Nexus Data Center: Apex DFW HB1 and HB2, Hubbard, Texas

Nexus Data Centers is building its Apex DFW campus outside Hubbard in Hill County, Texas, on about 2,000 acres between Highway 171 and County Road 3369. Filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation list two buildings at 357 HCR 3372, Nexus Apex DFW HB1 and HB2, each 491,380 square feet and $400 million, with construction running from January 2026 to October 2027 for the first and June 2026 to January 2028 for the second. The Financial Times has reported the campus is being built for Anthropic, with Google providing financial backing.

When the plan surfaced in December 2025 it was described as a 600 megawatt natural gas-powered campus, with gas turbines running behind the meter, off the electric grid. An application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality describes natural gas engines at 880 State Highway 171 with a total generating capacity for the site of 612.93 megawatts, plus 152.75 megawatts of emergency diesel generation.

The ambitions have since grown: by March 2026, citing the Financial Times, Data Center Dynamics described a 2,800-acre campus aiming for 500 megawatts later in 2026 and possibly around 7.7 gigawatts eventually, near a major gas pipeline. Nexus is backed by Transition Equity Partners, and its chief executive is Ivan Van der Walt, who has a background in the energy industry.

At a February 2026 hearing on a reinvestment zone, the first step toward a tax abatement, residents asked about water use, environmental impacts, noise, jobs and the changing rural landscape. Amy Teal of Whitney asked why recording had not been allowed at Nexus's November town hall. Nexus said rainwater would be the primary water source, with treated effluent from Hubbard's wastewater plant of up to 100,000 gallons a day and a groundwater well as backup, and said it would design for noise of 65 decibels or less.

In April 2026 Nexus withdrew from the tax break talks, and the project went ahead without them. Hill County Judge Shane Brassell has said the county is limited in what it can do since Nexus already purchased the land.

The fight then widened to the whole county: on May 12, 2026, after nearly four hours of public comment, the Hill County Commissioners Court voted 3-2 for a one-year pause on new data centers, power plants and large batteries in unincorporated areas, with existing projects such as Nexus exempt. County Judge Shane Brassell said the pause would give officials time to study the effects of data centers before more projects move forward, and Brassell has said at least eight data centers are in the works in the county.

RCM Hill, LLC, which is planning a separate 1,235-megawatt data center called Project Aquila on more than 800 acres elsewhere in the county, sued Hill County and the three commissioners who voted for the pause in federal court in Waco, calling the moratorium illegal. On June 4 the Commissioners Court unanimously rescinded the moratorium; one commissioner said, "Unfortunately, we tried."

In August 2026 Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the state's grid operator, ERCOT, to audit data centers seeking new connections to the power grid before approving them, and said projects that fail to meet water, power and community impact requirements should be denied a connection. Nexus's power plant largely runs behind the meter, off the main grid, so it is unclear how directly the freeze affects the Hubbard project.

Hill County has no zoning plan and requires no building permit in unincorporated areas, so most remaining decisions on Nexus rest with the state. The Hill County Commissioners Court, led by Judge Shane Brassell with Commissioners Jim Holcomb and Larry Crumpton among its members, is the body residents have continued to raise concerns with.