Alex Hernandez is far from a stranger to making bold predictions about the future of the data centre and energy markets. In 2020, he founded Cumulus Data to establish the world’s first hyperscale data centre campus directly connected to carbon-free nuclear energy from the adjacent 2.5GW Susquehanna plant in north-east Pennsylvania.

Hernandez’s bet on the changing US market seems prescient: in the ensuing years, AI computing requirements would rapidly converge with power markets, while data centre infrastructure would gravitate away from cities such as Ashburn, Virginia, and towards energy assets in rural locations. Small, often forgotten communities such as Berwick, Pennsylvania, would also attract significant new investment.

As Pennsylvania emerged as a growing data centre market, the 960MW Cumulus campus and its operations were sold for $650 million to AWS in March 2024, generating a five-times return on investment.

Hernandez and other former Cumulus executives are harnessing the lessons from that experience since creating the company PowerBridge in May 2025, in partnership with investor Five Point Infrastructure, to develop similar gigawatt-scale powered campuses – this time focusing initially on West Texas. “We’re using a similar model with a different market focus, seeded with a portfolio of existing assets,” says Hernandez.

Creating new hubs

Hernandez believes the interest that Cumulus generated from a hyperscaler reflects the benefits of both colocating data centres with power sources and other resources, and the increasing focus on developing facilities away from traditional ‘core’ data centre markets like Virginia.

“When Cumulus started, people said no one’s going to build a data centre in the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania,” says Hernandez. “But our thinking was that, ultimately, markets are going to gravitate to where there’s an abundance of land, energy, connectivity and community support away from major population centres.”

He adds that many industry players failed to appreciate the sheer rate at which the world of energy and data centres were converging. “We realised that digital infrastructure and energy would essentially become one and the same when it comes to deployment strategies,” he says.

Furthermore, by connecting a power plant and data centre without an electric utility in the middle, Hernandez says the company would benefit the technology industry by addressing the power crunch and new market realities through what he describes as the “lens of energy” rather than the traditional lens of real estate.

For Hernandez, Pennsylvania offers a blueprint for what can happen when the right pieces are in place. Figures show that the state’s IT capacity grew from just 0.2GW in 2021 to almost 8GW by 2025, according to market intelligence company DC Byte, driven by abundant power, available land and a business-friendly environment.

Forecasting the future

Hernandez points out that as the data centre market rapidly grows and major constraints on energy and other resources create increasing bottlenecks in locations like Virginia, it is necessary to make bolder predictions about where future growth will happen and begin executing there when customer demand signals are nascent.

“At PowerBridge, we listen very carefully to our customers,” says Hernandez. “But we also try to have a macro view of what’s required in a rapidly changing global market combined with a micro view.”

A few years ago, says Hernandez, there was similar scepticism on the data centre potential of the firm’s focus area of West Texas to that initially seen about Pennsylvania.

However, PowerBridge identified the region as having the ‘fundamentals’ for growth through a relative abundance of energy, land and water – so much so that Hernandez predicts West Texas will become the largest data centre market globally in the next five to 10 years. He points out, in fact, that the region has an oversupply of natural gas, often causing prices to fall close to zero.

“By putting a consumer of power immediately adjacent to those resources, you can contract for power at a cost and volume that gives the largest companies in the world certainty that they can grow at a very significant scale without constraints,” says Hernandez.

Buildout plans

PowerBridge is currently developing three to five gigawatt-scale powered campuses in North America. It will construct its first West Texas campus, a 2GW facility called Alpha Digital, near the city of Pecos in proximity to the Waha natural gas hub. It is expected to deliver its first capacity in the second half of next year.

Hernandez highlights that the campus will also be near the data centre campus that Microsoft has announced it is building in Pecos, again lending endorsement to PowerBridge’s assertions about the promise of West Texas. Indeed, Hernandez says interest has already surged in the Alpha Digital campus since the technology giant’s announcement in June.

In addition, PowerBridge is under contract for a second campus development with over 1GW of capacity in West Texas, which it is working on directly with a hyperscaler. The third is likely to also be in West Texas, with the potential to pursue developments outside that region as well. Hernandez cites the likes of Pennsylvania and Ohio as future possibilities.

Hernandez says PowerBridge’s campuses are designed to be move-in-ready, reflecting new market realities and customers’ need for speed and certainty.

This means advancing every critical element of a powered campus before customers are ready to deploy, including power and water infrastructure, electrical equipment, civil work, the regulatory framework and fibre conduit connectivity.

Unlike many developers that wait for customer commitments before moving projects forward, PowerBridge invests its own capital up front to prepare these sites, enabling customers to deploy faster and with greater certainty.

“Potential customers really like our powered campus model, which is a move-in-ready neighbourhood model,” says Hernandez.

Water infrastructure

On the water and cooling side, the company benefits from its relationship with affiliate water management firm WaterBridge, a subsidiary of Five Point Infrastructure operating in West Texas. Hernandez explains that PowerBridge is planning the use of recycled water sources including brackish and produced water, reducing reliance on freshwater resources used by local communities.

“As technology advances, and chip densities and heat increase in data centres, this recycled water availability gives another valuable economic lever to our customers, without impacting our local communities,” he adds.

Hernandez says integrating all these factors in new developments means the growth of AI data centres can move much faster than under the traditional approach of investing in existing operating assets and established areas.

“Putting all these things together, what you get is a market that can grow to 10GW, 20GW and 30GW without the constraints that exist in other places around the world,” he says.

Energy and environment

Meanwhile, despite the challenges in rising local opposition to the impact of data centres, Hernandez highlights that West Texas is sparsely populated and the company’s facilities are thus being built in areas with limited disturbance to residents.

The region is also business-friendly and open to the diversification of the energy economy, with PowerBridge emphasising the need to work with the local community in developing its projects.

In addition, Hernandez talks about the benefits of the company’s philosophy for bringing new energy to the grid. “We’re designing and constructing new power generation together with our campuses, and will generate excess power for the electric grid,” he says.

Furthermore, he is keen to stress the company’s strong focus on environmental sustainability. Apart from its approach to water reuse, Hernandez highlights the company’s ability to store excess natural gas, reducing carbon in the atmosphere and at the same time providing an attractive cost for energy. It also has the ability to supplement its baseload generation with ample solar and wind resources in West Texas.

While natural gas will be a ‘bridge’ option for power, Hernandez adds that PowerBridge is a strong supporter of nuclear as carbon-free energy in the long term, building on the legacy of Cumulus.

He describes the company as being involved in a “re-architecting” of where data centres are located that will be as significant as the advent of railroads.

“We want to be at the centre of that trend over the next decade,” says Hernandez. “The market’s highest need is for actionable development projects that can be turned into operating powered campuses where customers can deploy with certainty, speed and at gigawatt scale.”