Chevron to Build Its First Data Center Power Plant in Texas Permian Area

Chevron Corp. has chosen West Texas as the placement for its first power-generation facility aimed to help an artificial-intelligence information heart, marking a major pivot by the oil large.

Chevron unveiled the plan for the preliminary 2.5-GW plant at a Nov. 12 investor day convention as a part of a 5‑yr technique that strikes the corporate past its conventional function as a gasoline provider into direct electrical energy era. The plant might develop to 5GW at a future level, the corporate stated.

The pure gas-fired facility situated within the Permian Basin marks Chevron’s first transfer into powering AI workloads. This enterprise mannequin permits the corporate to bypass the regional grid and provide power immediately to an information heart operator at a co-located web site. Chevron said that operations are scheduled to start in 2027. 

The corporate didn’t present an replace on the particular web site and stated it’s in unique negotiations with an unnamed operator. Additional particulars about this partnership haven’t been disclosed, nor have been particulars on contractor choice.

Chevron New Energies is main improvement of the West Texas information‑heart energy facility. The division stated it’s drawing on the corporate’s pure fuel manufacturing and working expertise to assist meet the info heart energy wants. 

Division President Jeff Gustavson stated the Permian Basin web site builds on Chevron’s current fuel manufacturing community, giving the venture a aggressive edge. Within the Permian, we maintain a novel information benefit via our curiosity in
one out of each 5 wells, and we’re constructing AI‑pushed instruments to
unlock that potential, Gustavson stated. 

The power will function in a “behind‑the‑meter” setup, supplying electrical energy immediately to an information heart moderately than via the regional grid. in accordance with Gustavson. Framing the venture as each an exterior alternative and an inside shift, he added: “We’re not simply working to energy the AI revolution—we’re making use of it throughout our personal enterprise to create extra worth.”

The announcement follows Chevron’s February 2025 partnership with fuel engineer producer GE Vernova and funding agency Engine No. 1 to develop as much as 4 pure fuel‑fired crops for U.S. information facilities. This system will use GE Vernova 7HA fuel generators put in alongside information‑heart websites at past Texas websites that weren’t recognized.

However the Institute for Vitality Economics and Monetary Evaluation, in a recent analysis of forecasted information heart energy load progress for some Southeast utilities, projected a danger of overbuilding fuel infrastructure if forecasted information heart demand falls quick.