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Key developments
San Marcos enacts Texas data-center ban
San Marcos City Council voted 4-3 on June 16 to define data centers in zoning law and make them ineligible anywhere inside city limits, The Texas Tribune reported. The city currently has no proposed data center projects inside its boundaries, but at least two are proposed in surrounding unincorporated Hays County. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt said he plans to challenge the ban under 2025 House Bill 2559 and Texas’ 2023 “Death Star Law.”
Why it matters
The ban creates a direct test of how far Texas cities can go in resisting data-center growth amid water, power and noise concerns.
Sources & driving stories
THE TEXAS TRIBUNE · Katlyn Ma
The Texas Tribune coverageDigital Realty buys Blackstone Virginia stakes
Digital Realty agreed to buy Blackstone’s interests in three fully leased Northern Virginia data centers with 288 MW of total IT capacity. The transaction values the assets at $7.8 billion and includes $3.5 billion of consideration: $1.2 billion in cash and $2.3 billion in Digital Realty shares. CNBC reported Digital Realty shares fell 5% in premarket trading after the announcement.
Why it matters
The deal reinforces Northern Virginia’s role as the dominant hyperscale market and shows continued investor appetite for leased, large-capacity data-center campuses.
Sources & driving stories
CNBC · Sawdah Bhaimiya
CNBC coverageBLACKSTONE
Blackstone coverageBrookhaven and AWS target grid interconnections
Brookhaven National Laboratory and Amazon Web Services announced a partnership at the AWS Summit Washington, D.C. to accelerate Brookhaven’s GridSearch project. The AI tool prescreens thousands of potential grid interconnection locations and Brookhaven says it can reduce analyses from months to minutes, potentially cutting interconnection timelines from years to months. AWS will provide compute infrastructure and AI expertise to help scale the approach across major U.S. transmission grids.
Why it matters
Grid interconnection delays are a major bottleneck for AI data centers, and this project aims to make siting decisions faster and less disruptive to power networks.
Sources & driving stories
BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY
Brookhaven National Laboratory coverageWorth noting
WORTH NOTING
Microsoft Fairwater facility is operational
Yahoo reported Microsoft completed its first Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin data center on June 23 ahead of schedule, with the AI-focused Fairwater facility supporting nearly 550 full-time local jobs.
WORTH NOTING
Ohio Valley compute plans surface
News and Sentinel reported that officials are tracking a former Wheeling foundry redevelopment tied to modular computing components and a separate Belmont County proposal described as a 2-3 GW project targeting Q2 2029 commercial operation.
WORTH NOTING
Qualcomm sets data-center revenue targets
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Qualcomm is pitching a data-center compute strategy with Meta and Microsoft partnerships and targets of $5 billion in data-center revenue by 2027 and $15 billion by 2029.
Still unclear
OPEN QUESTION
Will Texas courts uphold city-level bans?
San Marcos’ action may clarify whether home-rule cities have more power than counties to block data centers despite state limits on local development restrictions.
OPEN QUESTION
Can AI screening actually shorten interconnection queues?
Brookhaven’s GridSearch claims large planning-time reductions, but its impact depends on whether utilities and grid operators adopt it at transmission-scale.