CoreWeave Denton TX data center, Denton, Texas

The CoreWeave data center at 8171 Jim Christal Road in Denton, Denton County, Texas, is operating on the site of a former bitcoin mine that Core Scientific converted into an AI computing campus, contracted to deliver about 262 megawatts of critical IT load to CoreWeave. Denton's city council approved the conversion in 2024 and expects $194 million in property tax revenue from it over ten years.

Two years later, the same council is moving to pause the next one: it voted unanimously in early September 2026 to advance a moratorium on new data centers of 90 days, extendable to 180. The council held the first of two required public hearings on September 22, with a second set for October 27, before any vote on the moratorium. "When that data center [Core Scientific] was allowed to be built in our city, it doubled the amount of electricity," said Mayor Pro Tem Nick Stevens, who pitched the pause, adding that Texas exempts data centers' electricity from state sales tax: "That is millions of dollars that we're losing a year as a city."

Denton County resident James Macfadzean told the Denton Record-Chronicle: "A lot of it just seems to be like build, build, build and we'll deal with repercussions later." Brian Beck, then a council member running for mayor, said he was not interested in attracting more data centers: "I think we need to be making sure that if you are going to come to town, then you need to follow the greenest rules possible."

The city approved one more data center before the pause: a 20 megawatt QumulusAI facility on 4 acres of city land nearby, on January 13, 2026, with operations expected in 2028. The QumulusAI project runs on closed-loop cooling, and the city does not expect it to draw significantly on local water. The city council returns to the moratorium after its second public hearing on October 27.