Energy Vault just locked in what it calls its largest contract ever: a $600 million deal to build 1.25 gigawatts of power infrastructure for AI data centers in Texas. The project, centered on a campus in Snyder, Texas, represents one of the clearest examples yet of how the AI boom is reshaping the energy industry from the ground up.
Construction on the Snyder site began on July 27, 2026, with an initial phase delivering 8 MW of “powered shell” capacity, expandable to 25 MW. The full campus could eventually accommodate up to 500 MW. Commercial operations for the first modular data centers are targeted for Q1 2027.
What Energy Vault is actually building
Energy Vault is providing the complete energy backbone that AI data centers need to function: powered land, electrical systems, battery storage, and modular data center capacity, all bundled into a single turnkey package.
The infrastructure is being built to support Crusoe Cloud’s modular data centers. Crusoe signed a strategic framework agreement with Energy Vault in early 2026 that paved the way for phased deployments at the Snyder site.
Under the arrangement, Energy Vault is purchasing 10 Crusoe Spark units and leasing them back. Energy Vault provides the power infrastructure and capacity, Crusoe provides the compute.
Why Texas, and why now
Texas’s deregulated power market, operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), allows large consumers to negotiate directly for power at competitive rates. AI data centers operating within ERCOT are seeking robust, redundant energy supplies to ensure reliability.
That’s where Energy Vault’s core competency comes in. The company has been building grid-scale energy storage projects across the state, including the 57 MW/114 MWh Cross Trails battery energy storage system. The Snyder campus represents a logical evolution: instead of just selling storage to grid operators, Energy Vault is now packaging storage with complete power infrastructure and selling it directly to the customers who need it most.
What this means for the energy-AI convergence
The expansion potential at Snyder, from 8 MW to potentially 500 MW, illustrates how these projects are designed to scale with demand. Rather than building a massive facility upfront, the phased approach lets both Energy Vault and Crusoe match capital deployment to actual customer commitments.
For Energy Vault specifically, the $600 million contract represents a significant revenue anchor. The company has historically derived most of its business from standalone energy storage deployments, having transitioned from its gravity-based EVx systems to comprehensive power infrastructure solutions.