Project dossier · Sulphur Springs (Hopkins County), Texas

Matrix Data Center Campus Under construction

$18.7B, 1,677-acre, 3GW net-zero AI campus on former Thermo lignite mine land. Phase I: 390 acres/800MW across 8 buildings; Phase II adds geothermal microgrid by 2027.

Key facts

Operator: MSB Global Services
Size: 800 MW
Acres: 1,677
Location: Sulphur Springs (Hopkins County), Texas
Stage today: Under construction

Source

What to do next

Next step: Under construction — pull the approved conditions and permits and hold the builder to them; an expansion or a new building reopens the record.

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What has happened so far (16 events)

2019-01-01filing
Vistra/Luminant Mining conveyed roughly 5,000 acres of the former Thermo lignite mine to the City of Sulphur Springs; the deed included a restrictive covenant barring power generation or storage on the land. · source
2025-02-01construction
Phase I construction begins on the Matrix Data Center Campus: site grading, Trinity Road work, and utility infrastructure ahead of the eight-building, 800MW first phase. · source
2025-06-13construction
MSB Global holds official groundbreaking ceremony for the Matrix Data Center Campus, an 1,677-acre, up to 3GW, $18.7B hyperscale AI campus billed as a public-private partnership with the City of Sulphur Springs and Hopkins County. · source
2025-09-30filing
Vistra sends Sulphur Springs a cease-and-desist letter asserting the 2019 deed restrictive covenant bars on-site power generation/storage needed for the data center campus. · source
2025-10-15lawsuit
City of Sulphur Springs sues Vistra and Luminant Mining, arguing the restrictive covenant is unenforceable and against public policy; Vistra counters the covenant was known to the city. · source
2025-11-01filing
Texas AG Ken Paxton files an amicus brief supporting the City, revealing an Antitrust Division investigation into Luminant for inserting the same power-generation restrictive covenant into roughly 150 deeds across 18 Texas counties, calling it an attempt to improperly enrich Luminant by nearly $15 billion. · source
2025-11-25filing
Vistra and Luminant file their First Amended Answer and Counterclaims in Hopkins County (Cause No. CV45943), escalating the legal battle over the data center site. · source
2026-01-21hearing
Hopkins County District Court hearing; City Manager Marc Maxwell is subpoenaed by Vistra counsel and testifies; residents publicly press officials for answers on the project. · source
2026-02-10ruling
Judge Dan Moore denies a major City motion and issues a temporary injunction freezing new construction/development on the ~5,000-acre site pending trial, effectively halting power-system construction. · source
2026-04-15lawsuit
Resident Jack Curtis files suit alleging the City Council violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by concealing data-center deal details in council minutes/agendas. · source
2026-05-06vote
Sulphur Springs City Council authorizes $1.2 million in legal funding for the ongoing data-center litigation; residents protest the spending at the meeting. · source
2026-05-06protest
Residents protest outside the Sulphur Springs City Council meeting over the $1.2 million legal-cost allocation, citing lack of transparency. · source
2026-06-03announcement
At a packed City Council meeting, Mayor Tyler Law announces a new developer will take over the Matrix Data Center Campus, with original developer MSB Global being phased out amid the legal battles. · source
2026-07-07hearing
Judge Dan Moore hears over three hours of arguments on Vistra Rule 91a motion to dismiss 6 of 11 counts, focused on fraud allegations and when the city became aware of the deed restrictive covenant; no ruling issued. · source
2026-07-18protest
Sulphur Springs residents hold a peaceful demonstration against the data center as part of a coordinated nationwide National Day of Protest organized by advocacy group Humans First. · source
2026-08-01coverage
Heatmap News reports the trial original September 2026 date has been cancelled/pushed back, with the case now likely heading to trial in 2027. · source

Find the paper trail

Find the paper trail (0 filed · 11 places to look)

State environmental permits

Backup generators, water withdrawal and stormwater are permitted by the state, usually earlier and in more detail than anything filed locally.

Texas TCEQ — Air Permits DivisionThe program page: which permits this state requires, and the office that issues them.
TCEQ Central RegistrySearchable public filings — search the operator, the shell LLC on the deed, and the address.

County & town filings

The rezoning application, site plan, traffic and noise studies, staff report and every revision.

Search Sulphur Springs (Hopkins County) planning filingssearchPlanning departments post application files under many different names. Find the department, then ask the clerk for the application number — that number unlocks everything else.
Search Sulphur Springs (Hopkins County) property records / GISsearchThe parcel record names the buying LLC and the sale date, which is what ties an anonymous filing to an operator.

Utility & grid records

The electricity request is filed with the grid operator and the utility long before the town hears about it — and states the real load.

ERCOT (Texas) — interconnection queueRequested megawatts, queue position and target in-service date. The MW here is the real number; the one at the town meeting is often phase one.
Public Utility Commission of Texas — docket searchSpecial contracts, large-load tariffs and rate cases are docketed here. Testimony and exhibits are public, and are usually more candid than the press release.
FERC eLibraryFederal filings: transmission agreements, interconnection service agreements, and co-location disputes.
Search the serving utility for a will-serve lettersearchThe will-serve or load-service letter is the utility's own written commitment. Ask the utility and the PUC for it by name — it is frequently the first document to exist.

Federal databases

Works anywhere, and covers the operator's record at its other sites.

EPA ECHO facility searchEvery federally-reported air, water and waste permit at a facility, plus its inspection and violation history. Search by address or draw a radius around the site.
EPA EnvirofactsThe same underlying records, queryable by county — useful for 'what else is permitted near this site' rather than one facility.
EPA Facility Registry ServiceResolves the shell LLC on a permit to the facility it belongs to. Worth a look when the filing name means nothing locally.

These are places to look, not evidence that anything has been filed. Links were checked on 2026-08-21; search links are queries, not records. What to ask for.

Around here

Texas briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.

Other tracked projects in Texas

Aligned Data Centers Hale County — Hale County Under construction
Amazon Floydada campus — Floydada (Floyd County) In review
Amazon Fort Stockton campus — Fort Stockton (Pecos County) Under construction
BCG Cedar Creek Campus — Cedar Creek (Bastrop County) Awaiting decision
Black Mountain Energy Fort Worth — Fort Worth Approved

Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “Matrix Data Center Campus”, aigridwatch.com/projects/msb-sulphur-springs-tx, retrieved 2026-10-11.

As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing

A working set of identified proposals a community can track, not a census — most of the country's activity is not in here yet. Pennsylvania is the exception: its rows are synced from PA DEP's own data-center permit tracker, so the state's coverage is close to complete and carries the permit trail with it. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to reporting or the governing body's own record and were read on that date; rows marked *unverified* have no source on record — a lead to check, not a fact to cite. **Stage is derived, not asserted.** *Hearing scheduled*, *Awaiting decision*, *Approved* and *Withdrawn* are computed from each row's milestone dates on every rebuild, so a hearing date that has passed stops reading 'scheduled'. Hearings get moved and projects re-file under new names — treat a scheduled date as the earliest to act by, and confirm with the clerk before relying on it. Leads are mined into data/project_candidates.json and promoted here only after a human reads a primary source.

Part of the data center project tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0 (JSON · CSV).