Amazon buys Texas site for 7.65GW gas-powered AI data center

Amazon has reportedly acquired an 8,000-acre site in Pecos, Texas, to build a data center powered by an on-site natural gas plant. If built, the plant could become the largest natural gas power plant in the US at 7.65 gigawatts.

Why it matters: This follows earlier reporting that Amazon's planned Texas AI data centers could become among the top US CO2 sources, showing hyperscalers increasingly bypassing the strained electric grid by building dedicated fossil-fuel power plants for AI compute. That approach speeds up data center buildout but locks in large new sources of carbon emissions just as public opposition to AI data centers is intensifying nationwide.