Microsoft SAT40 data center, San Antonio, Texas

Microsoft's SAT40 data center sits on about 70 acres at 15000 Lambda Drive, in Texas Research Park near State Highway 211 on the far west side of San Antonio. It is one of eight Microsoft properties across Bexar and Medina counties, more than $1.2 billion of investment since the company's first two San Antonio data centers went up in 2015 at $90 million each. Microsoft registered the building with Texas accessibility regulators on March 3, 2023 as new construction of a 153,227-square-foot data center shell, at an estimated cost of $175.9 million, with work scheduled from June to September 2023.

What nobody outside the utility can find out is how much water any of them use. KSAT asked the San Antonio Water System for three years of water records covering 36 Bexar County data centers and was refused under Section 552.1331 of the Texas Government Code, which SAWS reads as shielding smart meter data on commercial accounts. The provision was written about six years earlier by State Representative Diego Bernal to stop payday lenders getting at household water use. Asked whether the utility had read his bill correctly, Bernal replied: "Absolutely not." He went on: "At this point, especially because of your request, I think there's fair warning that something has to be fixed." He added: "Data centers are doing tremendous damage to Texas, to our water supply, to air quality." SAWS spokesperson Anne Hayden said the utility "is correctly interpreting and applying the law," and State Representative Cody Harris said at a legislative hearing: "The transparency of utilization of resources shouldn't be optional."

Davin Hicks, a Cibolo resident opposing a data center near him, said: "People are outraged because nobody knows and they just pop up."

Microsoft's other holdings in the two counties include Westover Link on State Highway 151 at an estimated $216 million, a site on the Bexar and Medina county line at $230 million, and SAT80-1 and SAT80-2 on 206 rural acres at Potranco Road and FM 471 near Castroville.