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CloudBurst Evolve San Marcos Data Center

Tier 1B Spotlight on the 706-Acre / 1.2 GW Behind-the-Meter Natural Gas AI Campus

CloudBurst and Evolve's San Marcos Data Center I is a 706-acre master-planned AI data center campus at 2955 Francis Harris Lane between San Marcos and New Braunfels — straddling Hays and Guadalupe Counties along the I-35 South corridor between Austin and San Antonio. The campus is master-planned for up to 1.2 gigawatts of AI and high-performance compute capacity across three 400 MW phases, with the first 50 MW of Phase 1 commencing construction in November 2025 and targeting Q4 2026 commissioning. Total project value reaches $14.5 billion.

The project's structural distinctiveness operates across three primary dimensions. First, the behind-the-meter natural gas framework via Energy Transfer's Oasis Pipeline — a 10-year supply agreement providing up to 450,000 MMBtu per day, sufficient to generate more than 1.8 GW of on-site power generation capacity — establishes one of the most aggressive on-site generation frameworks in the broader Austin-San Antonio corridor. Second, the operator framework reflects a vertically-integrated dev-co plus design-build-co model under Tye A. Johnson (CEO of CloudBurst Data Centers and Founder/CEO of Evolve Holdings) — distinct from peer operator partnerships (Skybox/Prologis is a partnership across two independent companies; Tract Capital uses Fleet DC subsidiary). Third, the project's geographic position at the Hays-Guadalupe County line plus the broader Hill Country water-and-power capacity context creates a structurally distinctive regulatory framework where Guadalupe County approved development that Hays County's San Marcos seat denied in a separate February 2026 application — establishing the project as one of the most distinctive emerging US data center substrate operations from a county-line regulatory framework perspective.

Site and Substrate

The San Marcos Data Center I site occupies 706 acres at 2955 Francis Harris Lane, with the primary buildable footprint of approximately 142 acres in Guadalupe County (where the development agreement was approved) plus broader Hays County substrate. The site sits between San Marcos (Hays County seat) and New Braunfels (Comal County seat) along the I-35 South corridor — approximately 30 miles south of Austin and 50 miles north of San Antonio. The site's specific position straddling Hays and Guadalupe Counties at the structural boundary between these regulatory jurisdictions reflects multi-county coordination across the broader Austin-San Antonio data center corridor (covered at Austin-San Antonio Corridor (I-35 South)).

The site's substrate framework supports 10 to 12 individual data center buildings ranging from approximately 70,000 to 250,000 square feet, with master-planned phasing across three 400 MW phases. Phase 1 commences construction November 2025 with completion targeted by 2027, with the first 50 MW activation targeting Q4 2026 commissioning. The site benefits from infrastructure-confluence positioning — the Energy Transfer Oasis Pipeline provides natural gas substrate for behind-the-meter power generation, the broader I-35 corridor supports fiber connectivity, plus broader workforce substrate scaling through the Austin and San Antonio metro overlap. The 706-acre footprint plus the multi-county positioning establishes the campus as one of the largest single master-planned data center substrates in the broader Austin-San Antonio corridor — substantially exceeding most peer corridor operators outside of Tract Caldwell County's roughly 3,000-acre substrate.

Capital Reality and Operator Framework

The CloudBurst Evolve capital framework operates across multiple coordinated tiers. The total project value of $14.5 billion across the multi-phase buildout window (per April 21, 2026 Guadalupe County Commissioners Court reporting) establishes the broader capital framework. Minimum project capital investment of $500 million underpins the development agreement and tax abatement framework. The Guadalupe County tax abatement of approximately $500 million across the 10-year agreement supports operator capital position. The development agreement runs with the land plus voids if the property is used for housing, establishing structural protection for the data center substrate plus broader future-development framework continuity. The agreement's 10-year duration with extensions tied to progress benchmarks supports phased execution coordination.

Behind-the-Meter Natural Gas Framework

The CloudBurst behind-the-meter natural gas framework reflects one of the most aggressive on-site generation architectures in the broader Austin-San Antonio data center corridor. The 10-year supply agreement with Energy Transfer LP (the Dallas-headquartered midstream natural gas operator) provides up to 450,000 MMBtu per day of firm natural gas via the Oasis Pipeline. The supply capacity supports more than 1.8 GW of on-site electric power generation — substantially exceeding the campus's 1.2 GW master-planned data center capacity, providing structural redundancy plus supplemental and backup capability across the multi-phase buildout window. The behind-the-meter architecture enables CloudBurst to bypass ERCOT grid capacity allocation queues plus broader transmission interconnection delays — addressing what CloudBurst characterizes as the broader "transmission constraints and long interconnection queues" question across the broader US data center industry.

The behind-the-meter framework operates within the broader Texas energy substrate context. Texas's natural gas substrate (anchored by the Permian Basin's dominant US natural gas production substrate, broader pipeline midstream substrate, plus Energy Transfer's specific Oasis Pipeline framework) provides the foundational natural gas supply capability that the CloudBurst framework leverages. Texas's broader energy sovereignty framework (covered at ERCOT Energy Sovereignty) supports operator-level energy framework selection across grid-connected versus behind-the-meter architectures. The CloudBurst framework specifically follows the broader emerging Texas pattern where multiple AI-and-cloud campus operators (Sandow Lakes/Xebec's 1,200 MW gas substrate, Fermi America's planned operations, broader Permian Basin behind-the-meter substrate) secure dedicated gas supply for hybrid generation to bypass transmission constraints. The CloudBurst architecture's specific 1.8 GW source capacity (substantially exceeding 1.2 GW data center demand) plus the 10-year Energy Transfer supply commitment plus broader natural gas operator coordination positions the framework as one of the most aggressive emerging US data center behind-the-meter architectures.

The framework's environmental and community context requires honest acknowledgment. Behind-the-meter natural gas generation produces emissions distinct from grid-connected renewable substrate; community concerns about air quality, broader carbon emissions, plus the broader water-and-cooling framework are structural considerations across the project's multi-decade operational lifetime. CloudBurst has committed to closed-loop water cooling plus broader sustainability framework integration. CloudBurst's "SuperLab" concept includes future testbeds for liquid and hybrid cooling architectures supporting potential future cooling framework evolution. The framework's specific operational evolution depends on operator coordination plus broader community-and-utility-and-state-level coordination through the multi-decade execution window.

Convergence Position

The CloudBurst Evolve San Marcos substrate operates at a structurally distinctive convergence position within the broader Austin-San Antonio data center corridor. The campus's 706 acres / 1.2 GW substrate combined with Tract Caldwell County's approximately 3,000 acres / 4 GW substrate (covered at Tract Caldwell County / Caldwell Valley Technology Park), Skybox/Prologis Hutto's 159+140-acre / 600+ MW substrate (covered at Skybox/Prologis Hutto Megasite), the Round Rock data center concentration (covered at Round Rock Data Center Concentration), plus broader operator concentration positions the corridor as one of the most rapidly-scaling US data center buildouts. Per Cushman & Wakefield data through March 2026, the corridor has approximately 7,823 megawatts of planned capacity compared to approximately 1,154 megawatts currently operating.

Permitting and Community Context

The CloudBurst Evolve regulatory framework progresses across multiple coordinated tracks at the county-line scale. Guadalupe County Commissioners Court approved both the development agreement plus the tax abatement agreement on April 21, 2026, with Guadalupe County Judge Kyle Kutscher anchoring the local regulatory framework. The 10-year development agreement establishes vested rights under current rules — preventing future restrictions or delays — plus excludes residential use plus includes specified utilities plus a 100-foot setback. The agreement runs with the land plus voids if the property is used for housing — structurally protecting the data center substrate plus broader future-development framework continuity. Hays County coordination operates separately, with the broader community-and-county coordination supporting framework progression across the multi-county footprint.

Outlook

The CloudBurst Evolve San Marcos substrate represents one of the most structurally significant emerging US gigawatt-scale data center operations. The combination of $14.5 billion total project value, 706 acres straddling Hays and Guadalupe Counties, 1.2 GW master-planned capacity across three 400 MW phases, the behind-the-meter natural gas framework via Energy Transfer's Oasis Pipeline supporting 1.8 GW source capacity, plus the vertically-integrated CloudBurst plus Evolve operator framework under Tye Johnson positions San Marcos Data Center I as one of the structurally distinctive emerging US AI-focused data center operations.

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