How Project Matador Stacks Up Against Competitors

Every Artificial Intelligence (AI) campus that stalled over the past year failed one of six tests. Project Matador passed all six.

Building an AI data center in the U.S. today means betting that a grid operator, a pipeline, a permit office, a water regulator, and a city council will say yes. Over the past year, many have said no.

Project Matador cleared all of these hurdles before the first lease was even signed. Power, fuel, permits, water, community support, and equipment are all in place.

The 6 Tests

1. Can you get power, and can you do it on a timeline that my project requires?

Project Matador's Answer: Yes. We will make our own power, and we don't depend on the grid for our core power. That keeps us out of ERCOT's large-load interconnection queue, a well-known bottleneck for grid-dependent projects. Our campus sits outside ERCOT, in Xcel's SPS territory in the Southwest Power Pool. Our power is generated on site, behind the meter.

Others: On Aug. 3, Texas's governor froze new approvals for large ERCOT loads until ERCOT audits 474 gigawatts of requests. 461 projects are filling out a 130-question survey. Results are due October 12, and ERCOT will publish conclusion by December 10.

1. Can you fuel it?

Project Matador's Answer: Yes. We have a firm agreement with Energy Transfer that ramps to a supply of 220,000 MMBtu per day. We also have 4.6 miles of on-site pipeline installed, rated at 450 MMcf/d. That is enough for the first 2 gigawatts of power.

Others: A 2.45 GW project in New Mexico sent a force majeure notice on Sept. 24. This came after the State Land Office twice refused to let a 17-mile natural gas line cross 0.6 miles of state land, causing gas delivery to slip to February 2027.

1. Can you permit it?

Project Matador's Answer: Yes. It's already done for 6 GW. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) approved our air permits for up to 6 GW of natural gas generation in February 2026, before the state paused new and pending data center permits. That gate has now closed behind us. On Sept. 21, the state froze new and pending data center permits, with a status report due Oct. 19 and no date set for the freeze to lift. Any project starting today faces an indefinite pause behind a doorway that Project Matador has already cleared. Our site also borders the Department of Energy's Pantex plant, so parts of the campus already have had federal environmental review. In a related Texas Tech-Pantex land deal, about 30 agencies finished their reviews in 45 days. Our nuclear application is in process with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and the environmental review is the first to be considered under the applicant-prepared pilot program.

Others: The same New Mexico project mentioned above is still awaiting an air permit for its power plant. If it fails, the whole power design must change. In Texas, new entrants now wait behind an open-ended permit freeze.

1. Do you have access to enough water?

Project Matador's Answer: Yes. We have a water contract that is fully approved by the Amarillo City Council at a premium rate. Infrastructure funded by Fermi, including 7.2 miles of water lines is already built. Closed-loop cooling, with air-cooled condensers are planned. Our water strategy is designed to use 80% less water than traditional cooling systems, while also relying heavily on non-potable sources and recycling. We also built water tracking and reporting into our plans from the start, on our own.

Others: Hundreds of Texas developments in 18 counties, including Tom Green County, are now under Attorney General investigation for ignoring the state water survey. Fewer than 30% of data centers answered it. Since Sept. 14, this is being enforced as a criminal offense under the Texas Water Code and failure to comply may make a project ineligible for TCEQ permits, amendments, and renewals.

1. Will the community let you build?

Project Matador's Answer: Yes. Project Matador is built to be a good neighbor from the start. Our site is leased from the Texas Tech University System, and the site is in rural Carson County, near Amarillo, not in the city. It sits next to Pantex, a federal nuclear facility that has operated in the area for decades. It brings jobs to a county whose population has declined since 1980. It will not strain the local power supply because we bring our own power. And our project is expected to account for only about 0.13% of total water use in the Texas Panhandle region.

Others: In Wichita Falls, Texas, the City Council voted unanimously on May 5 to kill a 117-acre data center within walking distance of homes. Nationally, local opposition blocked or delayed about $198 billion of projects in the first half of 2026, led by more than 840 opposition groups in 49 states.

1. Can you get the equipment?

Project Matador's Answer: Yes. Much of it is already on site. About 2 GW of generation is secured, and the first Siemens F-class units have arrived. NAES will operate the fleet, and CBRE will operate the first data hall. TensorWave has signed a binding 15-year lease for the first 222 MW.

Others: According to Goldman Sachs, global demand for natural gas turbines has surged, creating record order backlogs at all three major manufacturers: GE Vernova, Siemens Energy, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. All three plan to expand production, but Goldman notes the added capacity is unlikely to ease the tight market. GE Vernova expects to have more than 116 GW under contract by year-end, with all of its 2030 production slots and more than half of its 2031 slots already sold. Siemens Energy's backlog is approaching 69 GW, including 24 GW tied to data centers, which implies lead times of three to four years. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is negotiating projects that will ship in the 2030s.