- Power infrastructure is the new gold, as data center developers scramble for land that can support massive energy loads amid a generative AI boom.
- Texas leads the surge, offering deregulated utilities and some of the few remaining sites with available megawatt-scale capacity—driving land values up to $800K per acre.
- Early investors who bet on infrastructure for crypto mining are now seeing windfall profits as that same land is snapped up for hyperscale AI developments.
- Demand far outpaces supply, with utilities like Oncor receiving 59 GW in new service requests in one quarter alone—slowing timelines and driving up premiums for power-ready sites.
Power Is the New Location
As demand surges, land with substations or transmission lines is trading at a premium. Only 10 to 15 sites in Texas currently meet developer standards with studies completed—giving owners near-complete leverage in negotiations, according to Bisnow.
That scarcity has led to bidding wars and high-stakes decisions.
Developers are increasingly unwilling to take on raw land without power certainty, while landowners hesitate to fund infrastructure studies without a committed tenant.
Developers Face a Crowded Queue
Power providers like Oncor are seeing a deluge of scope study requests. In just one quarter, they received 59 GW in data center-related service requests—75% of all new demand.
Infrastructure studies can take months and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, especially in high-demand areas like Chicago. And with utilities overwhelmed, delays are becoming the norm.
With AI driving unprecedented demand for electricity, land with existing power infrastructure has become some of the most valuable real estate in the country—transforming early speculators into overnight millionaires.
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Utilities Struggle to Keep Up
This shift is creating a modern-day land rush in markets like Texas, where deregulated utilities and lower energy costs make it easier to tap into high-voltage transmission lines.
As traditional tech hubs like Northern Virginia and Silicon Valley face grid constraints, developers are paying a premium for speed-to-market and scalability—often favoring sites that already have scope and infrastructure studies completed.
Why It Matters
As AI adoption accelerates, so does the race to secure power-ready land. Sites that check all the boxes are rare—and those that do can command nearly any price.
For owners sitting on overlooked land with built-in power access, now may be the time to strike. As one broker put it: “Like striking oil, if they strike electricity over here, data centers are going to go with that one first.”
