Galaxy Expands AI Data Center Footprint With 500-Acre Texas Campus

Galaxy mentioned on July 28 that it has acquired roughly 500 acres of land in McGregor, McLennan County, Texas, underneath a growth settlement with the Metropolis of McGregor, to construct and function a knowledge heart campus serving synthetic intelligence and high-performance computing within the McGregor Industrial Park.

This marks Galaxy’s second main information heart funding in Texas, following its Helios campus in West Texas. The mission exhibits that the corporate is increasing additional into AI infrastructure, amid quickly rising compute demand and intensifying competitors amongst information heart builders for land, energy, and deployment pace.

Galaxy is increasing its information heart footprint. We have executed a growth settlement and purchased 500 acres in McGregor, Texas, for the development and operation of an AI and HPC information heart campus.

Galaxy is advancing the electricalinfrastructure required to assist the… pic.twitter.com/FD7l5q8Bb7

— Galaxy (@galaxyhq) July 28, 2026

The McGregor Campus

The McGregor campus is designed as a multi-phase growth, beginning with 74 MW and with potential for vital enlargement as soon as extra transmission infrastructure is accomplished. Galaxy mentioned the mission is being developed with the McGregor Financial Growth Company and Coronary heart of Texas Electrical Cooperative, with which the corporate has signed service agreements to assist required interconnection gadgets.

The primary part is predicted to start receiving energy in 2028. If infrastructure timelines progress as deliberate, Galaxy expects the 500-acre web site may develop to a multi-hundred-megawatt scale by 2030, shifting McGregor from an preliminary 74 MW part into the larger-scale information heart asset class inside the firm’s portfolio.

Galaxy acknowledged the campus will probably be privately funded, whereas committing to constructing its personal substation on the web site and offering monetary assurances as required by the electrical utility for associated upgrades. For AI information heart tasks, energy, interconnection, and commissioning gadgets typically decide operational pace simply as a lot as bodily facility building.

This method can be supposed to mitigate value impacts on native electrical energy customers. In response to Galaxy, its non-public infrastructure funding and monetary assurances are designed to forestall the price of serving the campus from being handed on to regional ratepayers.

Affect on McGregor

The five hundred-acre land acquisition brings roughly $7.5 million in land sale income to the Metropolis of McGregor. Galaxy additionally estimates that the mission will add a minimum of $130 million to the native actual property tax base.

In the course of the building part, the mission is predicted to create jobs for a number of hundred building employees and engineering companions. As soon as operational, the campus would require a everlasting workforce to handle information heart operations, keep energy infrastructure, cooling, safety, and bodily amenities.

Galaxy acknowledged the McGregor campus will make the most of a closed-loop cooling system, just like Helios, to recirculate water internally and scale back water utilization in comparison with water-intensive cooling fashions. The corporate additionally mentioned it should fund extra water infrastructure gadgets underneath the event settlement.

For McGregor, key indicators within the coming years will probably be precise tax revenues, long-term jobs, water utilization, and the progress of accompanying infrastructure upgrades.

Galaxy’s AI Infrastructure Push

Galaxy is historically higher recognized within the digital property sector, however in recent times has pushed aggressively into AI/HPC infrastructure, significantly by way of Helios in Dickens County, West Texas. The corporate acquired Helios in 2022 and transformed the campus from a facility tied to bitcoin mining right into a large-scale AI/HPC campus.

Helios at present has over 1.6 GW of ERCOT-approved energy capability and holds a long-term lease settlement with CoreWeave, one of many distinguished AI cloud firms available in the market. On July 6, Galaxy introduced it had accomplished Part I at Helios, handing over 133 MW of important IT load to CoreWeave.

Galaxy additionally introduced the pricing of a $3.507 billion offering of senior secured notes to partially fund Helios II, consisting of two buildings with eight information halls in Dickens County. This capital elevate highlights the dimensions of capital required for Galaxy to develop its information heart phase alongside its digital property enterprise.

The addition of McGregor expands Galaxy’s footprint in Texas past Helios, the anchor asset of the corporate’s information heart enterprise. If executed in keeping with plan, the brand new campus will deliver Galaxy nearer to a multi-site AI/HPC infrastructure mannequin, somewhat than counting on a single campus.

Execution Dangers

Galaxy famous that many mission milestones stay topic to growth situations, together with allowing, regulatory approvals, building progress, energy interconnection, commissioning, regulatory modifications, and AI/HPC market situations.

For McGregor, the timeline to energise the primary part in 2028 would be the most important milestone. If interconnection or transmission infrastructure is delayed, the campus’s ramp-up timeline may be affected. That is an industry-wide threat for information facilities, as energy demand for AI grows quicker than grid enlargement and electrical tools provide chains.

Compute demand can even fluctuate primarily based on funding cycles of hyperscalers, AI clouds, and know-how enterprises. Galaxy frames this demand as a structural shift, however multi-hundred-megawatt tasks nonetheless require long-term contracts, secure tenants, and affordable capital prices to realize monetary effectivity.

What Comes Subsequent

Within the coming interval, Galaxy might want to full allowing, interconnection, and personal substation building steps earlier than the McGregor campus can obtain energy. The corporate expects the primary part to start receiving energy in 2028, adopted by expansions primarily based on the progress of extra transmission upgrades.

If this progress is maintained, McGregor will mark Galaxy’s subsequent main enlargement step following Helios. The mission may also show how successfully the corporate can flip its multi-site AI/HPC information heart technique right into a large-scale enterprise phase.