Rowan Digital Infrastructure Breaks Ground on $700 Million, 300MW Data Center Campus in Temple, Texas
January 06, 2026
The relentless demand for computing power, particularly from artificial intelligence workloads, continues to drive a massive expansion of digital infrastructure across key U.S. markets. Texas, with its favorable business climate and growing power grid, has emerged as a central battleground for this development, attracting billions in investment.
This week, Rowan Digital Infrastructure announced it has broken ground on a major new data center campus in Temple, Texas. The project, representing a $700 million investment, is situated on approximately 700 acres along Bob White Road. At full build-out, the campus is designed to support a total IT capacity of 300 megawatts (MW), positioning it as a significant hub for hyperscale and AI-driven computing.
The development received unanimous final approval from the Temple City Council last year. Rowan has secured power for the facility through a partnership with utility provider Oncor, with operations expected to commence in 2027. This will be Rowan's second project in Temple, leveraging existing local infrastructure. The company's first facility in the city, the Moriah Data Center completed in 2023, is being repurposed as a warehouse after its tenant vacated in 2024. Rowan stated that the new site was chosen specifically because the existing utility and power infrastructure from the Moriah facility can serve the new project, "requiring no new transmission or substation construction and enabling it to become operational much faster."
In a statement, Rowan CEO Charley Daitch emphasized the strategic importance of the campus: “This campus will help unlock the real-world benefits that AI and digital infrastructure can have on people’s lives. We’re honored to build infrastructure here that enables breakthroughs in modern medicine, helps address climate challenges, and improves the everyday lives of people around the world.” Temple Mayor Tim Davis echoed the sentiment, noting, “Hosting a project of this scale places Temple at the forefront of technology that has the power to transform lives. Our community is playing a crucial role in supporting infrastructure that drives innovation.”
The groundbreaking underscores the intense competition and rapid pace of construction in the data center industry, especially in regions like Central Texas. Rowan, founded in 2021 by Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners and Birch Infrastructure, is actively developing multiple large-scale campuses, including projects in Maryland, Oregon, and San Antonio, Texas. The company's expansion is backed by investors such as the University Pension Plan Ontario. The Temple market is further heating up with social media giant Meta also building a large-scale data center in the city, signaling its growing appeal as a critical node in the nation's digital infrastructure network.
Source: datacenterdynamics
