Data centers in Shackelford County, Texas: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Shackelford County's largest town, Albany, is about 35 miles northeast of Abilene, and the county is now home to one of the largest AI data center campuses under construction in the US. Vantage Data Centers' "Frontier" campus sits on about 1,200 acres at Highway 604 and Highway 351, west of Albany, and is being built for OpenAI and Oracle's Stargate project. At full build-out it is planned to hold 10 buildings totaling 1,400 megawatts of power. Vantage broke ground in December 2025; the first building is due to go live in the second half of 2026.

Commissioners approved the project unanimously in July 2025, creating a reinvestment zone and a 10-year tax abatement under which Vantage will pay the county $10 million a year instead of property taxes -- a sum the Albany News said could raise the county's operating budget by nearly 200 percent. Vantage also pledged $150,000 a year to local charities and up to 10 college scholarships a year, and says the campus will bring 250 full-time jobs and up to 6,500 workers at peak construction. Because the site falls in the Clyde school district, Albany's schools get no direct benefit. Construction traffic has been the most visible effect: gravel trucks are expected to peak through early 2027, and resident Twylia Waldon told commissioners trucks pass "one after the other" and "do not follow the speed limits."

In July 2026, Bolt Data and Energy proposed a second project, Project North, on the Buck Nail Ranch about 16 miles west of Albany. Bolt representative Peter Richards said the company would "co-locate power and compute together" and expects to put excess power back onto the grid. As of August 2026, Bolt had not confirmed the project's size, water use, jobs or timeline. Commissioners have accepted Bolt's tax abatement application and formed a citizen advisory committee, but had not approved the project. "I don't see how specifically Albany and Shackleford County, the people who live here, grew up here, are benefiting from these data centers," resident James Scottie said.

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.