Abilene, Texas — Building the Next 100 Years

A city that has waited a long time to be chosen.

For decades, Abilene watched the booms happen somewhere else. Now we have the largest economic investment in our city's history right here on our doorstep — and a few loud voices want us to send it away. This is the other side of that story. Sourced, named, and verifiable.

See the Numbers The Water Question
+37%
Q1 sales tax revenue, directly attributed to data center construction
+28.5%
Hotel revenue growth — first time Abilene has led Texas
+$57M
City of Abilene net position increase, FY2025
+10%
Property values up to $10.8 billion citywide

Our Story

We are residents of Abilene. We just see this differently.

We aren't an organization. We aren't a campaign. We're the part of Abilene that has been quiet while the loudest voices wrote the public record — and we are done being quiet.

Abilene Rising is an independent effort by residents who believe our city deserves the full picture, not half of it. We were born here, raised here, or chose to make our lives here. We watched Abilene get passed over for decades while the rest of Texas grew. We are not going to apologize for finally being chosen.

We also aren't going to pretend the challenges aren't real. The housing pressure is real. Some families are hurting. We acknowledge that openly, and we believe the answer is to build more housing and grow more high-wage jobs — not to send away the largest economic engine our city has ever seen.

Everything cited on this site is drawn from named officials, audited city reports, peer-reviewed research, or primary corporate filings. Where the record has been distorted, we correct it with sources. Where there are honest disagreements, we say so.

The Numbers

What's actually happening in Abilene right now.

These are not projections. These are not estimates from any economic development office. Every number below comes from audited city reports, named city officials, or the Abilene Convention and Visitors Bureau. Look any of them up.

+37%
Sales Tax Revenue, Q1 FY2026
First quarter of the fiscal year (October 2025 – March 2026). The city's audited financial report attributes this increase directly to data center construction activity.
City of Abilene FY2025 Comprehensive Financial Report · Forvis Mazars LLP audit · April 2026
$57M
Net Position Increase
The city's overall financial position improved by $57 million in FY2025. The financial report notes the city is intentionally being conservative — not relying on data center construction revenue for recurring operations.
City of Abilene Comprehensive Financial Report, FY2025
+49%
Construction Permits
Construction permits in Abilene increased 49 percent between October 2025 and January 2026. That's not just data center construction — that's housing, commercial, and infrastructure investment across the city.
City of Abilene FY2025 audited report
+10%
Taxable Property Values
Taxable property values across Abilene rose to $10.8 billion — up 10 percent in a single fiscal year. Rising values mean rising tax base, which means more funding for schools, streets, and public safety long after the abatement period ends.
City of Abilene FY2025 audited report
47→50%
Firefighters' Pension Funding
For the first time in years, the funded status of the Abilene Firefighters' pension increased — from 47 percent to 50 percent. Growth pays for our public safety obligations. Stagnation does not.
City of Abilene FY2025 audited report
$40M+
Annual New Tax Base, Post-Abatement
When the 10-year property tax abatement ends, an estimated $40 million per year — conservatively — enters the city and county tax base permanently. Abilene has never had an addition to its tax base like this.
City of Abilene abatement records · Taylor County valuation data

The Water Question

The most misunderstood number on the other side's website.

Water is the loudest concern raised by the opposition. We take it seriously. Here is what the person who knows the actual number best said, under oath, before the Texas legislature in April 2026.

The city offered the project 500 gallons of water a minute. The site consumed only 20 gallons a minute last month — less than 5 percent of the allocation from the city.

CEO of the campus operator · Texas House Committee on State Affairs · Public testimony, April 2026

For perspective: a comparison every Abilenian can verify.

Compare the data center campus to three things every Abilenian recognizes — Maxwell Municipal, Live Oak, and the Country Club / Fairway Oaks. Three golf courses, all in the same West Texas climate.

Three Abilene Golf Courses

Maxwell Municipal, Live Oak, and Abilene Country Club / Fairway Oaks

~307M
gallons per year, combined estimate

Three 18-hole courses in this climate typically irrigate about 70 acres each at 4.5 acre-feet per acre annually. Every drop applied evaporates, infiltrates, or runs off. None of it comes back.

Consumptive use
vs.
The Full Data Center Campus

Closed-loop industrial cooling, normal operation

~40–50M
gallons per year, at most

Closed-loop cooling seals water inside a sealed circuit. The same water recirculates indefinitely, absorbing heat and rejecting it to the air. In normal operation, no routine refill required. Roughly 90 percent less water than legacy evaporative systems.

Recirculating system

Three golf courses use roughly six to eight times more water per year than the entire campus.

Nobody is circulating petitions about the golf courses. We don't think anybody should — we like our golf courses. We're pointing out that the conversation about data center water use has been wildly disconnected from the actual numbers, and that the people raising the loudest concerns aren't applying the same standard to anything else in Abilene.

How do we know the golf course numbers? Golf course water use is public record — available from the City of Abilene Water Utilities under Texas Government Code Chapter 552. The estimates above are based on USGA and GCSAA industry standards for West Texas 18-hole facilities. We encourage anyone to verify them with an official public information request. That's the standard we hold ourselves to. We invite the other side to do the same.

The Power Question

They didn't take it from the grid. They built it.

When the loudest voices on the other side talk about ERCOT and blackouts, they leave out the most important fact about this project: the campus runs on a 1.2-gigawatt power infrastructure that Lancium financed and built itself — purpose-built substations, behind-the-meter battery storage, and behind-the-meter solar generation, all approved by ERCOT through a rigorous formal review.

1.2 GW
Purpose-built grid infrastructure, financed and built by Lancium
$600M
Private financing secured by Lancium for Clean Campus energy infrastructure
BTM
Behind-the-meter battery storage and solar generation on the campus
$0
Direct cost to existing local residential ratepayers for the new infrastructure

Here is what that means in plain English. The campus brought its own substation. It is not borrowing grid infrastructure built for someone else. It is not draining capacity meant for your neighborhood. It is connected to the grid the way every modern industrial facility is — but it brought its own generation, its own storage, and its own substation to the table.

Lancium's CEO Michael McNamara has publicly described the model as one that pairs new behind-the-meter resources with the grid interconnect “to transform large loads from potential risks to robust grid assets.” In plain language: this campus is designed to support grid reliability, not threaten it.

Texas Senate Bill 6, passed in June 2025, gave ERCOT explicit legal authority to curtail large industrial loads during firm load-shed events. Translation: if the grid is ever stressed, your home stays on and the data center cools down first. That is the law, not a courtesy.

The campus did not show up and plug into a grid that was already strained. It showed up and built new capacity, with private money, and submitted itself to ERCOT's formal review before a single megawatt moved.

Sources

Lancium press releases (March 2025, October 2025) · Lancium Clean Campus Abilene public materials · ERCOT formal interconnection approval · Texas SB 6, June 2025 · Lancium $600M debt financing announcement, October 2025

Jobs & Wages

“Only 357 jobs.” That number is incomplete.

The 357 figure cited everywhere is one contractor's permanent floor — the legal minimum required by one company's incentive agreement, signed before the project reached its current scale. Here's what's actually happening, in two clean numbers.

Construction Phase — Today
8,500+

Skilled tradespeople on site right now

With three of eight buildings operational, more than 8,500 construction workers are on the campus today. That construction workforce will scale down as buildout completes — but right now, every one of those paychecks is moving through Abilene's economy.

CEO testimony · Texas House Committee on State Affairs · April 2026
Permanent Hires — By Year-End
791

Oracle full-time employees and contractors

Oracle — the campus's primary tenant — projects 791 full-time employees and contractors at its Texas operations by the end of 2026. That's Oracle alone. The contractual 357 floor refers to one company. Permanent employment has already moved past it.

Bloomberg · Dallas Morning News · Oracle public filings

And the pay isn't minimum wage.

Typical annual compensation ranges for permanent campus roles. These are the jobs that let families buy homes here, not rent them.

Data Center Operations Engineers
$95K – $140K
Electrical & Mechanical Technicians
$68K – $95K
Network & Infrastructure Engineers
$110K – $170K
Security & Facilities Operations
$55K – $80K
Senior Data Center Leadership
$150K – $223K
Local Vendors, Suppliers & Trades Ecosystem
Indirect, multiplying across Taylor County

The Record

Their claim. The documented facts.

We respect the right of anyone to question a project of this size. We ask for the same standard of accuracy we'd apply to ourselves. Five key claims, side by side.

The Claim

“Only 357 permanent jobs required — with no local hiring requirement.”

The Documented Facts

357 is one company's contractual floor. Oracle alone projects 791 full-time employees and contractors by end of 2026. More than 8,500 workers are on site today with three of eight buildings open. As for “no local hiring requirement” — that is true, and also true of every major employer in Abilene. Texas law prohibits requiring local hiring. What you can do is offer high-paying jobs and let Abilene workers compete for them. Which is exactly what is happening.

Bloomberg · Dallas Morning News · TX House testimony, April 2026
The Claim

“Initial fill alone is a million gallons per building — plus continuous top-offs for maintenance.”

The Documented Facts

This describes conventional evaporative cooling — not what this campus uses. Closed-loop cooling is a sealed, continuously recirculating system. The initial fill is a one-time commissioning event. In normal operation, no routine refill is required. The city offered 500 gallons per minute. The campus used 20 last month — under 5 percent of its allocation. The comparison to old-style data centers is the difference between a 1990 car's fuel economy and a modern hybrid.

Vantage Data Centers, April 2026 · CEO testimony, TX House · FWPCOA engineering research
The Claim

“The economic impact methodology was hidden from journalists.”

The Documented Facts

DCOA uses the same modeling tools as the U.S. Department of Commerce — IMPLAN and RIMS II. The software is not the secret; it is industry standard. The model inputs that are protected are protected because they include confidential financial information from the project partners. That is standard practice across every economic development corporation in Texas. Calling it “hiding the methodology” is like calling a CPA's working papers “hiding the audit.”

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis · Standard EDC practice across Texas
The Claim

“An 80 percent chance of ERCOT blackouts — the data center makes this worse.”

The Documented Facts

The 80 percent figure is ERCOT's statewide worst-case modeling, not Abilene-specific, and it reflects pre-2022 grid conditions. More importantly: this campus is not taking from the grid the way the framing suggests. Lancium financed and built a purpose-built 1.2 GW substation and behind-the-meter battery and solar generation on site — with $600 million in private financing. ERCOT formally approved the interconnect through a rigorous review process designed to protect grid reliability. Senate Bill 6 (June 2025) further gives ERCOT explicit authority to curtail the campus's load before any residential customer loses service. See The Power Question for the full record.

ERCOT · AEP Texas · Texas Public Utility Commission post-Uri reports
The Claim

“The 85 percent tax abatement is a giveaway to a trillion-dollar corporation.”

The Documented Facts

Every major Texas market competing for this project offered comparable or more aggressive incentives. The 15 percent that remains on a $3.5 billion assessment is generating new revenue immediately. When the 10-year abatement ends, an estimated $40 million or more per year enters the city and county tax base — permanently. Abilene has never had an addition to its tax base anywhere close to this. The construction phase is already producing record sales tax revenue and the city's first-ever lead in Texas hotel revenue growth.

City of Abilene abatement records · DCOA economic analysis · FY2025 audited financials

Hospitality & Visitors

For the first time ever, Abilene leads Texas.

Hotels. Restaurants. RV parks. Tourism. Every category is up — and the hotel tax revenue flowing in is funding two of Abilene's most beloved civic assets.

+28.5%
Q1 hotel revenue growth — #1 in Texas. First time in city history Abilene has led this category.
+35%
Full-year 2025 hotel revenue growth, year over year
+19%
Hotel occupancy increase, year over year
33%
Share of Abilene restaurant spending coming from visitors

The Abilene-Taylor County Events Venue District has seen an incredible increase in hotel occupancy tax revenues.

Marjorie Knight, Director of Finance · West Texas Tribune · October 2025

That hotel tax revenue is split 50/50 between the Taylor County Expo Center and Frontier Texas. The construction workers staying at our hotels are helping fund two of the most recognizable civic assets in this city. That is not abstract economic theory. That is the rodeo, our museum, and our public events being directly supported by this project.

Housing

Housing pressure is real. We're not going to pretend otherwise.

We disagree with the opposition on a great many things. We do not disagree about housing. The pressure on Abilene families is real, documented, and affecting people we know.

What the critics are right about

Rents are up significantly. Some longtime renters have been displaced. The construction workforce — thousands of out-of-state workers in a city of just over 100,000 — has put real strain on an already-tight housing market.

Families have been hurt by this. We are not going to dismiss the people behind those numbers, and anyone who does is wrong to do so.

What the critics leave out

The construction workforce is temporary — it peaks during build-out and declines. The permanent, high-wage jobs are what let Abilene families buy homes instead of rent them.

Construction permits in Abilene are up 49 percent. That is new housing breaking ground right now. The answer to a housing shortage is to build more housing — not to send away the economic engine that gives Abilene workers the wages to afford it.

Abilene had a housing shortage before this project arrived. The answer to that shortage is investment. Stopping this project doesn't build a single house.

What You Can Do

Abilene has always chosen growth.

The critics are organized. Abilene's supporters need to be too. Three concrete ways to make sure both sides of this story are in the public record.

i.

Show up to public meetings

The City of Abilene hosts regular public forums. The opposition is showing up to comment periods at empty meetings. Being in the room matters more than any post online. Bring a neighbor.

ii.

Share this page

When you see misinformation about the project, send this page. Every share reaches a neighbor who may have only heard one side. The other side spent a year unopposed in the public record. That changes now.

iii.

Talk to your representatives

City council. Taylor County commissioners. State representatives. Tell them you support fact-based conversation about Abilene's future — and that you're paying attention to how they handle this.

—

We're the part of Abilene that wants this city to still be thriving in twenty years — not just existing.

Abilene Rising

Sources

Every number on this page is verifiable.

City of Abilene
Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, FY2025 (audited by Forvis Mazars LLP, presented April 2026)
KTAB / BigCountryHomepage
Net position up $57 million: City of Abilene reports success for Fiscal Year 2025 — April 2026
KTXS
Abilene leads Texas cities in hotel revenue thanks in part to Project Stargate — 2025
West Texas Tribune
Hotel tax revenues see ‘incredible increase’ as Taylor County approves events venue budget — October 2025
Abilene Convention & Visitors Bureau
Robert Lopez, Vice President — on-record statements regarding hotel and tourism revenue
TX House Committee
Public testimony, Committee on State Affairs — April 2026
Bloomberg / Dallas Morning News
Oracle Texas operations workforce projections, January 2026
Oracle Corporation
Public statements regarding Abilene campus development
ERCOT
Resource adequacy reports and SB 6 implementation, 2025–2026
AEP Texas
West Texas transmission investment program, 2023–2026
USGA Water Resource Center
Industry standards for golf course irrigation in West Texas climate zones
GCSAA Phase III
Water Use and Conservation Practices for U.S. Golf Courses
Vantage Data Centers
Closed-loop cooling technical specifications and water usage profiles, April 2026
FWPCOA
Florida Water and Pollution Control Operators Association engineering research on closed-loop industrial cooling
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
RIMS II Regional Input-Output Modeling System methodology
Lancium
Crusoe Expands AI Data Center Campus in Abilene to 1.2 Gigawatts — March 2025
Lancium / PR Newswire
Lancium Secures $600 Million Debt Financing to Advance Clean Campus Development — October 2025
Lancium
Lancium Clean Campus Locations — Abilene, Texas (1.2 GW interconnect, ERCOT-approved)
Texas Legislature
Senate Bill 6 (89th Legislature, 2025) — ERCOT large-load curtailment authority