Overview
I-35 Joins Two Metros of 13 Counties into One Labor and Freight Market
Greater Austin (five counties) and Greater San Antonio (eight counties) had a combined 2025 population estimate of about 5.5 million, and regional projections put the pair above 8.3 million by 2050. Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter has said the US Census Bureau will likely treat the two as one combined metro area after the 2030 census.
San Marcos (Hays County) and New Braunfels (Comal County) sit at the middle of the road and have grown into job centers of their own: CFAN and Texas State University at San Marcos, Lefko USA and the Texas State Technical College (TSTC) campus at New Braunfels. East of I-35, the SH 130 toll road runs parallel through Lockhart (Caldwell County) and Seguin (Guadalupe County) and carries through-freight around both downtowns.
| Spine | Interstate 35 |
|---|---|
| Parallel route | SH 130 toll road, Georgetown to I-10 at Seguin |
| Northern end | Austin, Travis County |
| Southern end | San Antonio, Bexar County |
| Middle cities | Kyle, San Marcos, New Braunfels |
| Counties | 13 (five Greater Austin, eight Greater San Antonio) |
| Population | About 5.5 million (2025 estimate) |
| Rail | Union Pacific line parallel to I-35 |
Anchors
Two Gigawatt-Scale Data Center Campuses and a Jet Engine Blade Plant Sit Between Kyle and New Braunfels
Tract Caldwell Valley Technology Park near Uhland began with 1,515 acres bought in May 2025; Tract added 1,458 contiguous acres in January 2026 and now rates the site at up to 4 GW. Tract, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative and the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) plan an on-site substation scalable to 1.6 GW, with the first 250 MW contracted for the first quarter of 2028. Tract has also begun planning on-site natural gas generation.
CloudBurst San Marcos in Hays County broke ground in November 2025 on a 1.2 GW AI campus powered by natural gas from Energy Transfer, with a first 50 MW phase targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026. Governor Abbott's Sept 21, 2026 order to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) halts data center air and water permits, including on-site power, until the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) finishes its large-load review, expected mid-December 2026; both campuses' on-site gas plans fall under that pause.
CFAN, the GE Aerospace and Safran joint venture founded in 1993, builds composite fan blades in San Marcos for the GE90 and GEnx engines that power the Boeing 777 and 787. Further south, Lefko USA, a Canadian maker of large blow-molded plastic parts, is investing more than $15 million in its first US plant at New Braunfels with 149 jobs and a $968,500 Texas Enterprise Fund grant announced Sept 30, 2025.
| Site | Place | County | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tract Caldwell Valley | Uhland | Caldwell | Data center park, up to 4 GW |
| CloudBurst San Marcos | San Marcos area | Hays | AI data center, 1.2 GW |
| CFAN | San Marcos | Hays | Composite jet engine fan blades |
| Lefko USA | New Braunfels | Comal | Blow-molded plastic parts |
| TSTC New Braunfels | New Braunfels | Comal | Advanced manufacturing training |
| Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas | San Antonio | Bexar | Tundra and Sequoia assembly |
Freight, Power and Workforce
I-35, SH 130 and the Union Pacific Line Carry the Freight; Gas Pipelines Feed the Data Centers
I-35 carries most commuter and truck traffic between the two downtowns, and SH 130 serves as the truck bypass through Lockhart and Seguin. Union Pacific's line parallels I-35; the Lone Star Rail commuter plan to share it ended after Union Pacific withdrew and the regional planning boards dropped the project in 2016.
Power follows gas. CloudBurst's campus depends on Energy Transfer pipeline supply, and Tract plans on-site gas generation alongside its Bluebonnet and LCRA substation in Caldwell County. Large-load hookups on both campuses fall under Texas Senate Bill 6 (2025), which set ERCOT's interconnection rules for loads of 75 MW and up.
TSTC New Braunfels trains machinists and maintenance technicians through the Texas Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (TX FAME) program with area employers, and Texas State University in San Marcos supplies engineers to CFAN and the corridor's plants.
Connected Corridors
The I-35 South Corridor Shares Its Data Center Sites with the San Marcos-Uhland Corridor and Its Bypass with SH 130
Campus-level detail on Tract, CloudBurst and the other Hays and Caldwell County projects sits on the San Marcos-Uhland Data Center Corridor page. SH 130 links this stretch north to Tesla Giga Texas and Samsung Taylor on the SH 130 Austin-Taylor Corridor, and I-35 continues north past Austin on the Austin-Waco Corridor. Business listings for each end are in the Austin Metro B2B Directory and the San Antonio Metro B2B Directory.
Record
Dataset Record
- Sources
- Data Center Dynamics, Tract, GlobeNewswire, CloudBurst, Energy Transfer, Argus Media, GE Aerospace, Office of the Texas Governor, TSTC, TX FAME, Bracewell, Troutman Pepper, Texas State Demographer, San Antonio Report
- Last verified
- October 2026