Crusoe Reveals It Is Developing Google's Data Center Campus Near Amarillo, Texas

CLAUDE, Texas — Crusoe, the AI infrastructure company, announced Sept. 28 that it is the developer of Google's data center campus under construction in Armstrong County, outside Amarillo. The campus is designed to support advanced AI workloads and is connected directly to dedicated wind generation on an adjacent site.

The disclosure confirms Crusoe's role in one of the more closely watched data center projects in West Texas. Construction began in June 2025, and the company said more than 5,500 skilled laborers are on-site daily.

Project Scale and Energy Infrastructure

The Armstrong County campus — also identified in permitting records as the Goodnight campus and Project Llano — comprises two data center buildings near Claude, Texas. Permitting filings indicate each building is approximately 805,380 square feet, for a combined footprint of roughly 1.61 million square feet. Estimated construction costs for the two buildings total approximately $1 billion.

The campus has a direct connection to Serena's Goodnight 1 wind farm, which carries 265.5 megawatts of operating capacity, and Goodnight 2, also rated at 265.5 MW, which was under construction at the time of the announcement. Combined nameplate capacity across the two wind projects is approximately 531 MW. Crusoe said the Goodnight 2 project was catalyzed by its development at the site.

When wind generation exceeds campus demand, surplus power flows back to the grid, which Crusoe said benefits local ratepayers and reduces curtailment of West Texas wind energy.

"Building the future of AI requires a new kind of infrastructure, starting with energy. Crusoe's strategy is to build AI factories directly at the source of abundant, low-cost energy — to both improve utilization of existing assets as well as catalyze new energy generation," said Chase Lochmiller, CEO and co-founder of Crusoe. "The Armstrong County campus is a prime example of this energy-first strategy. We're bringing new, affordable clean energy online. We broke ground in June 2025 and are building at the same swift pace we set in Abilene."

Water Efficiency and Cooling Design

The campus is engineered with a closed-loop, non-evaporative liquid cooling system. Unlike conventional evaporative cooling, which consumes water through evaporation, the closed-loop design recirculates coolant and limits the facility's water footprint primarily to domestic uses such as kitchens.

Community Investment and Google's Energy Impact Fund

In addition to the construction workforce, Google's Energy Impact Fund has announced support for efficiency upgrades in public buildings and homes in Armstrong County. Crusoe said the project represents significant investment and employment for the local community.

West Texas Portfolio and Market Context

The Armstrong County campus is part of Crusoe's broader West Texas development strategy, which also includes two campuses under development in Abilene. The Abilene project is being expanded to approximately 4 million square feet across eight buildings with total capacity of 1.2 gigawatts. Crusoe, Blue Owl Capital and Primary Digital Infrastructure announced a $15 billion joint venture tied to the Abilene development, with the project having secured approximately $11.6 billion in debt and equity financing. Crusoe also holds a $750 million credit facility from Brookfield to support its energy-first data center development program.

The Armstrong County announcement comes as demand for AI-capable data center capacity has outpaced available supply across North America. North American data center vacancy stood at approximately 1% for the third consecutive year in 2026, with roughly 66 gigawatts under construction and 95% of that capacity already pre-committed. Hyperscalers accounted for 59% of 2026 data center tenant demand, while approximately 28 gigawatts of owner-occupied capacity was under construction globally.

Texas has emerged as a primary development market for the sector. As of April 2026, the state had approximately 84 operating data centers totaling 3,800 MW, with another 140 projects in the planning pipeline that could add approximately 75,000 MW if built. Texas had approximately 6.5 gigawatts of data center capacity under construction at year-end 2025.

Sources

Crusoe — Crusoe Developing Data Center Campus in Armstrong County, Texas (Sept. 28, 2026)