Amazon backs 7.65 GW natural gas power plant for AI data center in West Texas

Amazon is building what may become the most carbon-intensive power facility ever permitted in the United States, and it is doing so to keep its AI servers running. The company has acquired the GW Ranch site in Pecos County, West Texas, where it plans to take power from a 7.65 GW natural gas plant being developed by Pacifico Energy. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality recently issued an air permit for the project, authorizing up to 33 million tons of CO₂ emissions annually. That figure is not a typo buried in a footnote. For context, that is roughly the annual carbon output of several mid-sized countries, all concentrated at a single facility in the West Texas desert. Amazon is targeting first power delivery from the site by Q1 2027, and satellite imagery from late July 2026 already shows active land clearing underway. Three construction permits for data center buildings were filed in Texas in early August 2026. Why Amazon is walking away from the grid This project is Amazon’s first off-grid AI data center campus, and the logic behind going private is straightforward. Grid interconnection queues across the US have become notoriously clogged as data center demand surges alo...