Coatue Launches Data Center Venture Next Frontier, Partners with Fluidstack on 430MW Indiana Campus
May 5, 2026
Coatue Launches Data Center Venture Next Frontier, Partners with Fluidstack on 430MW Indiana Campus
Investment firm Coatue Management has launched a new powered-land venture called Next Frontier, aimed at acquiring sites near large power sources to serve data center and cloud operators. The move underscores the intensifying race among institutional investors to secure energy-constrained land for AI infrastructure, as demand for computational capacity continues to outpace supply. Coatue, which manages over $70 billion in assets, has been a prolific backer of AI and data center companies, including CoreWeave, Together AI, and Anthropic, and is now taking a more direct role in site development.
Next Frontier’s first project is a 430MW data center campus in New Lebanon, Indiana, developed in a joint venture with AI cloud firm Fluidstack. The project is backed by Google, which has guaranteed the lease and will assume it or pay a termination fee if Fluidstack defaults. The joint venture, known as Meridian Arc HoldCo, has issued $5.7 billion in senior secured notes to fund the development, according to FitchRatings. The notes mature in 2031 and are secured by a 15-year lease with Fluidstack, which includes three five-year extension options. Power for the campus will be supplied by Hoosier Energy and WIN Energy.
The campus will be built on an approximately 140-acre site in New Lebanon, Sullivan County, and will consist of two turnkey data centers: one with 245MW of IT capacity and another with 185MW, along with an on-site electrical substation. The first 65MW data hall is scheduled to come online in July 2027, with 300MW available by December 2026 and the remaining 320MW by March 2027. Latham & Watkins LLP, which advised on the notes issuance, noted that Frontier Development Holdings LP is an affiliate of Next Frontier, confirming the venture’s role in the project.
The deal is part of a broader pattern of Google-backed data center projects tied to Fluidstack and Anthropic. Google has invested more than $3.75 billion in Anthropic, holding a 14 percent stake as of 2025, and has provided financial backing for several Fluidstack-anchored campuses, including those developed by Hut 8, Cipher, and TeraWulf. Anthropic has pledged to invest $50 billion in U.S. data centers with Fluidstack, and the Indiana campus appears to be a key piece of that strategy. Separately, developer Potentia recently announced plans for a 2.1GW data center park in Sullivan County, though it remains unclear whether the Next Frontier project is the anchor tenant.
The Indiana site is located near Hallador Energy’s 1GW coal-powered Merom Generating Station, which was acquired from Hoosier Energy in 2022. Hallador has filed to expand the plant with 515MW of natural gas capacity, reflecting the broader industry shift toward hybrid power solutions for data centers. The development also highlights the growing role of investment firms in bridging the gap between capital, energy, and AI infrastructure, as traditional real estate and utility models struggle to keep pace with the scale of demand.
Source: datacenterdynamics
