West Texas: 2.67GW Project Kilby Co-Located Natural Gas & AI Data Center
Status: Pre-FID / Engineering & Permitting Phase (Targeting FID Q4 2026) | Location: Co-located industrial parcel, West Texas
Project Overview
The Chevron-Microsoft West Texas Kilby Campus (officially designated as Project Kilby) represents a milestone in behind-the-meter, mega-scale AI infrastructure development. Formally announced in June 2026 via a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) between Microsoft Corporation and Chevron’s wholly owned subsidiary, Energy Forge One LLC, this project directly addresses grid interconnection bottlenecks by co-locating power generation with hyper-scale computing. Designed to deliver up to 2.67 gigawatts (GW) of dedicated, dispatchable capacity, the campus will support Microsoft’s next-generation AI and cloud infrastructure while completely isolating its heavy baseload requirements from the local consumer grid. Developed in collaboration with Engine No. 1, the campus leverages West Texas’s vast Permian Basin natural gas resources to fuel a highly advanced on-site power plant. The generation architecture features heavy-duty gas turbines from GE Vernova alongside specialized aero-derivative units from Solar Turbines (a Caterpillar Inc. subsidiary). This mixed-turbine topology provides the configuration flexibility needed to ramp electricity generation up or down rapidly in lockstep with the fluctuating computational demands of massive AI training clusters and frontier neural models.
Quick Facts
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Project Name | West Texas: 2.67GW Project Kilby Co-Located Natural Gas & AI Data Center |
| Location | Co-located industrial parcel, West Texas |
| Status | Pre-FID / Engineering & Permitting Phase (Targeting FID Q4 2026) |
| Commissioning | 2028 (Phase 1 Target Operational Date) |
| Total IT Load | Phase 1 TBD / Scalable Framework |
| Total Capacity | 2.67 GW Master Planned Generation & Compute Capacity |
| Tier Level | Tier III Architecture / AI-First High-Density Specification |
| Project Type | Greenfield Behind-The-Meter Mega-Scale Power & Data Center Development |
City Profile
| Header | Details |
|---|
| City Name | Texas |
| Population | ~30.5 million (2025 est.) |
| Urban Agglomeration | ~27–28 million (major metro clusters combined) |
| City GDP | ~$2.4 trillion (2024 est., comparable to G7 economies) |
| Per Capita Income | ~$78,000 |
| City Tier | Tier 1 (Global Economic Powerhouse) |
| Key Strengths | Energy (oil, gas, renewables), Data Centers & AI Infrastructure, Technology (Austin hub), Logistics & Trade (US–Mexico corridor), Manufacturing, Business-friendly policies, Large land & power availability |
Companies Involved
| Header | Details |
|---|
| Developer / Operator | Microsoft Corporation |
| Strategic Infrastructure Partner | GE Vernova (Primary heavy gas turbine provider), Solar Turbines (Supplementary operational capacity) |
| Construction Contractor | Tier-1 Global Oil, Gas & Heavy Power EPC Consortium |
| MEP Engineering | Co-Located Industrial Power Architects & High-Density Datacenter Cooling Engineers |
| Network Connectivity | Dedicated private fiber backbones bypassing public routes, interconnected with transcontinental tier-1 backbones |
| Power Infrastructure | Off-grid, behind-the-meter direct connection from a dedicated 2.67 GW natural gas turbine generation facility |
Technical Specifications
| Header | Details |
|---|
| Power Capacity | 2.67 GW generating footprint (Dedicated to supporting a 2.0 GW continuous IT compute load) |
| UPS Redundancy | Hyper-scale distributed static and dynamic UPS configurations optimizing multi-megawatt block safety |
| Cooling System | Closed-loop high-density cooling blocks utilizing air-cooled heat exchangers (Zero municipal freshwater consumption) |
| Connectivity | Hyper-isolated, multi-path subterranean entry vaults with carrier-neutral dark fiber access points |
| PUE Target | Highly optimized thermal conversion efficiency via localized generation and direct high-voltage step-down setups |
| Energy Mix | 100% dedicated co-located Permian Basin natural gas with advanced SCR emissions mitigation |
Milestones
| Header | Details |
|---|
| Announcement | June 22, 2026 |
| Construction Start | Q1 2027 |
| Phase 1 Go-Live | H1 2028 |
| Full Buildout | 2031–2033 |
Investment Details
| Header | Details |
|---|
| Total Investment | ~$9.0 Billion USD (Estimated capital expenditure across integrated power and data infrastructure blocks) |
| Funding | Private corporate capital allocations, infrastructure equity funding (Engine No. 1 holds a 50% funding option via Joulent LLC) |