Tom Green County residents are already facing the force of federal incentives and state of Texas subsidies luring hyperscale data centers to our area. The imbalance may become greater if the federal government takes equity stakes in the major AI companies.
Four data centers are considering locating here, one in San Angelo proper and the other three in the county. The Texas Tribunereported that nearly half of the 248 planned data centers will be outside of cities, in unincorporated areas.
People in our area remember the shale boom. The Carlyle Group's Jeff Currie compared the two in their voracious need for capital. Abilene's experience with Lancium -"Stargate" is an amplified echo of our experience in the shale boom with rising rents, absurdly expensive hotel rooms and dangerous road conditions. Many new workers arrived with their addictions and large dog breeds.
That is our future if the State of Texas via ERCOT deems a project worthy of power and the Lords of Capital provide the necessary funding.
Irion County Commissioners have two items on their upcoming agenda for June 9th at 9:00am:
6. Options for having input on both public and private industrial/technological development within the county (Executive/Closed Session)
7. Tax abatement agreements for economic development within Irion County (Executive/Closed Session)
"Data centers have become shockingly unpopular" is one recent headline and Texans have virtually no say as to whether they can come, where they can locate or how much local resources they can usurp.
That means a name change....and the TechGods offer "AI Factories." Same thing, just slightly more attuned to economic development. It also fits better with their desire to charge a piece rate for each AI product that comes off the factory floor. TechGods have all the momentum with their control of state and federal government.
Responses vary across the country. One mayor insulted data center opponents for the look of their homes. The State of Ohio suspended giant tax breaks for data centers to evaluate their actual impact.
There is a very short window for federal and state elected officials to intervene and allow communities to strike more of a balance. An AI equity stake by Uncle Sam is decidedly counter to that.
So it should not be surprising that many Texans feel trapped in an AI-MO that is running us into a dangerous construction zone at high speed. Let us out so we can never do this again. Please.
San Angelo Chamber of Commerce executive Michael Looney stated that four data centers are interested in the area. He did so at an Economic Development Board meeting.
Two of the projects are known to the public. A third has been revealed.
1) The Skybox/Emergent in San Angelo is actively being marketed.
2) Beacon Data Centers expressed interest and met with the community, which clearly told them to look elsewhere. They returned and met with Tom Green County Commissioners.
The other two sites have not been named, by interested party or location in the county.
3) Cipher Digital (below is how I learned this).
I sent a letter outlining my data center concerns to City Council (the subject of a future post). San Angelo Mayor Tom Thompson replied:
If the regulations are put in place, the discussion moves to the economic impact, benefits, and risks.
I believe the data center project adjacent to Skybox continues to move forward, as it does not have the restrictions the city has in place.
The political climate has kept that project clear of the city, which has had the opposite effect of the coalition's intent of regulatory guidelines.
ERCOT and AEP appear to be prioritizing the non-city property project for power allotments.
A data center next to Skybox/Emergent would be the third location (however not in city limits like Skybox).
I followed up and learned that site is a potential data center for Cipher Digital.
In a recent CNBC interview Cipher Digital's CEO noted their announced pipeline will tap the Texas electrical grid (i.e. not provide their own power).
Cipher Digital's CEO noted his company's land holdings in energy abundant West Texas.
He did not mention his company's consideration of "private land a quarter mile east of" the proposed Skybox/Emergent site in Northeast San Angelo, just outside of city limits, but his corporate documents show a number of Texas projects.
Cipher has a project known as Mikeska in Doole which is past Paint Rock. I don't know if that's a quirk of landowner addresses. Time will reveal if Mikeska is the site close to Skybox or not.
Cipher Digital has a Lancium (Stargate-Abilene) like history. It began as a bitcoin miner taking advantage of stranded renewable energy. They switched goldrushes from bitcoin to AI and demand is off the charts.
At their recent meeting Tom Green County Commissioners tried to steer Beacon Data Centers to this part of town, however Joseph Shovlin did not seem receptive to a move from their current site at the intersection of Highway 2335 and Highway 67 given its access to Spring Creek for water use and discharging treated water. He also saw proximity to the railroad as another plus.
Shovlin showed his ignorance when he assumed the local community could absorb 1,200 new construction workers easily. Beacon has no plans to provide temporary housing.
One month ago Chamber of Commerce executive Michael Looney interviewed Tom Green County Judge Lane Carter about business growth in the area and specifically addressed data centers. They addressed the issue of power/electricity needed by data centers. Judge Carter cited solar and wind power, as well as abundant natural gas.
While the state rolls out the red carpet to power hungry and water usurping data centers, it turned our residential solar power system with battery backup into a nonperformer.
At a time when we should be getting top dollar for the power generated Reliant is literally giving us nickels when before they gave dimes. Texas rates went up 7%. Reliant cut what they pay us in half (50%).
Cipher will also use water, I imagine from the City of San Angelo given their proximity.
Data center water usage (Beacon) - 400 acre feet per year. Over 3 data centers that's 1,200 acre feet
Water usage for 3,600 construction workers (1,200 per data center) - 730 acre feet per year
The running total is 2,000 new acre feet of water. Beacon's Dove Creek Technology Center promised not to drill wells and impact groundwater. Beacon's Westline Energy & Infrastructure will use groundwater for facility use. Water will be needed for the power generation side (not factored into the water projections above).
The Cipher Digital CEO interview is below for those who wish to view it. Pay attention to what he says about Tier I vs Tier III sites:
Is anybody fighting mad? To be clear I am speaking about the non-violent kind of standing up. From my perspective the rules keep changing and not in the little guys favor.
AI Data Centers/Power Plants are flocking to Texas because of tax breaks in the Big Beautiful Bill and the chance to bypass state sales tax for extremely large capital outlays. These incentives were set up by federal and state leaders, not local officials.
San Angelo had a West Texas Utilities power plant on Lake Nasworthy and it discharged its cooling water into "Hot Water Slough." Now such facilities will be located within the data center complex.
Our federal elected officials need to hear from constituents. So do our state elected officials. Those of us who lived through the Shale Boom know exactly what is coming. Abilene is showing us that very thing at the moment.
Violence is never a solution. Make your position clear to your representatives, Thank heaven our local officials listen. What is happening in many cases is beyond their control.
Federal and state officials clearly want to change our way of life. Ask them to strike some kind of balance, because currently none exists.
Update 6-6-26: Cipher Digital has a major stockholder V3 Holdings, a Singapore investment firm. V3 owns 15% of Cipher's stock.
Update 6-7-26: Cipher refers to its San Angelo project as Colchis:
Cipher also formed a joint venture in West Texas to develop a new 1-gigawatt site called “Colchis.” Cipher will finance most of the project and expects to retain 95% ownership. The site features a 1-gigawatt Direct Connect Agreement with American Electric Power to construct a dual interconnection facility, scheduled for energization in 2028. The 620-acre site is next to an existing substation and intended for high-performance computing data center use.
It's a 1 GW data center.
Cipher has information about its Colchis project in its 2025 Annual Report and other SEC filings.
Tom Green County Commissioners Court heard from two people yesterday regarding the proposed Beacon Data Center in Dove Creek. Local attorney and Owner/Contributing Editor for The Concho Observer Jon Mark Hogg spoke on behalf of Beacon and introduced Vice President and co-founder Joseph Shovlin.
The project changed names since the public meeting in Dove Creek. It's now Westline Energy & Infrastructure.
Shovlin talked about water but actually went back on his prior promise to not drill wells and only use surface water. In April he said "we are not going to take your well water." It's now the source for daily facility needs with their "Potable Water: On Site Well."
This change calls into question Beacon's standards of leadership. Early promise made, early promise broken.
This leads us to our final slide, the disclaimer.
Everything is preliminary, until it isn't.
The promise was the project would not take ground water. Gone. The promise is the project won't take grid power but will connect their power generation to the grid to supply power when needed. Subject to disclaimer.
I hope they get the 5 cents per kilowatt hour that Reliant pays for household solar/battery power generation, but that would break their hurdle rate and they wouldn't be able to flip the project in five years.
Two local media sites, San Angelo Live and The Concho Observer, have key people/owners "all in" for data centers. They support both political teams, Joe Hyde - Red Team and Jon Mark Hogg - Blue Team.
The Concho Observer is a publication of Hogg Media LLC, which is solely responsible for its content.
The picture is becoming clearer in terms of the players, but not clearer in terms of actual project details.
San Angelo City Council will hear a presentation on developing a sports center on a former city owned "unauthorized" dump site.
The Development Corporation purchased the land from the city in 2017.
In 2018 the Development Corporation handed back the land to the City under recommendation of Assistant City Manager Michael Dane (now retired).
The City approved the sale of the land to E&B Bryant Properties LLC for $1 million in 2022. However, that did not go through according to the Tom Green County Appraisal District.
A number of assumptions seem to be a stretch, like the $1 million annual naming rights/philanthropy projection. Also, the $125 per night hotel room will be nonexistent if our West Texas data center explosion imitates the shale boom when San Angelo had rooms for New York City prices.
The City is changing as big money has "found us." Those were the words of Chamber Executive Michael Looney. He recently told the City's Development Corporation that four data centers are interested. The public is aware of two, Skybox/Emergent and Beacon Data Centers. The other two remain unnamed.
The sports facility may fulfill multiple aims by getting rid of that environment albatross and serving as a lure for Skybox/Emergent. If we get the data center, we can provide you more sports options.
How does that fit with Skybox will bring down your taxes? We shall see.
Update 6-4-26: The City of San Angelo explained why this item was not covered in their recent council meeting:
Due to a scheduling conflict with the presenter, Item 6a, a presentation and discussion of a feasibility study for an indoor sports complex on the June 2 City Council agenda, has been rescheduled for the July 7, 2026, City Council meeting.
WIRED ran a story on the FBI and other federal agencies concerned about citizen resistance to data centers locating in their community.
According to documents obtained by WIRED through public records requests, more than 1,000 pages of previously unpublished reports from Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and fusion centers show agencies increasingly tracking what they describe as anti-technology threats.
One report from the New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau warned that AI adoption could spark major unrest within the next five years and result in "anti-tech violent extremist activity."
This follows BlackRock's Larry Fink expressing concern that citizens would use drones to attack data centers. Something very strange is going on given how quickly this language has accelerated.
Fink landed in Texas this week and appeared with Governor Greg Abbott. Larry went on to suggest public pension funds, retirement and savings accounts finance hyperscale data centers.
Expressing one's opinion, asking government to be open and accountable, to balance the resource needs of citizens with economic development and seeking to minimize the transfer of public dollars to extremely wealthy corporations/corporate executives sounds like a basic right.
Have those rights also been pledged to TechGods and the Lords of Capital by our elected officials?
I never thought I needed to shield my savings and retirement accounts from voracious AI data centers. Thank God, Larry Fink warned me.
Update 5-28-26: My wise friend noted:
The accumulated savings of the people have been harnessed and softly commandeered through the narrative of investment for the likes of Larry Fink and his private equity/venture capital brethren as they funnel those flows into their mandates and increased wealth. I wonder how many people would pay attention if their private marks (asset valuations) were revealed and the Federal Reserve finally just let the market clear.
Larry began his career with a wipeout, It would be poetic justice if he ended his career the same way.
Government of, by and for the TechGods. the Lords of Capital and their political functionaries. Finks everywhere.
The new executive producer of 60 Minutes is a documentarian and tech journalist.
Three data centers have targeted Tom Green County for possible sites. Beacon Data Centers is the only one to identify itself. They hope to build a giant data center in Dove Creek. Residents told them to go away.
The City of San Angelo has been far more accommodating, working a land deal/annexing the area (March 2005), changing the zoning to allow data centers (January 2026) and approving zoning regulations relative to data center development (May 2026). Developer Skybox/Emergent promotes the project as "built for speed" and having "exceptional municipal support."
Data Centers are needed for AI and are being brought to us by the same people that created addictive and harmful social media and other predatory apps.
Our leaders want the public to trust the developer any potential AI occupant.
No thank you. Developers are backed by big money intent on making bigger money. Promises mean nothing. The project is intended to make bank for its private equity underwriter (PEU) sponsor. If so, it will be flipped in a few years and the people who brought the project to our area will be gone.
It could middle along, in which case the developer has to hold onto to the project, tweaking it for regular cash siphoning.
The project could fail miserably and its keys be handed back to creditors. If creditors don't want it, it becomes the city's problem as an abandoned piece of property with lots of toxic heavy metal equipment and tainted cooling water.
Tom Green County residents need a government champion, whether it be local, regional or state, to level the imbalance of power and advantage. Texas, like most states, is set up to encourage such development via layers of tax breaks, fast tracking permits and even direct subsidy.
San Angelo residents need brakes to stop the oncoming train so its engine defects can be examined and fail safe's installed that actually protect residents. There needs to be significant monetary penalties for failed promises and actual community harm.
The developer would say "we are just the building." That building will use the energy of 750,000 homes and house unreliable, even dangerous AI.
I speak for many when I say our area does not need or want hyper-scale data centers with their voracious power and water needs, their inflation boosting impact on goods and housing and their profit obsessed PEU owners/funders.
Someone owes us a square deal, not one where we pay and pay and pay, both in money and loss of quality of life.
Update: Lake Tahoe communities are facing the prospect of no electricity due to a supplier redirecting its power to data centers.
The data center boom is rapidly sucking Nevada’s power grid dry, with an estimated 22 percent of the state’s total electricity generation capacity going toward the behemoth computing centers in 2024.
Texas, are you listening to the rapidly sucking sound to our west?
Update 5-26-26: Business Insider ran a story on students booing graduation speakers over the mention of AI:
....the perception of AI among the public is low. A Pew Research Center study found that about half of Americans felt the increased prevalence of AI in their daily lives made them feel "more concerned than excited." Many Americans across the country, meanwhile, are resisting new data centers in their communities, which are essential to powering AI products like chatbots.
Oh, and the cost of compute will far exceed the cost of human employees according to NVIDIA's CEO..
Texas faces the prospect of 750 new data centers according to a presentation at the recent Milken Global Conference. Currently 140 data centers are under construction and 610 have been announced. It's not clear if San Angelo/Tom Green County's potential four data centers are in the count. Likely not, so the number could grow much higher.
Beacon Data Centers is looking at Dove Creek in Tom Green County for a possible location. Their website indicates one of their data centers under development would use 400 acre feet of water per year.
They said they would not drill wells but use surface water from Spring Creek. I don't see how that is possible given we live upstream and the creek goes dry solely from upstream irrigation. They stop irrigating and the flow returns. It's not nearly enough to sustain daily operations of a giant data center.
Take 750 new data centers at 400 acre feet per year once under operation and that's an additional 300,000 acre feet needed statewide. That does not count the water needed for construction or for new workers' living needs during the construction period.
The neighbors of a data center in Georgia are steaming after they discovered the facility had sucked up nearly 30 million gallons of water....
Outrage started bubbling up last year when residents of an affluent subdivision named Annelise Park in Fayetteville, Georgia, noticed their water pressure was unusually low.
The company said its water consumption was so high last year because of temporary construction-related activities, such as concrete work, dust control and site preparation
Water demands occur long before sites become operational. That 30 million gallons equates to 92 acre feet. Someone needs to model the water use of 750 additional Texas data centers during the construction period. That's water for the work and for the workers who surely need showers at the end of the day.
A recent story in the Houston Chronicle indicated Texas data centers would go from using less than 1% of the state's water to 9% by 2040. At a minimum that's a tenfold increase. The study was done by the University of Texas.
The State of Texas has thrown the door wide open for these facilities. That is why there are so many coming. The newfound reticence of elected officials may be real and it may be for show.
San Angelo and Tom Green County have four data centers exploring sites. The Skybox/Emergent in San Angelo seems pretty far along and is actively being marketed. Beacon Data Centers expressed interest and met with the community, which clearly told them to look elsewhere. The other two sites have not been named, by interested party or location in the county.
The picture is brutal on water alone. No responsible elected official could allow this to happen on such an obscene scale.
Update 5-13-26: A mega data center development named "The Stratos Project" in Utah was approved by Box Elder County commissioners.
Box Elder County, Utah gets 17 inches of rain, on average, per year.
Average annual rainfall for San Angelo is 21 inches.
Stratos has a long way to go to become fully operational:
Developers say they will begin raising capital within 60 days and aim to start initial phases within months. The data center would likely not be in operation for ten years.
How did a Shark have so much success that far inland, in an area with so little water? It won because local and state leaders prioritized out of state corporate interests above the people who elected them. They did so "because the Undersecretary of the Air Force asked them to."
San Angelo has Goodfellow Airforce Base, which trains military intelligence and firefighters across all of the military's branches. As of now there is no state group coordinating project development, but that could change.
Update 5-18-26: A future water source for the City of San Angelo is aquifer water from Fort Stockton Holdings. Fort Stockton has its own data center boom, How much water will be available when the city needs it due to Tom Green County's data center boom (should it be realized)?
a draft of Texas' 2027 state water plan estimates the state will need roughly $174 billion in water infrastructure projects over the next 50 years to avoid severe regional shortages during drought. It mentions nothing, however, about data centers.
