Bitdeer AI data center, Rockdale, Texas

Bitdeer, the bitcoin miner that runs AI cloud services through its Bitdeer AI subsidiary, has bought 200 acres of former Alcoa smelter land near Rockdale, in Milam County, Texas, to build AI data center infrastructure next to its existing Rockdale facility. The company announced on September 1, 2026 that it had paid about $100 million in cash for the parcel.

The land was part of the Alcoa aluminum plant, a site of some 33,000 acres where smelting ended in 2008 and the plant shut completely in 2017. Pieces of it have since been sold, reportedly including 4,000 acres to SoftBank in June 2026, and SoftBank's energy arm SB Energy is building a data center elsewhere in Milam County that OpenAI will lease as part of its Stargate network. Bitdeer says its Milam County sites, including the new parcel, have about 563 megawatts of interconnected grid capacity, with plans to reach 742 megawatts, and a dedicated water supply. After the purchase it owns or operates about 255 acres in the county, and the company says it will keep mining bitcoin at the existing site while it develops the new land. "Rockdale is one of the best-connected locations in our portfolio, and we believe it is well positioned to receive additional power over the coming years", said chief financial officer Michael G. Potter. No tenant, building count or construction date has been announced.

Growing beyond the current connection depends on the Texas grid, where new data center approvals are on hold. On August 3, 2026, Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT to audit data centers in the grid's interconnection queue before any more are approved, and ERCOT paused its review of the first group of large projects. ERCOT was tracking more than 1,800 projects seeking about 474 gigawatts, more than five times the grid's record peak, and Abbott said about 90% of the requests were data centers. On September 21 he went further and told the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to issue no permits sought by data center projects until the audits are done, which ERCOT has said could run until December, according to Politico. During the pause ERCOT must verify that large projects are ready to be built, with a lease or deed and permits; the verification does not look at water use, noise or other effects on neighbors.

What comes next depends mainly on power. Bitdeer has said it believes Rockdale is well positioned to receive further power allocations in the coming years. New large-load approvals from ERCOT are frozen until the audit is finished.