Tech Sector in Texas

Texas just raised the bar. Vantage Data Centers announced “Frontier,” a $25B, 1.4GW AI mega-campus on ~1,200 acres in Shackelford County—10 buildings totaling ~3.7M sq ft, designed for ultra-high-density racks (250kW+) with liquid cooling. The first building is projected for the second half of 2026. What this means for the US data center & jobs market: ✅ Scale reset: gigawatt campuses become the reference model for AI, pulling more hyperscale investment into Texas and the broader Sun Belt. ✅ Power & cooling arms race: transmission upgrades, onsite substations, and advanced liquid cooling move to the critical path for delivery. ✅ Supply chain stretch: multi-year strategies for transformers, switchgear, steel, and GPU-ready MEP will favor GCs/EPCs with program-level buying power. ✅ Talent surge: program-scale leaders (VP/Director of Construction, Precon, Program Controls), mission-critical MEP heads, commissioning directors, scheduling & risk (P6/QSRA), and interface managers across power and utilities. ✅ Mobility & compensation: Texas will attract national talent—expect sharper packages, relocation, and travel program teams as contractors and owners chase speed to power. Bottom line: this is a generational build that will ripple through contractors, subs, utilities, and regulators nationwide. If you lead large-scale mission-critical programs—or are building a team to deliver them—let’s connect!

Texas A&M just released a walkthrough of the future Texas A&M Semiconductor Institute, and I want to break down why this matters. An 80,000 square foot, industry-class facility is going up on the RELLIS campus with 300mm process capabilities, ballroom-style cleanroom environments, and precision infrastructure built to current advanced manufacturing standards. But here's what caught my attention. They didn't design a research lab. They designed a collision point. Workforce training environments are physically integrated alongside specialized R&D labs. Collaboration spaces feed directly into the technical core. Industry partners, researchers, students, and public sector leaders are all funneled through the same front door. That's intentional. And it's smart. Because the real bottleneck in domestic semiconductor growth isn't just funding or equipment. It's the gap between where talent gets developed and where innovation actually happens. Most of the time, those two things exist in completely separate zip codes. Texas A&M is eliminating that distance. When a student training on advanced processes can walk down the hall and see that same technology being pushed toward commercialization, you compress the timeline from education to impact. You produce graduates who understand real production challenges, not just theory. The state of Texas backed this with serious capital, and the A&M System is positioning the institute as a launchpad for cross-sector partnerships, startup formation, and long-term national security contributions. This is the type of infrastructure that changes the trajectory of an entire regional ecosystem. Not a ribbon-cutting moment. A generational investment. #Semiconductors #WorkforceDevelopment #TexasAM #SemiconductorManufacturing #CHIPSAct #Innovation #STEM

I am speaking four times at events during SXSW about the history of Austin tech. Our community has grown from the 25th largest city in the United States to the 10th largest city since I moved here in 1991. That is a lot of growth and most of that is because the city morphed from a university/government town to becoming a leading innovation center / tech hub in just a few decades. If you have things to add, please leave a comment or send me a message (I am always thrilled to learn new points of view that I can add to my speech). The Ten Pillars of Austin's Tech Success: 1.     The University of Texas at Austin and Dr. George Kozmetsky – Beginning in the 1970s the stage was set to attract talent, research and innovation. The combined effort of UT, the city, state, and the local business community was intentional to create a diverse tech business community in Austin. 2.     Central Location in the USA and (Mostly) Good Weather- Accessible and strategically positioned for business, easy access to travel, and a good climate made Austin a great place to live. 3.     Affordability – Historically, Austin offered a lower cost of living and doing business compared to other tech hubs. 4.     Connected/Networked Business and Tech Community - From the very early days our tech scene, business and tech leaders were active in community and their willingness to mentor young entrepreneurs was paramount to Austin’s success. 5.     Robust Business Ecosystem for Large Companies and Startups - The Chamber of Commerce and Opportunity Austin worked to promote/market Austin as a place for Big Tech to open offices and relocate corporate headquarters. And organizations like Austin Technology Incubator, Capital Factory, etc… created support for the growth of entrepreneurship and startups. 6.     Artsy Culture, Music Scene, and the "Keep Austin Weird" Vibe – Austin had a unique cultural identity that attracted diverse talent and made the city a welcoming place for everyone. 7.     Young Educated Workforce – For decades Austin has had a demographic conducive to innovation and startups. These young and ambitious tech workers are from both our local universities (UT, St Eds, ACC, etc…) and the top talent that relocated to Austin. 8.     Angel Investors/VC Capital and Tech Focused Service Providers– Beginning in the late 1990s and 2000s the essential funding that fuels the startup and growth phases of companies became available locally.  Additionally, the seasoned lawyers, accountants, bankers, etc... who help advise tech companies are present in Austin and help drive success. 9.     Government and Policy Support - Pro-business policies, low business taxes, no personal income tax, and incentives that attract and retain companies have historically made Austin a great place to do business. 10.  SXSW – The SXSW Interactive Conference helped highlight Austin on the international stage by brining the world to Texas beginning in the 1990s and continuing through today.

The hard part of data center growth in Texas is no longer proving demand. It’s figuring out where infrastructure can actually keep pace. What makes this interesting is how the market is really viewed on the ground: Not as one big state… But as a network. The clusters around Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston aren’t random. They follow fiber. That’s where the connectivity is. That’s where the interconnection is. That’s where the demand is naturally pulling. Dallas-Fort Worth continues to lead as the largest carrier- and data center-neutral exchange point in Texas. And the bigger picture? Texas is on track to challenge Northern Virginia as the largest data center market in the world. But here’s the shift most people are missing… We’re no longer just building in core markets. Over 60% of new capacity is now moving into frontier markets. Why? Because the core is getting constrained. Power. Land. Permitting. So the industry is spreading out. But that creates a new problem: Density follows fiber… But power doesn’t always follow density. And that’s where the real race is now. Texas has the geography. It has the connectivity. The question is: Which corridors can actually deliver power fast enough to turn that advantage into real, energized capacity? Because at the end of the day… Fiber attracts the opportunity. Power determines who wins. #DataCenters #Texas #AI #Infrastructure #Energy #DigitalInfrastructure #CloudComputing #Hyperscale #Power #Development

Texas is rapidly becoming the epicenter of the AI economy. New data shows the state is on track to capture nearly 30% of U.S. data center capacity by 2028 — outpacing legacy hubs with abundant land, competitive energy, and a pro-innovation regulatory environment. The deeper story is how structure is shaping scale. As AI factories collide with grid constraints, infrastructure is being rethought from the ground up. Projects like Google’s $40B expansion in West Texas and Vantage’s $25B AI-focused campus aren’t waiting on transmission upgrades — they’re co-locating compute directly with power generation and natural gas pipelines. The result is a new model: compute that brings its own energy, scales faster, and reduces grid stress instead of adding to it. Texas isn’t just hosting the AI boom — it’s redefining how it gets powered. https://lnkd.in/gf2-2Eqp #TexasTech #DataCenters #EnergyInnovation #Infrastructure The Texas Tribune

🗺️ MARKET SHIFT: Texas is rapidly becoming the global epicenter of AI data center development The scale of hyperscale and AI campus activity across Texas is accelerating at a pace the industry has not seen before — with multi-GW pipeline projects, power-first site strategies, and record large-load energy requests reshaping infrastructure planning. Recent market intelligence suggests Texas could rival — and potentially surpass — traditional hubs like Northern Virginia as AI infrastructure demand drives a new wave of mega campus developments across the state. (Source: industry reports, energy market data, infrastructure analysis) Key market signals: • Multi-GW AI campus pipelines emerging across multiple counties • Hyperscalers securing long-term power before construction • Grid-scale energy demand driven primarily by AI workloads • Shift from single-site builds to phased mega campus delivery • 2026–2030 identified as peak AI infrastructure expansion window What makes Texas different is not just land availability — it is the convergence of energy scalability, hyperscale-ready zoning, and faster deployment potential for ultra high-density AI data centers. We are now seeing a structural transition from traditional cloud data centers to AI-native campuses, where power capacity, cooling strategy, and long-term phased delivery planning are becoming the primary programme drivers. From a programme and construction perspective, this signals a new delivery era: power-first development, modular campus phasing, and GW-scale infrastructure alignment from day one. Texas is no longer an emerging market in digital infrastructure — it is positioning itself as a strategic core for next-generation AI compute deployment. #DataCenters #AIInfrastructure #Hyperscale #Texas #DigitalInfrastructure #AICampuses #AIDataCenters

Texas to become the world's largest data center market by 2030.... A new report from JLL projects that Texas will overtake Northern Virginia to become the world’s largest data center market by 2030. The shift is being driven by hyperscale cloud and AI demand, alongside superior land and power availability. The explosive growth in demand is closely tied to hyperscale cloud deployments and AI infrastructure, with companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Oracle, and OpenAI leading capacity commitments. This is unsurprising, given the state's distinct energy supply advantage, including access to abundant, competitively priced power compared with constrained grids elsewhere. Here are some of the key takeaways from their report: - Texas alone accounts for approximately 6.5 GW of data center capacity under construction. This is about one-fifth of the 35 GW under construction across all of North America. - 64% of all North American data center capacity under construction is in “frontier” markets such as Northern Virginia, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Silicon Valley. West Texas is one of the key beneficiaries of this shift. - Overall data center vacancy in North America remains at a historic low of 1% for two consecutive years, indicating tight market fundamentals.  - Texas data center grid demand could exceed 40 GW by about 2028, up from 8 GW in 2025, driven by AI infrastructure needs A few questions from me: 1) Who is actually delivering the HV/MV engineering, protection studies, and commissioning at this scale, and is that talent pool expanding fast enough? 2) How much of the Texas build-out is being financed on the assumption of on-site generation (gas, BESS, hybrid) versus pure grid supply? 3) How could behind-the-meter generation and storage at hyperscale campuses be structured so ERCOT can rely on them during system stress without introducing operational risk to the data center?

The Great Texas Industrial Rebuild: $189B and Growing! Texas is in the midst of a massive manufacturing transformation. From the "Silicon Prairie" in Sherman to the "Physical AI" hubs in Austin and Fort Worth. Top Manufacturing Investments, $189B: 🔴 Samsung Electronics (Taylor & Austin) | $45.0B: A massive leading-edge logic cluster. Taylor is currently in EUV trials for 2nm production, slated for early 2027. 🔴 Texas Instruments (Sherman) | $40.0B: The SM1 fab is now in high-volume production of 300mm analog and power chips, with SM2 following close behind. 🔴 Tesla Giga Texas (Austin) | $10.0B: Home to the "Cortex" AI supercluster and the primary assembly lines for the Optimus Gen-3 humanoid robot. 🔴 GlobalWafers America (Sherman) | $7.5B: Phase 2 expansion is active, providing the critical 300mm silicon foundation for the domestic chip industry. 🔴 Eli Lilly and Company (Houston) | $6.5B: A 236-acre "Generation Park" site under construction to produce next-gen synthetic medicines (APIs). 🔴 Apple (Houston) | $1.0+B: AI servers ramping now; Mac mini production starts late 2026. Top Data Center & AI Infrastructure, $110B-$130B: 🟢 Google ( Armstrong & Haskell County) | $40B: 3 AI data center hubs paired with new solar and battery storage plant. 🟢 Abilene AI Factory (Abilene) | $34.3B: A massive pivot point in the industry; following the OpenAI/Oracle shift, Meta is now in advanced negotiations for the 800MW expansion space. 🟢 Anthropic (Hale) | $50B (US total): Will build a network of hyperscale AI data centers across the U.S. with Texas as an anchor. 🟢 Amazon (Hood/Somervell County) | $11B: This 21-building campus will run "behind-the-meter" using power from the Comanche Peak Nuclear Plant. If Texas is #2 at $189B, who is #1?? Welcome to AZ at $213B, where TSMC alone is investing $165B with much more on the way following the recent roadmap expansion announcement from Taiwan. A3 - Association for Advancing Automation members are helping manufacturers rebuild through robotics and automation. Visit the Automate Show in Chicago this June to learn more. #Texas #Manufacturing #Semiconductors #robotics

The U.S. data center map is being completely rewritten! Texas is about to overtake Virginia. Georgia is exploding. Pennsylvania is quietly becoming a sleeper powerhouse. Why? It’s no longer about fiber. It’s no longer about tax incentives. 👉 It’s about power, land, and speed to permit. Texas alone is projected to lead the nation with the largest pipeline of data centers, driven by deregulated power markets and rapid development cycles. It’s a massive industrial reshoring event driven by AI. • Steel • Copper • Cement • Power generation • Water infrastructure Every one of these supply chains is being pulled forward at unprecedented scale. The same regions attracting AI infrastructure… are the same regions now debating whether they even want it. We’re seeing: • Moratoriums • Grid constraints • Water scrutiny • Community pushback Meanwhile, over 150 GW of new neocloud data center capacity is being planned across the U.S.—a near 10x increase from today. #AI #DataCenters #Infrastructure #Water #Energy #Sustainability #DigitalEconomy

Austin has 4,500+ startups, $7.94B in VC (2025), and zero state income tax. If you're building: You land in a city where: Physical AI is the breakout category. Robotics, defense tech, clean energy, AI. Your hiring pool is 138,000+ tech workers deep. Fed by UT Austin, corporate spillover from: Tesla. Oracle. Apple. Dell …and a steady stream of SF/NYC transplants. No state income tax means: Your equity is worth more on the way in and on the way out. Founders who exit here keep more than founders who exit in California. If you're building dual-use or defense tech, The buyer is literally in your zip code. You won't lack for: Accelerators Coworking, Or warm intros to capital. But there's a catch: Mega-rounds are inflating the headline numbers. Base Power ($1B), Saronic ($600M), NinjaOne ($500M). Early-stage deal flow was flat in 2025, And the bar for a seed check has gone up. Some VCs now want $1M ARR before writing a first check. That's either a warning or an opportunity, depending on where you sit. Still, Austin is one of the fastest-growing major tech ecosystems in the US. $89B ecosystem value, No. 6 US city, top-ranked by growth rate. ________________ i5growth / i5invest: Investment Fund, global tech M&A arm, team of 100+, offices in San Francisco, Vienna, Madrid, Berlin, Frankfurt; 200+ exits & strategic partnerships with tech leaders such as Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Qualcomm, Samsung, Nvidia, Naspers, NBC, … #strategy #startups #growth #i5growth #i5invest