Data centers in Bell County, Texas: 3 projects mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Temple is where Bell County's data centers are. Meta opened its AI data center on Industrial Boulevard in July 2026, two buildings and more than 760,000 square feet representing more than $1.2 billion, after breaking ground in 2022 and restarting construction on a new design in 2023; it says the site has about 100 operations jobs. Rowan Digital Infrastructure is building six data centers across three projects, Project Temple, Project Stampede and Project Ranger, in and around the Synergy Southeast Industrial Park, a footprint it values at a minimum of $4.2 billion, against the $300 million campus it first proposed in 2021. Five of the six are approved or under way; the city council took up the sixth, the Lasso building, on September 17, and no report of that vote has surfaced since. Rowan has a 50 percent, 10-year abatement on city and county property taxes; the school districts get full taxes. It says it will use closed-loop, air-chilled cooling and has agreed to pay about $32 million of Temple's $71.1 million South Temple water program. It has not named a tenant.

The backlash has moved up to the county. More than 100 people packed a Commissioners Court workshop in Belton; 47 signed up to speak and nearly all opposed more data centers or asked for a moratorium. "Do better for us than the City Council did for us," said Temple resident Lynn Thomas. County Judge David Blackburn's draft resolution would stop short of a ban, calling instead for safeguards on water, power and land and for the Legislature to give counties more authority. "I don't think you elected me to break the law, although you are asking me to do that," Commissioner Russell Schneider told the crowd. In July residents pushed the court to stop giving data centers tax abatements; commissioners replied that outside city limits an abatement agreement is the only lever they have to impose noise limits, water rules or a diesel generator ban. "I don't think any data center should be given a tax abatement," said farmer Alton Fowler. "They're already ahead."

In Killeen, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted 4-1 in April 2026 against ONMINE's $30 million "computing and energy research annex" on three acres on South Fort Hood Street, overruling its staff. "I've not seen a single citizen say that it was beneficial to their community," Commissioner Scedric Ross said. The applicant withdrew before the June 2 council vote.

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.