Amp Z Unveils Plans for Multi-Gigawatt Data Center Campus on Former Texas Paper Mill Site
February 5, 2026
The relentless demand for artificial intelligence and cloud computing capacity is driving a new wave of massive-scale data center development, pushing developers to seek out large land parcels with robust power access. In a significant move reflecting this trend, Amp Z, a subsidiary of the global renewable energy developer Amp Energy, has announced plans to develop a multi-gigawatt data center campus in East Texas.
The project, reported by the Lufkin Daily News, involves Amp Z acquiring approximately 1,041 acres of land in Angelina County, near the city of Lufkin, about 120 miles north of Houston. The site is the former location of the Southland Paper Mill, which operated from the late 1930s until its closure in 2007. Verdant Industries, which purchased the property at auction for $11 million in 2010, has granted Amp Z the right to purchase the land. According to the company's website, the initial phase of the "Project LufKin" campus is designed for a total capacity of 2.1 gigawatts (GW). The site currently has a 55-megawatt (MW) grid connection via an on-site substation, with plans to expand this grid-connected capacity to 175MW by 2026 and scale it up to 1.1GW by 2028. Concurrently, Amp Z aims to integrate 1GW of on-site power generation by 2029, with the potential for the entire campus to expand across up to 4,000 acres.
Lufkin Mayor Mark Hicks highlighted the project's transformative potential for the local economy, telling the Lufkin Daily News, "It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime project for Angelina County. It's in the billions of dollars in terms of investment. It's just a real opportunity for us." Amp Z, formed in 2025, is part of the Amp Energy group, which has invested over $6 billion in 14GW of clean energy infrastructure since its founding in 2009. The company states it is currently advancing three development sites with a combined power ramp of 3.8GW and is conducting diligence on four additional sites representing another 4.7GW of potential capacity.
This development underscores a strategic shift in the data center industry towards locations that offer not only scale but also opportunities for integrated, on-site power generation—a critical factor for sustainability and grid reliability as power demands from computing continue to soar. The repurposing of large industrial brownfield sites, like the former paper mill, is becoming an increasingly common strategy to secure the extensive land and power infrastructure required for next-generation AI and hyperscale facilities.
Source: datacenterdynamics
