Big Watt Digital and co-development partner PowerHouse Data Centers have secured approval for a development agreement to build a turnkey campus in Taylor, Texas, US.
The development agreement authorises work on an around 664-acre site in Taylor, located within the Austin technology corridor.
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Designed to support AI and high-performance computing, the data centre campus will incorporate dedicated, behind-the-metre power generation supplied by local natural gas and transmission connections.
The developers expect the first phase of on-site power to become operational in the first half of 2028 to coincide with anticipated data centre installations.
Big Watt Digital co-CEO and co-founder Alex Hern said: “The introduction of the Taylor site demonstrates Big Watt and PowerHouse’s immediate progress along with what the company was built to do: bring power and digital infrastructure together from the outset to deliver speed, scale and certainty for the AI economy.
“By pairing digital infrastructure with dedicated, behind-the-meter power, we are designing for and addressing one of the biggest constraints facing data centre development today — access to reliable power — without relying solely on incremental grid capacity.”
Construction is scheduled to take place between 2027 and 2029, generating an estimated $4.8bn in regional economic output alongside around 19,000 full-time-equivalent construction jobs across Williamson County.
When fully operational, the site is projected to support 500 permanent positions across the county, including 320 roles in Taylor, and generate $235m in annual economic output. The on-site power plant will account for roughly $116m of that recurring total.
Over the period from 2027 to 2046, the city of Taylor is forecast to receive approximately $1.3bn in gross tax revenues, comprising $1.1bn in personal property taxes.
The developers have also pledged $28.2m in direct community funding, which allocates $13m for local quality-of-life projects, $10.2m for Taylor Independent School District educational programmes, $1.5m for student scholarships, and a minimum of 20 annual student internships.
Environmental and planning obligations set out in the agreement mandate specific rules on water management, setbacks, landscaping, lighting, and noise, as well as developer-funded enhancements to the municipal reclaimed-water system.
The project partners, which include PowerHouse Data Centers as an operating division of American Real Estate Partners, currently hold 12GW in active development and a nationwide pipeline above 24GW.
