Data Center Frontier's Land & Expand report finds North America's data-center pipeline still growing, though under mounting pressure.

Land & Expand is Data Center Frontier's periodic look at the latest data center development news, including new sites, land acquisitions and campus expansions across North America.

This installment finds the development pipeline continuing to expand, even as the requirements for bringing large-scale projects online grow more complicated. Developers are securing land, planning new power infrastructure and advancing campuses measured in hundreds of megawatts or more. At the same time, local governments and residents are demanding greater clarity on electricity costs, water consumption, noise, tax incentives and the long-term effects of industrial-scale computing facilities.

A series of development disclosures and project milestones from September and early October 2026 illustrates both the geographic reach of North America's expanding data center pipeline and the growing difficulty of measuring how much proposed capacity will ultimately be delivered.

The projects range from preliminary discussions and newly secured development sites to campuses already under construction. Some are advancing through formal permitting and power studies; others remain contingent on customers, financing or local approvals. Together, they reveal an industry still expanding aggressively but operating under increasingly complex development conditions.

**Fluidstack: Cameron County, Texas (Up to 1.5 GW)**

One of the largest newly disclosed projects is Fluidstack's AI data center development in Cameron County, in the Rio Grande Valley. The project surfaced publicly on September 10, when Cameron County announced that it had issued Fluidstack a worksite permit for property near Harlingen. The permit authorizes preliminary site work, including grading, utilities and related infrastructure, rather than construction of the data center buildings themselves.

Fluidstack disclosed considerably more detail on September 21, saying construction had begun on a $4 billion first phase capable of supporting as much as 1.5 GW.

Fluidstack expects the project to generate more than 2,500 construction jobs and several hundred permanent positions. The company has placed unusual emphasis on the project's local infrastructure impact. It says it requested no local property-tax abatements and intends to pay for the energy, water and infrastructure necessary to serve the campus. Cooling will use a recirculating closed-loop system.

With up to 1.5 GW in its announced first phase, Cameron County represents a major addition to the Texas AI development pipeline and reflects the increasingly industrial scale of projects designed to support advanced computing.

**Microsoft ATL50: Union City, Georgia**

A new filing for Microsoft's ATL50 campus entered Georgia's Development of Regional Impact review process on September 15. Microsoft filed plans for ATL50, a new data center campus at 5235 Stonewall Tell Road in Union City, southwest of Atlanta. The plans call for two three-story data center buildings totaling approximately 910,000 square feet on 88 acres. The filing projects completion in 2032.

Microsoft already has a substantial Georgia footprint, with development activity in Fairburn, Douglasville, Palmetto, Rome, East Point and other communities. ATL50 represents another proposed campus in the greater Atlanta market rather than an entry into a new region. No electrical capacity has been disclosed.

**Project Gravel: Pima County, Arizona**

Another proposed development emerged through public-records reporting rather than a corporate announcement. Documents obtained in September disclosed Project Gravel, an eight-building data center campus being evaluated on approximately 160 acres of vacant land in unincorporated Pima County, west of Sahuarita, Arizona.

The plans show eight buildings of roughly 203,000 square feet each, producing a potential campus of approximately 1.6 million square feet, along with a dedicated electrical substation, roads and parking infrastructure. Project documents contemplate full buildout by 2029, contingent on the development advancing through the necessary approvals.

County staff had reportedly been evaluating the proposal for months before details became public. Neither the developer nor a prospective tenant has been publicly identified, and the planned electrical load remains undisclosed. The disclosure has already generated local concern. Residents gathered on September 29 to discuss the project's potential effects on water, energy use and the surrounding environment. Sahuarita officials subsequently clarified that the proposed site lies outside town boundaries, under Pima County jurisdiction.

Project Gravel also illustrates the difficulty of determining the true size of the U.S. development pipeline. Large sites can remain in engineering, environmental and land-use review for months before appearing in conventional industry announcements.

**Gray Oak Power: Undisclosed South Texas Campus**

Another visible development appeared on September 25, although considerably less is known about it. Gray Oak Power disclosed that a South Texas data center campus had advanced through ERCOT's Studied Load Batch Zero process. The company has not disclosed the community, tenant or ultimate campus capacity.

Advancement through the Studied Load Batch Zero process confirms that another large-load development is progressing through the Texas interconnection review system, although it does not represent final grid-connection approval. Gray Oak's proposed strategy calls for the campus to begin operating with dedicated onsite generation, followed by a utility grid connection and the eventual ability to supply electricity back to the grid. The company targets initial power in 2028 and utility grid service in 2029. Until the location, electrical load and customer are disclosed, the project remains an early-stage development.

**Lambda: Mayes County, Oklahoma**

On September 27, AI cloud provider Lambda announced an entirely new data center at the MidAmerica Industrial Park in Mayes County, Oklahoma, near Chouteau.

Lambda has not disclosed either the capital cost or the megawatt capacity of the facility, but it expects development to support as many as 1,000 construction jobs and 100 permanent positions. The company estimates the project could produce approximately $500 million in taxes over its first decade at current rates.

Unlike many data center announcements of several years ago, Lambda's disclosure immediately addressed electricity costs and water consumption. The company says it will pay the full cost of the energy and infrastructure required to serve the facility, consistent with Oklahoma's Data Center Customer Ratepayer Protection Act. Lambda also plans to use closed-loop cooling to reduce water consumption and is examining ways to shift or reduce certain computing workloads during periods of peak grid demand.

**Google/Crusoe: Armstrong County, Texas**

One of September's most consequential disclosures concerned a project already well into construction. Google had announced plans for an Armstrong County data center in November 2025, but on September 28, Crusoe identified itself as the developer of the Google AI campus outside Amarillo. Crusoe said construction began in June 2025 and that more than 5,500 skilled workers were now on site daily.

The campus has direct connections to Serena's adjacent 265.5 MW Goodnight 1 wind farm and the 265.5 MW Goodnight 2 project, which is now under construction. Crusoe says excess wind generation can flow to the grid when production exceeds campus requirements. Neither Google nor Crusoe has disclosed the full electrical capacity of the campus. Those generation figures should not be confused with the data center's electrical load, which has not been publicly disclosed.

The disclosure illustrates how construction can advance well beyond the initial project announcement before the full development structure becomes public. It also reflects the growing importance of colocating AI infrastructure with large-scale energy resources.

**Clean Cloud Energy: Mahomet, Illinois**

Illinois offered a different illustration of the pressures shaping data center development. On September 28, the Village of Mahomet disclosed that Clean Cloud Energy had approached the community about a potential data center campus on rural property west of Champaign. Discussions were preliminary but had advanced to include draft language for a possible development agreement. No formal project capacity or investment amount had been announced.

Those discussions then ended abruptly. On October 5, the village announced that it would no longer pursue the opportunity with Clean Cloud Energy, citing extensive public opposition. Residents had raised concerns about proximity to homes, noise, lighting, infrastructure requirements and potential impacts on the Mahomet Aquifer. Village President Jason Tompkins said community feedback had played a significant role in the decision.