ServerDomes Global Breaks Ground on 350MW Hueco Ranch Data Center Campus Near El Paso

Kaufman & Company and ServerDomes Global broke ground on October 7 on Hueco Ranch, a $15 billion geodesic-dome data center campus near Desert Haven in Hudspeth County, Texas. The project spans roughly 24,000 acres of formerly idle ranch and oil-and-gas land about 28 miles east of El Paso, along US Highway 62/180, and is planned to generate 350 MW, with the first 80 MW expected to come online 16 months after construction starts. The groundbreaking proceeded without prior notification to county officials, raising questions about transparency and local engagement in one of the largest data center developments ever proposed for the region.

The campus is designed around geodesic dome structures that cool by natural convection, supplemented by hybrid air, direct liquid, and immersion cooling systems for dense AI racks. According to Kaufman & Company founder Daniel Kaufman, each dome draws up to 90 percent of its power from behind-the-meter sources. In El Paso, the company is developing its own geothermal generation alongside solar, sized to sell surplus power to outside users. "It is a dome with a green roof that blends into the landscape rather than another lit box stretching for miles," Kaufman said. ServerDomes Global designs and builds the domes and is independently owned, with Kaufman Ventures as an investor. Lonestar Kaufman Development Partners, a Kaufman affiliate, serves as the joint-venture partner on the Texas campus and a sister project outside Salt Lake City.

The property sits in Rio Grande Electric Cooperative's service area, placing it on the WECC grid that serves El Paso rather than ERCOT. No state permit filings for the project have surfaced. Water comes from a well on the property, drawn once during initial setup, after which a roof catchment system feeds a closed loop, according to County Judge Joanna MacKenzie. Kaufman said in a July release that phase one already has tenants and plans up to ten more domes on the site over the next decade, though the tenants were not named.

MacKenzie learned of the project through rumors on October 8, the day after groundbreaking, and visited the site to meet contractors. "When you're talking about a project that could potentially impact locals by way of use of power and water source, I do think that local government should be included in that conversation," she said. Project representatives apologized and began grading private roads in Desert Haven, with the landowner donating caliche for road repairs. The project is not seeking county tax abatements, and road-use agreements remain under negotiation. Representatives are scheduled to present to the Commissioners Court on October 27.

Because Texas counties have no zoning authority over private land, the county's primary leverage is disclosure. The construction schedule also remains unsettled: Kaufman's July release stated construction had begun, while MacKenzie indicated it could start as early as 2027 and run four to five years, with expectations of about 800 construction jobs and 200 to 300 permanent positions. Hueco Ranch joins a rapidly growing cluster on El Paso's side of the grid, where Baxtel tracks 18 facilities from six providers. Meta's El Paso campus, about 25 miles west, plans 366 MW of modular gas generation to support 1 GW, while Oracle's 2.5 GW Project Jupiter in New Mexico lost a gas pipeline approval in July.

Hueco Ranch sits outside ERCOT, so the state's grid audit does not determine its interconnection. It still faces Governor Greg Abbott's September 21 order directing TCEQ to issue no data center permits until that audit is completed, though a plan without gas turbines requires fewer of those permits. This makes the El Paso borderland a test case for self-supplied power: Meta is betting on gas, Jupiter's gas plan hit a regulatory wall, and Hueco Ranch is betting on geothermal, with no resource or permit for the site yet disclosed. Until those details emerge, the 350 MW figure remains a plan rather than a certainty, and the October 27 meeting represents the first opportunity for greater clarity.