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Data centers in Doña Ana County, New Mexico: 1 project mapped
Doña Ana County is home to Project Jupiter, a four-building AI data center campus on about 1,400 acres just north of the Santa Teresa port of entry, built for Oracle and OpenAI. It was unveiled at a county meeting on Aug. 26, 2025. On Sept. 19, after a seven-hour meeting held behind metal detectors and extra armed security, the county commission voted 4-1 to issue $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds. Under the deal the county owns the site and leases it back to developer BorderPlex Digital Assets for 30 years. The developer pays no property tax and instead pays the county $360 million over that time, $12 million a year. Stack Infrastructure pledged $50 million for water and wastewater work. Commissioner Susana Chaparro, the lone no vote, tried three times to delay it. "This has been rushed for me and for the people whom I represent," she said. BorderPlex chairman Lanham Napier had said a delay would kill the project. When the vote passed, the crowd shouted "sellouts" and "recall."
Water drove much of the anger. Santa Teresa and Sunland Park residents have lived for years with drinking water from the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority that contained unsafe levels of arsenic. "How about our drinking water? How come you didn't work that fast?" Sunland Park resident Jesus Baquera asked the commissioners. The developers say the campus uses closed-loop cooling on water rights bought from a sod farm, and the state engineer says no farmer's water is being taken. At approval, the developers said the campus would average 20,000 gallons a day, capped at 60,000, against the 2.6 million gallons a day the local utility pumps. Las Cruces resident Allen Downs warned that if the gas plant used water at the rate of El Paso Electric's newest units, generation alone "could be in the ballpark of 2.5 million gallons a day." The figures have since moved. NPR reported in June 2026 that Oracle now puts the data center and its power plant at about 11 million gallons of non-potable water. Pecan grower Eddie Estrada, six miles away, said most of his 28 trees had died in the drought. Commission chairman Manny Sanchez defended the deal: "We've never had that type of money here in Doña Ana County." State Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena said the county "bowed to that pressure" when told the project would go elsewhere.
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The campus makes its own electricity, and that is where the legal fight now sits. The first plan was gas turbines and diesel generators. Source NM reported they would emit more than 14 million tons of greenhouse gases a year, more than Albuquerque and Las Cruces combined. In April 2026 the developers switched to a Bloom Energy fuel-cell microgrid running on natural gas, listed at about 10 million tons a year. The New Mexico Environment Department scheduled a hearing on the air permit. In August the state Supreme Court froze both it and a water-well permit on petitions from New Energy Economy and the Center for Biological Diversity. On Sept. 17, 2026, the court unanimously lifted those stays without explanation. The hearing officer has recused himself and no new hearing date has been set.
Construction has not waited. Oracle told the county commission in September 2026 that the campus was 26% complete, with about 3,500 people working on the site. Oracle says county building permits for structures that need no air permit are not held up. The microgrid site was 10% complete in preparatory work, and the project still lacks State Land Office approval for a gas pipeline across state trust land. State Sen. Joseph Cervantes said the project was "building without legal authority and then getting so far... that nobody would dare stop." The New Mexico Environmental Law Center is in active litigation against county officials over the project.
Data center projects on record in Doña Ana County
Grouped by the town each site sits in. The report above may name projects that have no record here yet.
Santa Teresa1
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI Stargate New Mexico (Project Jupiter)Santa Teresa | BorderPlex Digital Assets / STACK Infrastructure | Under construction | 2,200 MW |
Where this comes from
The reporting above was written from these. Open one and check it yourself.
Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.