One of Texas' largest landowners is teaming up with a company founded by the former CEO of Google to develop large-scale data centers in West Texas.
Texas Pacific Land Corp., a Dallas-based firm with about 882,000 acres of land primarily in West Texas' Permian Basin, has partnered with Kansas-based Bolt Data & Energy Inc. to build campuses and the systems that support artificial intelligence-related projects.
The goal of the partnership is to "create the largest and most efficient data center company in the world by combining abundant energy production, efficient scalable data infrastructure, and the largest land expansion runway in North America," said Bolt cofounder Eric Schmidt, who is the former CEO and chairman of Google, in a statement.
In partnering with Texas Pacific Land, Bolt expects to fuel the so-called fourth industrial revolution — a common phrase referencing the current era of rapid technological change — and help protect and augment the nation's leadership in AI, Schmidt added.
As part of the agreement, Bolt raised $150 million in capital, while Texas Pacific Land invested $50 million.
Bolt is pursuing commercial partnerships and anchor tenants to develop large-scale data centers on acreage owned by Texas Pacific Land. In return, Texas Pacific Land will receive an equity interest, warrants and a right of first refusal to supply water to Bolt-affiliated projects and infrastructure, the statement said.
"We believe West Texas has the attributes necessary to become one of the largest concentrations of AI compute infrastructure globally," said Texas Pacific Land's CEO Ty Glover in the statement.
"Bolt’s leadership, relationships, and proven experience in building transformative technology platforms make them an ideal partner," Glover added.
Bolt's Schmidt said the company is focused on "shortening the time between demand and delivery of compute at scale," with an added focus on power production, including natural gas, renewable and nuclear energy.
"Texas Pacific Land's vast West Texas holdings and their expertise in land, energy, water, and regulatory execution makes them a uniquely capable partner," Schmidt added.