Exploring Steel Demands for Data Center Boom in Abilene, TX

The rapid expansion of data centers across Texas is changing the Texas infrastructure scene, fueled by exploding AI and cloud computing demands, such as OpenAI’s Stargate Project. American Katerra looks forward to contributing to the creation of a sustainable steel industry. Recently, our team drove to Abilene, Texas to observe from a distance the data center construction underway—one of the top locations and one of the largest sites, emphasizing the magnitude of this build-up. Even while we were taking note of the remarkable gains we’d seen outside, it only added to our excitement for future opportunities to help Texas meet its ever-changing infrastructure requirements.

Being San Antonio-based since we opened our office earlier this year, we’re well poised to be useful in projects with demand for good-quality, eco-friendly steel. We will take a look at Texas data center trends, the strong power supply in Texas, increasing steel demand at Texas data centers, and why American Katerra is eager to play a role.

Moreover, an abundance of land, along with favorable business policies complemented by advanced energy resources, makes Texas one of the top data center development sites, which helps consolidate the role of Texas as a top data center development destination. In 2025, the state is experiencing the largest hyperscale projects seen in decades as big investments flow from technology companies. Markets within the booming state, such as Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and burgeoning areas in West Texas, are keeping pace, with pipeline construction in places like West Texas surpassing previous record levels. Highlights include projects like Abilene and other large-scale campuses, part of broader initiatives to scale out AI infrastructure. The Texas Comptroller reports that dozens of eligible data centers, large-scale data centers, and emerging projects are in progress—billions of dollars in capital and thousands of jobs are being created. In the face of ever-growing AI workloads, data centers may make up an important share of future electricity growth, highlighting Texas’s status as an innovation center. Our recent trip to Abilene illustrated this trend—the enormous amount of activity visible from public vantage points shows how quickly these facilities are emerging to serve global demand.

Reliable power is the lifeblood of data centers and their operations, and the power grid in Texas, operated by Texas’s ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas), is adapting to changing requirements. In 2025, ERCOT added significant new capacity—more than 11 gigawatts, with the majority coming from renewables and storage—and continued load growth from industrial users, such as data centers, is expected. Peak load levels have spiked to all-time highs, and data centers are responsible for estimates of up to 20% more demand in the coming years. There are some challenges, but continued use of transmission and on-site programs is also increasing resilience. At PowerGen 2026, the premier power-generation event held January 20–22 in San Antonio at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, this shifting environment in energy generation will be the major focus and American Katerra will join it as an exhibitor. The conference will bring together utilities, engineers, and innovators on topics ranging from megawatt-scale solutions to clean energy integration—all very relevant to supporting data center growth. American Katerra will also seek to engage with industry leaders there to consider sustainable solutions.

Data centers are fundamentally built with steel, relying on heavy-duty structures and structural frames, racking systems, enclosures, and support systems. High-strength steel requires thousands of tons for every building in hyperscale infrastructure, and because of its high-yield characteristics—such as durability, recyclability, and rapid prefabrication—it is suitable for rapid builds. The 2025 U.S. data center market amounts to approximately $24 billion, and steel remains a key component in up to 95 percent of the structural elements used in many buildings. With construction speeding up—it could soon exceed 60 million square feet a year—there’s growing demand for dependable, low-carbon steel supplies. Prefabricated modules help reduce the amount of waste associated with construction sites and shorten timelines, and this type of construction is ideal for these megaprojects.

American Katerra—In line with this promise, we have dedicated ourselves to providing innovative, eco-friendly, high-quality steel fabrication solutions for today’s built environment.

We are a local team of tech-savvy entrepreneurs working in San Antonio that offers building solutions based on technology and eco-friendly processes, backed by the Build for Dreams initiative. As the Texas data center industry continues to grow, we look forward to bringing our focus on sustainable steel products—from modular components to low-carbon options—that can support projects in meeting timelines and sustainability targets. Our emphasis on accuracy and sustainability prepares us well to drive Texas’s infrastructural growth. We are inspired by the very nature of the work we’re witnessing, such as Abilene, and we are excited about potential future partnerships.