Vantage Data Centers builds $25B AI campus in rural Texas the size of 900 football fields

Vantage Data Centers is making the largest investment in its corporate history: a $25 billion artificial intelligence campus in rural Texas that signals just how dramatically the AI boom is reshaping America’s digital infrastructure landscape.

The massive project, dubbed Frontier, will span 1,200 acres in Shackelford County, Texas—roughly the size of 900 football fields. When complete, this hyperscale facility will deliver 1.4 gigawatts of power capacity, enough electricity to power roughly one million homes, making it the largest data center campus in Vantage’s global portfolio.

Why this matters

This investment represents more than just corporate expansion—it’s a window into the infrastructure arms race driving the AI revolution. As companies like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft race to train increasingly sophisticated AI models, they require massive computing power that traditional data centers simply cannot provide. The result is a new generation of specialized facilities designed specifically for AI workloads.

Vantage’s Frontier campus exemplifies this shift. The facility will house 10 individual data centers totaling 3.7 million square feet, each equipped to handle ultra-high-density server racks consuming more than 250 kilowatts of power—roughly 10 times the power consumption of typical enterprise server racks. This enormous power draw comes from graphics processing units (GPUs), the specialized chips that power AI training and inference.

The cooling challenge

Traditional data centers rely on air conditioning to keep servers cool, but AI workloads generate so much heat that this approach becomes impractical and energy-intensive. Frontier will instead use liquid cooling systems, where coolant flows directly through or around the computing hardware—similar to how a car’s radiator system works, but far more sophisticated.

This isn’t just about keeping equipment functional; it’s about economics. Liquid cooling can be 50% more energy-efficient than traditional air cooling for high-density computing, translating to significant operational savings over the facility’s decades-long lifespan.

The campus will employ a closed-loop chiller system designed to minimize water consumption—a critical consideration given Texas’s periodic drought conditions. According to Vantage, this approach could save billions of gallons of water over the project’s lifecycle compared to traditional cooling methods.

Texas advantage

Vantage’s choice of Texas reflects broader trends in data center location strategy. The state offers several compelling advantages: abundant and relatively inexpensive electricity, available land for massive facilities, favorable business regulations, and proximity to major technology markets.

Texas has emerged as America’s second-largest data center market after Northern Virginia, attracting major operators with its combination of resources and business-friendly environment. The state’s deregulated electricity market allows data center operators to negotiate directly with power generators, potentially securing better rates for their enormous energy needs.

For Shackelford County, a rural area with roughly 3,200 residents, the economic impact will be transformative. Construction is already underway, with the first building expected to become operational in the second half of 2026. The project will employ more than 5,000 workers across construction and ongoing operations—effectively doubling the county’s population during peak construction phases.

Industry implications

The scale of Frontier reflects the unprecedented infrastructure demands of modern AI development. Training a single large language model can require thousands of GPUs running continuously for weeks or months, consuming millions of dollars in computing resources. As AI models become more sophisticated, these requirements will only grow.

“Texas has become a critical and strategic market for AI providers,” said Dana Adams, president of North America for Vantage Data Centers. “The launch of our Frontier campus with 1.4GW of GPU compute capacity marks a watershed moment for Vantage as we deliver on our promise to meet the unprecedented requirements of our customers.”

This capacity puts Frontier among the largest AI-focused data center projects announced to date. For context, many traditional data centers operate with capacity measured in tens of megawatts; Frontier’s 1,400 megawatts represents a different order of magnitude entirely.

Sustainability considerations

Despite its massive scale, Vantage is pursuing LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for the facility, the gold standard for sustainable building practices. This certification process evaluates everything from energy efficiency and water usage to materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

The pursuit of LEED certification for such a power-intensive facility highlights the industry’s growing focus on sustainable operations. Data centers already consume roughly 1% of global electricity, and AI workloads are accelerating this growth. Companies are increasingly recognizing that sustainable operations aren’t just environmentally responsible—they’re essential for long-term business viability as energy costs and regulatory scrutiny intensify.

Looking ahead

Vantage operates or is developing data center facilities across 11 U.S. states, but Frontier represents a new chapter in the company’s evolution toward AI-specialized infrastructure. The project’s timeline extends well into the decade, with different phases coming online as demand materializes.

The investment also signals confidence in the durability of AI infrastructure demand. Unlike previous technology booms that saw rapid build-outs followed by overcapacity, the AI infrastructure market appears to have more sustainable fundamentals, driven by the integration of AI capabilities across virtually every industry sector.

As construction progresses on this Texas mega-campus, Frontier will serve as both a testament to AI’s infrastructure requirements and a preview of how the technology industry is reshaping America’s physical landscape—one gigawatt at a time.