CM Global Services Launches Project Santos, a 50-Megawatt AI Data Center Campus in Texas

CM Global Services (CMGS), a long-time strategic partner of Compass Mining, Inc., has announced Project Santos, a plan to develop a 50-megawatt AI data center campus in the ERCOT South grid zone. The announcement was made by Shanon Squires, Chief Mining Officer of Compass Mining, during a panel at the Energy Investors Forum, which focused on bitcoin mining companies diversifying into AI infrastructure.

The project underscores a growing trend in which infrastructure firms originally built for cryptocurrency mining are pivoting toward high-performance computing and AI workloads. CMGS, a global provider of logistics, hardware sales, and infrastructure services, is leveraging its expertise in site development and power infrastructure to enter the AI data center market. Project Santos is being developed as a GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) platform, meaning CMGS will secure NVIDIA GB300 Blackwell GPU capacity and offer it directly to customers as dedicated, single-tenant or multi-tenant compute, rather than requiring clients to bring their own hardware.

The campus will be delivered in two phases. The first phase is a 7-megawatt, 5 MW of IT load Tier III facility purpose-built for AI inference workloads, targeted for completion by the end of the first quarter of 2027. The second phase will add a 43-megawatt expansion, bringing the site to its fully planned 50-megawatt capacity. CMGS’s ideal customer profile includes AI enterprise organizations seeking dedicated capacity, and the company is also in active discussions with neocloud providers.

Shanon Squires, Chief Mining Officer of Compass Mining, emphasized the disciplined nature of the move. “This is a disciplined next step for CM Global Services, drawing upon its expertise in standing up infrastructure, while Compass Mining simultaneously continues to be the gold standard in Bitcoin mining-related services,” he said. “Bitcoin mining remains the core of Compass Mining. CMGS’s Project Santos reflects the power infrastructure and site development discipline CMGS built over years, and we’re pursuing this initiative on our own terms.”

Vishnu Mackenchery, Managing Director at CMGS, described the project as a milestone for the company. “This is a new step forward for CMGS, as we continue building for the future. Project Santos marks our entry into AI infrastructure and inference, and we’re charting our own path, moving fast to get there,” he noted.

The project signals how firms with deep experience in energy-intensive infrastructure are repurposing their capabilities for the AI era, particularly in regions like Texas where power availability and grid connectivity are critical for large-scale data center development.