Central Texas' data center boom
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
/2024/08/27/1724779925862.gif?w=3840)
Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
Austin and San Antonio's combined under-construction data center activity more than quadrupled in the first half of 2024 from a year ago, per a new report from commercial services firm CBRE.
Why it matters: Data centers, which underpin so much of our technological lives — including artificial intelligence, require enormous amounts of energy to operate.
Stunning stat: "At 2.9 watt-hours per ChatGPT request, AI queries are estimated to require 10x the electricity of traditional Google queries," the Electric Power Research Institute reported earlier this year.
The big picture: In June, Pablo Vegas, the CEO of grid operator the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, told lawmakers that within the next six years, grid capacity needs to grow from 85,000 to 150,000 megawatts.
- Bitcoin mining and data centers will account for more than half of the added growth on the Texas grid, he said.
Between the lines: Those industries "produce very few jobs compared to the incredible demands they place on our grid," Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wrote on X after the briefing.
- "Texans will ultimately pay the price. … We want data centers, but it can't be the Wild Wild West of data centers and crypto miners crashing our grid and turning the lights off."
By the numbers: If the region's in-progress construction was completed tomorrow, the combined Austin/San Antonio market would become the second-largest data center market in the country, trailing behind only Northern Virginia, according to CBRE.
- 96% of all under-construction data center capacity in the region is pre-leased, according to CBRE.
What they're saying: "The trend has been consistent over the past two years: Demand for data center capacity far exceeds supply, which continues to drive up pricing in a material way," Pat Lynch, executive managing director and global head of CBRE's Data Center Solutions, said in a statement.
- "Based on the preleasing numbers in this report and forecasts for demand, we expect to see this imbalance continue for several more quarters."