This is an early example of how the new administration’s economic policies could affect the isolated state.
TEXAS, USA — This article was originally published by Dallas Business Journal’s content partners. You can read the original article here.
President-elect Donald Trump announced on January 7th a $20 billion plan to ramp up data center development across the United States.
The initiative will be funded by an investment led by Emirati billionaire Hussein Sajwani, head of Damac Properties, a luxury real estate developer in the Middle East and the UK.
President Trump plans to target Texas, along with Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana, in the first round of investments.
“This investment will not only support massive new data centers across the Midwest and Sunbelt region, but also keep America on the cutting edge of technology and artificial intelligence,” President Trump said at a January 7 press conference. It will also become a reality.”
Additional details about where such investments would go were not immediately available. But this is an early example of how the new administration’s economic policies could affect the isolated state.
Texas is already a magnet for data center construction. This is especially true in Dallas-Fort Worth. Large tracts of land are still available there and electricity remains relatively affordable.
Some of the largest technology companies have data centers in North Texas, including Microsoft, Google, Meta, QTS, and NTT Data. As artificial intelligence continues to rise, data center development continues unabated, with large hubs breaking ground in Irving, Plano, Garland, Lancaster, and Red Oak.
However, the increase in data centers means upgrades to the power transmission infrastructure, which may be required to support the influx of data center development.
In mid-2024, JLL found that DFW had the third-most colocation data center space in the country, behind Northern Virginia and the Pacific Northwest. Additionally, the report showed that DFW’s colocation market has grown 82% since 2020, ranking No. 9 in the country for this rate.
Sajwani said in a press conference on January 7 that the company plans to invest “even more than” the $20 billion announced, as opportunities and markets permit.
Dallas Business Journal’s Noor Adatia and Plamedie Ifasso contributed reporting.
