Lancium CEO says Abilene AI data center is fully financed, with Oracle and Microsoft

A major artificial intelligence data center project taking shape in northwest Abilene is fully financed and backed by long-term commitments from major tech companies, according to Lancium CEO and co-founder Michael McNamara. McNamara spoke to the Kiwanis Club of Abilene on Wednesday at the Abilene Country Club, where he discussed the status of the “Stargate” AI data center and addressed questions about how the facility could affect the city’s power supply, reliability, and noise. “Everything at that site today is fully financed on a long-term basis,” McNamara said. “Oracle is a tenant at the facility for the next 15 years, and Microsoft for 20. They’re not going anywhere. So everything there is fully financed, and the rest is under construction and underway. There’s a tremendous amount of investment going into this.” McNamara said Lancium was founded nearly nine years ago with a focus on how to use power during times when supply exceeds demand, a situation that can lead to negative pricing. “So I'm a co-founder of Lancium, and we started the company nearly nine years ago,” McNamara said. “The idea was as the energy system grows and adds renewables and natural gas you start to see periods where there’s actually more power than demand, creating negative pricing. And you see that most clearly here in West Texas.” McNamara said the Abilene project is designed to take advantage of excess energy by using it to power high-demand AI systems while also helping stabilize the grid. He also addressed concerns about how the facility could affect Abilene’s power supply, saying the city monitors usage across public systems. “You can talk to the city, and they’ll tell you they have the data and monitor usage across public systems,” McNamara said. He also noted that bringing a new business to a new area can lead to misinformation and an emotional process for residents. McNamara also discussed reliability and noise, saying the site includes backup natural gas capability and that the facility was designed to reduce sound. “There is natural gas on site for reliability and backup,” McNamara said. “We worked with the city on full decibel ratings. The power plant is built into a hollow and fully enclosed it will produce less noise than a semi-truck passing on the road.” McNamara added that flexible power market is a major reason companies like Lancium are investing in Texas, allowing them to scale energy use up or down based on demand. READ MORE: ktxs.com/news/local/lancium-ceo-says-abilene-ai-data-center-is-fully-financed-with-oracle-and-microsoft KTXS News on Facebook / ktxstelevision KTXS News on X https://x.com/KTXS_News KTXS News on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ktxsnews/?h... For more information, visit https://ktxs.com/ Have a news tip? Send it to us at news@ktxs.com