NextFin News - In a move that underscores the tightening grip of the artificial intelligence infrastructure race, Bolt Data and Energy, a data center development firm co-founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, is currently negotiating a landmark deal with Google to anchor a massive new campus in West Texas. According to Business Insider, the tech giant is considering an initial commitment of 250 megawatts (MW) to serve as the foundation for a project that could eventually scale to a staggering 5-gigawatt (GW) capacity. The negotiations, which remain confidential, come at a time when U.S. President Trump has emphasized the strategic importance of American dominance in AI and energy independence.
The venture, established late last year by Schmidt, recently secured $150 million in its first funding round, including a pivotal $50 million investment from Texas Pacific Land Corporation (TPL). This partnership grants Bolt access to vast tracts of land in the Permian Basin, a region increasingly favored for its abundant power and water resources—commodities that have become the primary bottlenecks for AI expansion. While Google has declined to comment on the specific rumors, the company previously announced plans to invest $40 billion in Texas-based cloud and AI infrastructure by 2027, aligning with the scale of the Bolt proposal.
The financial backdrop for this deal is defined by unprecedented capital expenditure. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, revealed in its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings report that it expects to spend between $175 billion and $185 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, nearly doubling its 2025 outlay. This surge is mirrored across the sector, with Amazon projecting $200 billion in spending this year. The race to secure physical infrastructure has moved beyond mere server procurement to a desperate land grab for power-ready sites. Schmidt, leveraging his deep institutional knowledge of Google’s operational needs, has positioned Bolt as a specialized vehicle to bridge the gap between raw land and the high-density power requirements of modern GPU clusters.
From an analytical perspective, the Bolt-Google negotiation represents a maturing of the AI supply chain. We are seeing the emergence of "power-first" developers who prioritize energy procurement over traditional real estate metrics. The involvement of TPL is particularly strategic; as one of the largest landowners in Texas, TPL provides Bolt with a unique advantage in navigating the complex regulatory and logistical landscape of the Texas power grid (ERCOT). This is critical as other large-scale projects in the state have faced headwinds. For instance, Fermi, a rival venture co-founded by former Energy Secretary Rick Perry, recently saw Amazon pull back a $150 million cash advance for a project in Amarillo, highlighting the volatility and high stakes of these multi-billion dollar commitments.
Furthermore, the deal illustrates the "revolving door" of Silicon Valley leadership transitioning into infrastructure. Schmidt’s move into data centers mirrors a broader trend where former executives utilize their networks to solve the physical constraints of the software they helped build. By securing Google as an anchor tenant, Bolt effectively de-risks the massive capital requirements of a 5GW campus. For Google, the deal provides a path to rapid scaling without the immediate burden of land acquisition and local permitting, which are increasingly outsourced to specialized partners like Bolt.
Looking ahead, the success of the Bolt-Google partnership will likely serve as a bellwether for the industry’s ability to meet the projected energy demands of 2026 and beyond. As U.S. President Trump’s administration continues to push for deregulatory measures to speed up energy infrastructure, Texas is poised to remain the epicenter of the global AI buildout. However, the concentration of such massive power demands in single locations raises questions about grid stability and the long-term sustainability of water-cooled systems. If Bolt successfully scales to 5GW, it will not only be one of the largest data center complexes in the world but also a testament to the new era of industrial-scale computing where energy, land, and political capital are the ultimate currencies.
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