Some Americans have new “neighbors”: data centers.

The United States has been building such computing facilities for decades, but in recent years, as AI has increasingly driven the demand for computing power, the pace of development has accelerated significantly.

Business Insider has compiled a list of some large-scale data center projects in the United States to showcase the current construction scale. The selected projects all have a capacity of at least 1 gigawatt and have already commenced construction.

One of the largest projects is located in Texas and is a “city-level” park with a planned power capacity of up to 17 gigawatts. Another project in Ohio aims to achieve a data center capacity of up to 10 gigawatts, of which a large portion has already been contracted for use by OpenAI. For reference, 1 gigawatt of electricity, if supplied continuously for one year, can approximately meet the electrical needs of 835,000 average American households.

According to the Prince Research Center, there are currently more than 3,000 data centers in operation across the United States, with another 1,500 under development, most of which are located in rural areas. According to the data from the Energy Information Administration's "2026 World Energy Statistics Review," in 2025, U.S. data centers consumed nearly 40% of the world's total data center electricity consumption, which amounts to about 313 terawatt-hours, more than Australia's annual electricity usage for that same year.

The planned capacity is the closest public indicator to measuring how much computing power these AI campuses can support, which is very important because the electricity and water resources required to operate the servers and cooling systems can have a significant impact on the local power grid and sustainability.

Residents affected in Texas, Utah, and other areas have raised objections due to noise, housing prices, and the impact on surrounding communities. New York has temporarily halted the construction of new large AI data centers.

Nevertheless, the "2025 U.S. Data Center Energy Use Report" released by Berkeley Lab predicts that by 2030, data centers will consume 11.8% of the United States' electricity, which is higher than the approximately 4.4% in 2023. Oracle, SB Energy, xAI, Google, and Meta are among the leading developers and operators.

The following are some of the largest AI data center parks that are currently under construction.

Meta Lebanon Campus — Indiana State

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta currently has 21 data centers under construction. This data center, located in Lebanon, Indiana, is one of its largest investments and also the company's second project in that state.

This data center, which cost $1 billion to build, broke ground at the beginning of 2026 and is planned to provide 1 gigawatt of capacity, covering an area of 1,500 acres.

Completion is expected to occur in early 2028. Neighbors complain about the light pollution caused by the construction, while residents across Indiana are urging state legislators to regulate the rapidly expanding data center industry.

Meta El Paso Data Center – Texas State

The data center located in El Paso, Texas, designated as Meta, is planned to be powered by 1 gigawatt of capacity and covers an area of about 1,000 acres. The initial investment for this project was planned to be 1.5 billion dollars, but it was later increased to 10 billion dollars.

Once completed, the center will support more than 300 employees, while during the construction phase, it is estimated that around 4,000 construction workers will be required.

The project commenced in October 2025 and is expected to be completed by 2028. This has also sparked opposition from local residents.

Project Freebird ( Stargate ) – Texas State

Project Freebird is a part of Stargate. Stargate is an infrastructure project led jointly by OpenAI and SoftBank, known as AI. In January 2025, OpenAI stated that it intends to invest up to 500 billion US dollars in the US infrastructure.

Freebird will be a 1.2 gigawatt data center campus located in Milam County, Texas, near Austin. The first phase is expected to be completed in October, with subsequent phases planned to continue until 2028. The project commenced in 2025.

This project was developed by SB Energy, a infrastructure company supported by SoftBank. The company occupies an area of about 595 acres. The estimated construction cost for the first phase is 470 million US dollars, while the total investment for the entire project is expected to be between 1.8 and 3 billion US dollars.

Fort Wayne Data Center – Indiana State

In 2024, Google broke ground in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to build a data center campus that will cost $2 billion, in order to support its AI and cloud services.

Once fully operational, the park is expected to require up to 1.2 gigawatts of electricity. Some Indiana politicians have expressed concerns regarding the amount of electricity needed to operate the data center and who will bear the cost of the electricity bills.

Stargate Abilene —— Texas State

The Stargate AI data center park, located on the outskirts of Abilene, Texas, is expected to provide a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts. The lead developer and builder of this project, Crusoe, broke ground for the park in June 2024, and the first phase has already been put into operation.

The second phase, which is currently under construction, is supported by a $15 billion joint venture consisting of Crusoe, Blue Owl Capital, and Primary Digital Infrastructure. This phase will see the addition of 6 new buildings, bringing the total number of buildings in the park to 8, with a planned capacity increase to 1.2 gigawatts. The project covers an area of 875 acres.

Nebius AI Factory —— Missouri State

The data center located in Independence, Missouri, identified as Nebius, covers an area of about 400 acres and has a maximum capacity of 1.2 gigawatts. Construction began in May, and it is expected to create approximately 1,200 construction jobs as well as 130 permanent positions.

Nebius has not yet announced the total investment amount, but the city expects to start collecting taxes from this industrial park in 2028.

The project is not without controversy. A group of residents has filed a lawsuit against Independence City and the companies involved in the project, making 16 allegations, including claims that the city failed multiple times to provide the final version of the data center construction plan, violating Missouri's Sunshine Law. Nebius has not commented on this.

CloudBurst San Marcos Data Center I —— Texas State

The San Marcos Data Center I of CloudBurst is a park located in central Texas, covering an area of 706 acres with a planned capacity of 1.2 gigawatts. Guadalupe County has approved a tax exemption of 50 million dollars for this project.

The company and its development partner Evolve broke ground in November 2025, with the initial 50 megawatt phase expected to be completed by the end of 2026. The entire project is anticipated to be finished by 2029.

Residents of San Marcos once protested against the proposed data center due to water and energy issues. Since then, the city has become the first in Texas to ban the construction of new data centers, but this ban will not stop the CloudBurst project located outside the city limits.

The Barn Data Center – Michigan State

Local residents once protested against the data center, citing concerns about its impact on the power grid and pollution.

Stargate Frontier Campus —— Texas State

Stargate Frontier Campus, developed by Vantage Data Centers, will be a data center located in north-central Texas, near Albany, covering an area of 1,200 acres with a capacity of 1.4 gigawatts.

Construction of this center began at the end of 2025.

xAI Colossus 2 – Tennessee State

Elon Musk's xAI is building Colossus 2 to provide computing power for the AI chatbot Grok on X. The project commenced in Memphis, Tennessee, in 2025, and the company plans to expand the site to 1.5 gigawatts. The non-profit research institution Epoch AI estimates its current capacity to be around 946 megawatts.

Environmental justice organizations led by NAACP sued xAI earlier this year, accusing the company of installing and operating gas turbines at the South Gulf Village site in Mississippi to supply power to Colossus without obtaining the necessary air permits. In March, Mississippi's regulatory authorities approved xAI's permit to build and operate a new set of gas turbines at that site.

Local residents have also filed a class action against xAI, MZX Tech, and SpaceX, claiming that the noise and vibrations generated by the gas turbines have disrupted their lives and damaged the value of their property.

Project Jupiter — New Mexico

Project Jupiter is developed by infrastructure companies STACK Infrastructure and BorderPlex Digital Assets. They will build a AI data center park in Donana County, New Mexico, near the Texas border. This project is part of the Stargate initiative and is expected to support the AI computing services provided by Oracle for OpenAI.

Project Jupiter construction began in September 2025. The on-site power supply system planned for the park may include up to 2.45 gigawatts of Bloom Energy fuel cells, replacing the previous scheme that relied on gas turbines and diesel generators as the core.

In May this year, after local residents expressed concerns about potential impacts on water and air pollution, Oracle abandoned its plan to build a natural gas power plant for Project Jupiter.

Oracle issued a force majeure notice in September due to possible delays in the project's power infrastructure, but the company stated that the development in that park will still proceed as planned in 2028.

Meta Hyperion —— Louisiana State

Meta has received over $50 billion in investment for its data center located in the rural areas of northeastern Louisiana, Hyperion AI. Once fully constructed, it will cover an area of more than 3,600 acres with a planned capacity of 5 gigawatts. Hyperion began construction in December 2024.

Meta indicates that Hyperion aims to train and operate its artificial intelligence systems. Earlier this year, Louisiana provided a tax exemption of $3.3 billion for Hyperion to build Meta. The project is expected to be completed by 2030.

As the center is located in rural areas of the state, the influx of 7,500 technicians and construction workers has sparked a housing boom, with mobile homes even being built for the workers, costing up to $3,000 per month in rent.

However, the project has also faced opposition from local residents and environmental organizations, who are concerned about its impact on water resources, energy usage, and the surrounding communities.

PORTS - Pike Technology Campus —— Ohio State

The U.S. Department of Energy stated that SB Energy began construction in March at the site of the former Portsmouth Gas Diffusion Plant in Ohio for a planned AI and cloud computing park. The land parcel is leased by the federal government and has historically been known as PORTS.

The project has raised concerns about potential health and environmental risks due to its history as a uranium enrichment plant. SB Energy has not commented on this.

Project Matador —— Texas State

Fermi America's Project Matador, also known as HyperGrid, is a AI data center and private power supply park that is currently under construction near Amarillo, Texas.

Fermi was co-founded in 2025 by Rick Perry, former Governor of Texas and U.S. Secretary of Energy. The company stated that it is working to secure approximately 17 gigawatts of private power for the park, which is higher than the initial plan of 11 gigawatts. This means that the park will rely more on on-site power generation rather than solely depending on the public power grid. The company mentioned that 6 gigawatts have already been approved at this time.

Fermi has signed a 99-year land lease with Texas Tech University for the core plot of land. Once the project is fully completed, it will cover an area of approximately 8,400 acres. Fermi indicates that construction is ongoing, with plans to complete it in the 2030s; AI The cloud company TensorWave has signed a 15-year lease, which is expected to generate about $6.5 billion in contract revenue for the first phase. Fermi is also developing a cooling system designed to significantly reduce water consumption.

Earlier this year, the company also faced a class action lawsuit. Investors alleged in the lawsuit that Fermi misled them regarding the progress and prospects of Project Matador; after Amazon withdrew a $150 million construction advance in December 2025, the company's stock price fell.

Business Insider indicates that Meta, Google, Oracle, Fermi America, CloudBurst, and xAI did not immediately respond to the request for comments.

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