Texas leans into ‘All of the above’ with Trump HyperGrid By EPN Staff A Texas company co-founded by former U.S. Energy Secretary and Texas Gov. Rick Perry plans to build the world’s largest artificial intelligence complex near Abilene, powered by multiple nuclear reactors, natural gas plants and solar power. Fermi America said this will be a “first-of-its-kind behind-the-meter HyperGrid™ campus that is expected to integrate the largest nuclear power complex in America, the nation's biggest combined-cycle natural gas project, utility grid power, solar power and battery energy storage to deliver next-generation artificial intelligence.” The company says it wants to build 18 million square feet of AI data centers drawing 11 gigawatts of power, with the first gigawatt online by the end of 2026. Fermi Executive Chairman Toby Neugebauer told The Washington Post he’s confident the firm can build the nuclear complex by 2032, which would be an ambitious timeline. According to an initial permitting application obtained by The Post, the facility would be named after President Donald Trump. Why it matters Fermi’s project would be a massive bid in a worldwide race to build out AI infrastructure and the new energy generation needed to power it. The nearly 5,800-acre campus would be part of a partnership with Texas Tech University and built near some of the largest gas pipelines in the country. It would also be near the Department of Energy's Pantex nuclear weapons plant, and in an area that already has some of the nation's fastest fiber cable infrastructure, the company said. Fermi did not say how much the project would cost or how it would be financed, according to U.S. News & World Report. The campus’ nuclear power would come from Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, according to The Post, the same type used in the expansion of Georgia's Plant Vogtle. Trump recently signed executive orders meant to significantly speed up nuclear project approvals. The bigger picture Texas is, by far, the biggest energy producing state in the country, and it plans to expand on nearly every front. The state created a low-interest loan fund for natural gas and other dispatchable generation projects, and while some projects have withdrawn from the fund over supply chain and other issues, the state announced the program's first loan agreement in late June. Long-term there are 130 new gas plants, or planned expansions, proposed or under construction in the state, according to a recent count from an environmental monitoring group. The state has also seeded next-generation nuclear research with plans for a 2,400 acre test reactor campus at Texas A&M. Last year Texas passed California to become the No. 1 state in the nation in utility-scale solar generation, and it’s also No. 1 in wind. A number of bills were proposed in the recent legislative session to stem renewable energy growth in favor of always-on power like natural gas and nuclear, but those measures were largely turned away. The state also has significant geothermal potential, in part because old oil wells can be used as a starting point to tap heat deep in the Earth. Fermi cited Texas’ edge on energy in its announcement and Neugebauer, the company’s executive chairman, told The Post that the project’s remote location should speed permitting. “If you can’t do it here, you can’t do it anywhere,” he said.
