Poolside, an Nvidia-backed (NASDAQ:NVDA) AI startup, along with CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV), is planning to build a giant data center complex in Texas that will be able to generate its own power.
Known as Project Horizon, the data center will be built on 568 acres of development-ready land and will be developed in eight phases of 250 MW each.
Situated in the sprawling ranch in West Texas, the site is owned by the Mitchell family, which has run oil-and-gas companies for decades in the state. The site is next to a major natural gas hub, along with established water and processing infrastructure, which could help reduce costs and improve the long-term viability of the data center.
“Project Horizon is our answer to the infrastructure and power bottlenecks facing the industry, and limiting every lab competing for the frontier: a ground-up data-center development designed to give us long-term control over power, cost, and scale through vertical integration,” Poolside said.
Under the agreement, CoreWeave will provide cluster of Nvidia AI computing resources, including more than 40,000 GPUs. The cloud-infrastructure provider also said that it would serve as the anchor tenant and operational partner for the first phase of the project, which comprises 250MW of gross power and includes an option to further expand capacity by an additional 500MW.
Horizon plans to use an on-site gas plant built years ago by Occidental Petroleum and other infrastructure, including pipelines, will make it possible for the data center to generate its own power, reported The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, adding that both companies expect to complete construction in the first quarter of 2027.
This comes as companies are racing to announce data centre deals to expand infrastructure that is required to develop AI technology.
OpenAI (OPENAI) has been signing deals with tech heavyweights including Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Nvidia and Broadcom (AVGO) to boost AI infrastructure.
Earlier in the day, Nscale has signed an expanded deal with Microsoft (MSFT) for about 200,000 Nvidia GB300 GPUs of hyperscale Nvidia AI infrastructure across Europe and the U.S. in one of the largest AI infrastructure contracts ever signed.
An investment consortium that includes BlackRock, Nvidia, xAI (X.AI) and Microsoft has also reportedly planned a $40B takeover of one of the world’s largest data center operators.
Poolside is also in the midst of a $2 billion fundraising round that would value the company at $14 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The AI coding startup, which counts Nvidia among its investors, has raised $500 million about a year ago at a $3 billion valuation.