How long it takes to build an AI data center, from land to power on

Going from cleared land to the first running AI buildings has taken about 15 months at the best documented US site, and full multi gigawatt campuses are planned over three to five years. The schedule is set less by construction than by electricity: grid studies, turbines, substations and permits.

This post follows real sites through each stage, shows which dates have slipped, and explains the terms along the way. It uses public reporting and trackers, and it flags where sources disagree. It is not investment advice, and nothing here predicts when any project will finish.

Key numbers at a glance

• Abilene, Texas (Cleanview timeline): land clearing began June 2024, the first building shell was complete December 2024, and the first 200 megawatt phase was operating in September 2025. That is about 15 months from clearing to first power, counting between the timeline's dates.
• Abilene, planned capacity: about 1.2 gigawatts across eight buildings (Epoch AI, update of 23 April 2026).
• Abilene, status per Epoch AI (23 April 2026): an estimated 0.3 gigawatts operating, about four of eight buildings. Epoch's own earlier version said 0.6 gigawatts, and an Oracle post implied about 200 megawatts on 22 April 2026. Epoch projects completion in the fourth quarter of 2026.
• Abilene, earlier plan (Bisnow, May 2025): six more buildings expected by mid 2026, bringing the campus to 1.2 gigawatts. That date has moved.
• Other OpenAI Stargate sites tracked by Epoch AI: five more sites listed with projected completion in the fourth quarter of 2028 (a sixth, Lordstown, has no date) and construction starts between the third quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026.
• Hyperion, Louisiana: state regulators approved three gas plants for Meta's campus on 20 August 2025 by a 4 to 1 vote (KALB). Data Center Frontier gives planned in service for the new units as late 2028 and 2029, with the initial 2 gigawatts targeted for 2030.
• Texas grid queue (ERCOT testimony, 29 July 2026, as reported by Global Data Center Hub): more than 1,800 large load requests totalling about 474 gigawatts, roughly 90 percent data centers.
• Texas all time hourly peak demand: 91,089 megawatts on 22 July 2026 (same source).
• Texas queue earlier (BIC Magazine, 6 March 2026): more than 233 gigawatts, about 63 gigawatts roughly 14 months before, and about 7.5 gigawatts actually connected.
• Turner & Townsend survey (5 November 2025): 48 percent of respondents named power availability the biggest obstacle to on time delivery.
• CBRE (8 September 2026): over 80 percent of capacity under construction in eight primary North American markets is already preleased, with under 1,500 megawatts left to preleasing, about six months of supply at current demand.
• Texas water (Houston Advanced Research Center, via Texas Tribune, 25 September 2025): data centers used about 25 billion gallons in 2025, about 0.4 percent of Texas water use, and could reach up to 2.7 percent by 2030.

The stages, in order

A large AI data center goes through the same broad steps whoever builds it. The order matters because several can run in parallel only after earlier ones are settled.

• Choose a site and secure control of the land, by purchase or a long ground lease.
• Get a credible path to power: a place in the utility's queue, a study, and an agreement on who pays for upgrades.
• Get local approvals, usually zoning or land use, and environmental permits such as air permits for any on site generation.
• Order long lead equipment, meaning gear that takes a long time to make, such as transformers and gas turbines.
• Clear and prepare the ground, then build shells, install power and cooling, and commission the buildings.
• Energise: the moment the site is connected and allowed to draw power. This is a formal step, not just a switch.
• Add the computers and bring the cluster into service.

Timelines in the news usually quote the stage that is easiest to measure, such as "construction start" or "first building". The hard to see stage is the second one. A project can have land, money and a builder and still wait years for power.

A real timeline: Abilene, Texas

Abilene is the most documented site because it moved first. Here is its sequence, using the Cleanview timeline unless noted.

• June 2024: land clearing begins.
• December 2024: the first building shell is complete, turbine site clearing begins, and the developer, Crusoe, orders ten GE Vernova LM2500XPRESS gas turbine units.
• January 2025: Crusoe files an air permit application with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for behind the meter generation. Behind the meter means power produced on the customer's side of the utility connection, for the site's own use.
• June 2025: Crusoe orders 19 more of the same turbine type.
• September 2025: the first 200 megawatt phase is operating.
• January 2026: 360 megawatts of behind the meter generation is finished, according to the page.

The site is connected to the Texas grid, run by ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, and Crusoe says it connects directly to it. The page infers that the turbines may serve training workloads first and then act as backup once the full grid connection is live. Treat that as the page's inference.

Several things stand out. Building shells went quickly: the first was done roughly six months after clearing. Power took longer, as the turbine construction ran about 13 months. Water was not covered on that page. And the later phases have slipped. In May 2025 Bisnow reported that the first two buildings, 200 megawatts, were expected online within months and six more by mid 2026. In April 2026 Epoch AI estimated about four of eight buildings were running, with the full 1.2 gigawatts projected for the fourth quarter of 2026. Epoch also records that the figures moved within a week: 0.6 gigawatts in one version, 0.3 in the update after an Oracle post suggested about 200 megawatts. Oracle and OpenAI had not published a confirmed operating figure in the sources cited here.

The practical lesson is that "operational" is a fuzzy word. A building can be finished and not yet powered, or powered and not yet filled with computers. When you read any announcement, ask which of those it means.

Why the later campuses are planned over years

Epoch AI's tracker lists the other US Stargate sites with construction starts from the third quarter of 2025 to the first quarter of 2026 and projected completion in the fourth quarter of 2028 for the ones with stated dates. Examples from its table:

• Shackelford County, Texas, developed by Vantage: construction began in the third quarter of 2025, with a first building expected late 2026 and roofing underway on the first of ten buildings in imagery from 14 April 2026.
• Doña Ana County, New Mexico, developed by STACK Infrastructure: foundation work underway in imagery from 6 February 2026, power from two on site gas microgrids.
• Milam County, Texas, by SB Energy: steel framing and roofing on the first building in March 2026, with filings indicating delivery by October 2026.
• Port Washington, Wisconsin, by Vantage: broke ground in early 2026, with power from the grid, described as 70 percent solar, wind and battery storage.
• Saline Township, Michigan, by Related Digital: foundation work on the first building in March 2026, with power from the utility DTE Energy.

Epoch notes that financing and equipment supply are ongoing challenges, and that a ban on future data centers in Lordstown, Ohio is reported. The page's imagery dates and estimates are Epoch's own, not company statements, so they are a good cross check but not an official schedule.

A microgrid, as used here, is a small local power system, in these cases fed by gas, that can run with or without the main grid.

The queue that decides everything: getting power

Utilities and grid operators handle new large customers through a queue. You apply, the operator studies what your load will do to the system, and you get approval to connect, usually after paying for upgrades. For AI campuses the queues have become enormous.

In Texas, according to ERCOT testimony to the Texas Senate on 29 July 2026 as reported by Global Data Center Hub, there were more than 1,800 large load requests totalling about 474 gigawatts, about 90 percent from data centers. The same source notes that is more than five times Texas's all time hourly peak of 91,089 megawatts, set on 22 July 2026. Earlier reporting shows the growth: BIC Magazine on 6 March 2026 put the queue above 233 gigawatts, against about 63 gigawatts roughly 14 months earlier, with only about 7.5 gigawatts connected and more than half the requests yet to submit studies. These figures differ because they are from different dates, and because queues change.

Almost everyone agrees the queue overstates real demand. BIC Magazine notes that developers often file several applications for different sites and proceed with only one. That is why rule changes aimed at speculation have followed. According to the same reporting, the state's Senate Bill 6 requires a 100,000 dollar interconnection fee and disclosure of duplicate requests, and the regulator has set up a system wide study called Batch Zero for loads of 75 megawatts and above.

Global Data Center Hub lists what happened next. On 3 August 2026 Texas's governor directed the regulator and ERCOT to audit data centers advancing through the queue. ERCOT said it will miss the original 9 April 2027 deadline for Batch Zero results and has proposed no replacement date. Projects must disclose, among other things, expected annual and peak electricity use, on site generation, water use and cooling technology, and ownership. Where upgrade costs cannot yet be determined, developers post security at a default of 50,000 dollars per megawatt. The article says withdrawal or a missed six month milestone forfeits 80 percent of it. These terms sit in an open proceeding at the Public Utility Commission of Texas, so check the commission's docket for the current version before relying on the percentage. The article also says ERCOT has paused approvals to energise large computing loads, and that seventeen large loads, about 6.6 gigawatts, have cleared every gate except that approval. Co-located loads that connect to the same site as generation face uncompensated curtailment, meaning they can be told to cut power without payment.

The point for a general reader is that in the largest AI market in the United States, a megawatt of demand on paper is not a megawatt connected. Several sources describe the process as slow and in flux.

Building your own power

Because grid connection is slow, many sites plan their own generation. Abilene has gas turbines. Several other Stargate sites list on site gas microgrids. Meta's Hyperion campus takes a different route: its utility, Entergy Louisiana, is building three new gas fired combined cycle plants, approved by the Louisiana Public Service Commission on 20 August 2025 by a 4 to 1 vote. KALB reports the campus needs about 2,500 megawatts. Data Center Frontier gives planned in service for the new units as late 2028 and 2029. Counting from the August 2025 approval, that is three to four years before the plants run, and the lone dissenting commissioner said he could not verify many aspects of the deal. Opponents argued ratepayers could bear transmission costs and fuel price risk. KALB records both sides without resolving the dispute.

So the same need for power produces very different timelines depending on whether the generator is a few turbines built on the site or a utility plant approved through a regulatory process.

Permits, zoning and neighbours

Permits follow the project's footprint. A site that burns gas needs an air permit, and Abilene's application was filed in January 2025, a month after the turbine site was cleared. A site that sits in a city or county needs land use approval. Some places restrict new data centers, and Epoch reports a ban on future data centers in Lordstown.

Local approval is also where concerns about electricity bills and noise are heard. The Louisiana vote above is one example, with consumer groups asking for more time and the regulator proceeding. Public reporting does not cover permits for every site, so these cases should not be read as a general pattern.

Water

Water is the other topic neighbours ask about. The numbers depend heavily on the cooling design.

The Houston Advanced Research Center estimates, as reported by the Texas Tribune on 25 September 2025, that existing Texas data centers used about 25 billion gallons in 2025, about 0.4 percent of the state's water use, and that demand could reach up to 2.7 percent by 2030. The same article says the Texas Water Development Board surveyed nearly 70 data centers in 2024 and only one third responded, that Texas requires reporting of past water use but not expected future use, and that experts say data centers will likely not appear in state water planning documents until 2032.

For Abilene specifically, the Tribune reports a closed loop cooling design in which the fluid circulates in a sealed circuit, with an initial fill of 8 million gallons of city water. The city's water utility says this is minimal against average daily use of 22 million gallons. The article notes top up needs are unknown. Figures for the initial fill vary between outlets, so treat the utility's statement as the figure on record and check current numbers if you need them.

Closed loop cooling lowers on site water use but can shift the load to electricity, which is why power and water are linked. The Texas grid operator's new rules ask projects to disclose water use and cooling technology.

What is firm and what is uncertain

Firm, because sources give dates: the Abilene sequence from clearing to 200 megawatts, the Louisiana approval vote, and the existence of the Texas audit and the Batch Zero process.

Uncertain: current operating megawatts at Abilene, since Epoch's own figures changed within a week and the companies have not published a confirmed number. Whether the Texas security deposit terms reported in August 2026 are final. The initial water fill at Abilene. All completion dates after 2026, which are projections.

What to watch next

• Whether Abilene reaches 1.2 gigawatts in the fourth quarter of 2026, as Epoch projects.
• ERCOT's report to the regulator on 17 December 2026 and its eventual Batch Zero schedule.
• Whether the first Milam County and Shackelford County buildings are delivered on their reported dates.
• Entergy's progress on the Louisiana plants against the late 2028 date.

For related reading, see OpenAI compute commitments and Stargate explained and what AI data centers cost per megawatt.

Quick check

If you are tracking software and dependencies behind your own systems, Safeguard offers SBOM and dependency scanning, with a free scan at https://gold.safeguard.sh/scan.

Sources

• Cleanview, Stargate Abilene timeline
• Epoch AI, OpenAI Stargate: where the US sites stand, updated 23 April 2026
• Bisnow, Primary Digital Infrastructure and the Stargate Abilene financing, May 2025
• Global Data Center Hub, ERCOT data center interconnection pause and Docket 59220
• BIC Magazine, Texas grid sees 233 GW of data center requests, 6 March 2026
• KALB, Louisiana regulators approve Entergy power plants for Meta's AI data center, 21 August 2025
• Data Center Frontier, Meta Hyperion campus financing
• Bisnow, Meta pushes its largest data center project off its books, October 2025
• Texas Tribune, Texas data center water use, 25 September 2025
• Turner & Townsend, AI data center rush raises alarm over construction supply chain, 5 November 2025
• CBRE, North American data center demand continues to outpace supply, 8 September 2026

Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.