How a Failed Railroad is Fueling the AI Boom in Texas

Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, is making waves in the AI world. He's not just talking about AI. He's building the infrastructure to support it. His new venture, Bolt Data & Energy, is teaming up with Texas Pacific Land. This partnership is all about providing the essentials for data centers: land, power, and water. West Texas is becoming a hotspot for AI development. It has plenty of natural gas and renewable energy resources. Plus, it has a unique history. The land was originally granted to a railroad company in the 1870s. The railroad failed, but the land became valuable during the Texas oil boom. Now, it's being repurposed for AI data centers. Schmidt sees AI as the next big thing, like the Fourth Industrial Revolution. He believes that data centers are crucial for keeping up with China in the global AI race. Bolt plans to start with natural gas power and eventually expand to include wind, solar, and even nuclear power.The goal is to create a scalable and resilient infrastructure. This will meet the growing demand for AI computing power. Schmidt hopes to attract big names like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI as anchor customers. Bolt is taking a unique approach. They're not just leasing space and buying power from the grid. Instead, they're vertically integrating energy ownership with advanced data infrastructure. This makes the platform both efficient and resilient. The plan is to start with one gigawatt of power capacity. Then, they'll expand to 10 gigawatts. That's enough to power about 7 million homes. This ambitious project is set to begin construction within the next couple of years.