A $10 billion（約1.6兆円） AI data center in Texas is creating a stark divide between neighboring towns over who benefits and who bears the consequences.

What happened: Infrakey, an AI data center developer, purchased 520 acres of unincorporated farmland next to Ross, Texas, for a proposed $10 billion（約1.6兆円） AI data center campus with a power capacity of nearly 1 gigawatt. Lacy Lakeview, a town seven miles away with a population of 7,500, approved a memorandum of understanding in December 2025 to annex the site and collect up to $50 million（約80億円） a year in taxes. Ross, with a population of just 200 and no taxing authority, sits directly next to the project but has no legal power to stop or shape it.

Why it matters: Across Texas and other states in the South and Midwest, rural communities are caught in the path of an AI infrastructure boom as hyperscalers (large cloud providers) and AI companies spend hundreds of billions on data center campuses. The unusual Texas land-use rules around unincorporated county land have created a situation where residents most directly affected by the project—like the roughly 200 homes scattered near the perimeter of the property—may have the least say over it, even as the project reshapes their region.

What to watch: The proposed AI data center is expected to be completed in the next two years. Residents of Ross are concerned about construction traffic from thousands of trucks on small local roads never designed for heavy industrial use, and the loss of farmland that many neighbors chose the area for. Mayor Jim Jaska of Ross steps down from office in November 2025.