

Proctor, Darrell. “Vogtle Unit 3 Generates Electricity, Connects to Power Grid.” POWER Magazine, April 3, 2023. https://www.powermag.com/vogtle-unit-3-generates-electricity-connects-to-power-grid/.

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. Data Center. Accessed February 24, 2026. https://www.ttuhsc.edu/it/data-center.aspx. [ttuhsc.edu]

University of Texas at Austin. Austin Shared Data Centers. Accessed February 24, 2026. https://datacenters.utexas.edu/.

Texas A&M University Technology Services. Campus Data Centers. Last modified August 27, 2025. https://www.it.tamu.edu/services/services-by-category/infrastructure/campus-data-centers.html.

[1] JLL Research. “North America Data Center Report: Midyear 2025.” Real Estate Daily News, August 14, 2025. https://realestatedaily-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/JLL-North-America-Data-Center-Report-Midyear-2025-8.14.25.pdf.

[2] Data Foundry. Our History. Accessed February 24, 2026. https://www.datafoundry.com/about-us/history/.

[3] Stream Data Centers, “Dallas Area Data Center Solutions,” accessed February 24, 2026, https://www.streamdatacenters.com/locations/dallas-data-centers/.

[5] Darrell Proctor, “Vogtle Unit 3 Generates Electricity, Connects to Power Grid,” POWER Magazine, April 3, 2023, https://www.powermag.com/vogtle-unit-3-generates-electricity-connects-to-power-grid/.

[6] Back to the Future, directed by Robert Zemeckis (Universal Pictures, 1985), 0:31:18.

[7] Texas A&M University Technology Services, Campus Data Centers, last modified August 27, 2025, https://www.it.tamu.edu/services/services-by-category/infrastructure/campus-data-centers.html

[8] University of Texas at Austin, Austin Shared Data Centers, accessed February 24, 2026, https://datacenters.utexas.edu/.

[9] Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Data Center, accessed February 24, 2026, https://www.ttuhsc.edu/it/data-center.aspx.

 
 
bottom of page