The AI buildout now comes measured in gigawatts, not square feet. Vantage Data Centers has broken ground on Frontier, a $25 billion, 1.4-gigawatt campus in Shackelford County, Texas that ranks as the company’s largest project anywhere. Spread across 1,200 acres, it will hold 10 data centers totaling 3.7 million square feet and is tied into the Stargate expansion backed by Oracle and OpenAI.
Project Scope
Frontier is engineered for the density that current AI hardware demands, supporting racks above 250 kilowatts using liquid cooling. A closed-loop chiller system keeps water use minimal, a design Vantage says will save billions of gallons a year against conventional cooling. The first building is scheduled for delivery in the second half of 2026, with construction and operations expected to employ more than 5,000 people. The DigitalBridge-backed developer is phasing the ten buildings to bring capacity online as power and demand allow.
Why It Matters
Siting a campus this size starts with the substation, not the slab. Available power, not capital, is the real constraint on AI infrastructure, and 1.4 gigawatts in one location is a serious claim on the Texas grid. Closed-loop cooling also answers the water criticism that trails big data centers, especially in a dry region. Frontier is a template for how the next wave of hyperscale campuses gets built: enormous, power-first, and designed around cooling from day one.
Project Team & Details
| Developer | Vantage Data Centers |
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| Owner / Client | Vantage Data Centers (DigitalBridge-backed) |
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| Status | Under Construction |
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| Funding Source | Private |
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