Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is getting into the AI and data center race with his new startup, and he’s betting on rural West Texas and a failed railroad turned oil giant to help him build enough power to light up 7 million homes.
Schmidt’s new Bolt Data & Energy is taking the one-stop shop approach for hyperscalers’ land, power, and water needs for their data center campuses. Bolt has teamed up with Texas Pacific Land, a little-known oil and gas player with a long history and a $20 billion market cap that happens to offer 882,000 acres of West Texas land—more acreage than Rhode Island—with easy access to natural gas and renewable energy resources. Oh, and the company just so happens to have its own water services business for oil and gas that can translate to help for thirsty data centers as well.
