AWS Pecos County Data Center Building B: Off-Grid Hyperscale AI Campus West Texas
Status: Under Development / Site Preparation (Permitted Off-Grid Infrastructure) | Location: GW Ranch Development Area, Pecos County (Permian Basin Region), Texas, United States
Project Overview
The AWS Pecos County Data Center (Building B) is a major compute block within Amazon’s planned off-grid hyperscale mega-campus in Pecos County, West Texas, designed to support the rapidly expanding infrastructure requirements of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and high-performance workloads. Developed as part of Amazon Web Services’ strategy to secure large-scale, dedicated computing capacity, Building B is specifically designed to address the power availability challenges affecting major data center developments across Texas, including lengthy transmission interconnection queues and infrastructure constraints within the ERCOT market. Rather than relying entirely on conventional utility-grid connections, the facility is structured around dedicated behind-the-meter energy generation associated with the GW Ranch project site, providing a direct power architecture intended to support the enormous electricity requirements of hyperscale computing and next-generation AI infrastructure. This configuration can allow the campus to operate with greater control over its energy supply while reducing dependence on constrained regional transmission infrastructure. Building B is also engineered around the increasingly demanding thermal requirements of modern AI accelerators, incorporating custom liquid-cooling architectures designed for high-density computing environments. Advanced liquid cooling enables more effective heat removal from densely packed GPU and AI accelerator clusters than conventional air-based systems, supporting higher rack power densities and sustained computational performance. The facility forms part of a broader shift toward purpose-built AI data centers where electrical generation, cooling infrastructure, computing systems, and site design are developed as an integrated platform. Its location in West Texas also provides access to a large-scale energy ecosystem and expansive land resources suitable for hyperscale development. By combining dedicated behind-the-meter generation, off-grid-oriented infrastructure, advanced liquid cooling, and AI-focused compute architecture, AWS Pecos County Building B represents an emerging model for deploying massive data center capacity outside traditional grid-dependent development frameworks. The facility is positioned to support large-scale AI model training, cloud services, and other computationally intensive workloads requiring substantial power and high-density infrastructure.
Quick Facts
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Project Name | AWS Pecos County Data Center Building B: Off-Grid Hyperscale AI Campus West Texas |
| Location | GW Ranch Development Area, Pecos County (Permian Basin Region), Texas, United States |
| Status | Under Development / Site Preparation (Permitted Off-Grid Infrastructure) |
| Commissioning | Phased Delivery Target (Phase 1 / Building B Target 2027–2028) |
| Total IT Load | ~500.0 MW Critical IT Power Capacity (Building B Allocation; Campus Potential Scaling Multi-GW) |
| Total Capacity | ~50,000 m² (~538,000 sq ft) gross building area (Building B footprint on multi-thousand acre master site) |
| Tier Level | Tier III / Tier IV Equivalent Fault-Tolerant Off-Grid Architecture |
| Project Type | Purpose-Built Off-Grid Ultra-Dense AI Compute & Cloud Processing Facility |
City Profile
| Header | Details |
|---|
| City Name | Fort Stockton |
| Population | ~9,000 |
| Urban Agglomeration | ~9,000 (no major separate urban agglomeration) |
| City GDP | Not separately reported; primarily part of the broader West Texas economy |
| Per Capita Income | ~US$30,000–35,000 (estimated) |
| City Tier | Tier 3 – Energy, Logistics & Emerging Digital Infrastructure Location |
| Key Strengths | Strategic West Texas location; intersection of major transportation routes including Interstate 10 and U.S. Highway 285; strong oil and gas industry; abundant renewable energy potential; proximity to large-scale solar and wind resources; relatively low land costs; access to regional utility infrastructure; suitable conditions for energy-intensive industrial and digital infrastructure projects. |
Companies Involved
| Header | Details |
|---|
| Developer / Operator | Amazon Web Services |
| Strategic Infrastructure Partner | Pacifico Energy (GW Ranch Power Development) |
| Construction Contractor | Specialized U.S. Mission-Critical Hyperscale EPCs & Industrial Contractors |
| MEP Engineering | AWS Infrastructure Engineering & Advanced Thermal Architecture Teams |
| Network Connectivity | Subterranean dual path-diverse fiber conduits, dedicated internal Meet-Me-Rooms (MMRs), ultra-high-capacity long-haul dark fiber linkages connecting directly to major Texas internet exchanges (Dallas, Austin, Houston) and global AWS backbone networks. |
| Power Infrastructure | Direct behind-the-meter off-grid power supply via on-site simple/combined-cycle gas turbines supported by planned local solar and battery energy storage systems (BESS), 2N / N+1 static UPS modules, automated switchgear (ATS), and emergency back-up generation arrays. |
Technical Specifications
| Header | Details |
|---|
| Power Capacity | Integrated with 7.65 GW Dedicated On-Site Power Generation Complex |
| UPS Redundancy | Concurrently Maintainable 2N Static UPS Architecture |
| Cooling System | Direct-to-Chip Liquid Cooling (DLC) loops combined with high-efficiency dry-cooler units engineered for minimal water consumption in arid West Texas environments. |
| Connectivity | Ultra-low latency optical dark fiber trunks connecting Pecos County directly to AWS US-East and US-West regional hubs. |
| PUE Target | < 1.18 Annualized Operational Design PUE |
| Energy Mix | Direct natural gas generation with supplemental planned 750 MW solar PV arrays and 1.8 GW Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) integration. |
Milestones
| Header | Details |
|---|
| Announcement | 2025–2026 |
| Construction Start | 2026 |
| Phase 1 Go-Live | Target 2027–2028 |
| Full Buildout | Active Multi-Phase Mega-Campus Buildout |
Investment Details
| Header | Details |
|---|
| Total Investment | ~$2,500,000,000 USD (Building B & Associated Phase Power Allocation) |
| Funding | Corporate Capital Expenditure (Amazon.com, Inc. / Amazon Web Services) |