The former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, is embarking on a significant new venture, entering the burgeoning artificial intelligence data center market through his startup, Bolt Data & Energy. This initiative sees Schmidt collaborating with Texas Pacific Land, a company with an unusual history that stretches back to a failed railroad venture in 1871. Today, Texas Pacific Land holds a substantial 882,000 acres in West Texas, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island, and boasts a market capitalization of $20 billion, primarily from its oil and gas operations. This partnership aims to tackle one of the most critical bottlenecks in AI development: energy.
Schmidt, who co-authored “The Age of AI: And Our Human Future” before the public launch of ChatGPT, views the current technological shift as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” He contends that establishing robust data center infrastructure is essential for American competitiveness in the global AI race. His new company, Bolt, offers a comprehensive solution for hyperscalers, addressing their land, power, and water requirements for large-scale data center campuses. The vast land holdings of Texas Pacific Land, coupled with its access to natural gas and renewable energy resources, and even an existing water services business, position it as a key enabler for Bolt’s ambitions.
The initial capital for Bolt Data & Energy stands at $150 million, with Texas Pacific Land contributing $50 million of that investment. This financial commitment from TPL also includes a right of first refusal to supply critical water resources for the new data center projects. Ty Glover, CEO of Texas Pacific Land, articulated the strategic thinking behind their investment, noting a desire to capture more of the value chain beyond mere land leases or water contracts. He emphasized the benefit of partnering with an industry titan like Schmidt in a field where TPL is not an inherent expert.
Bolt’s strategy begins with leveraging West Texas’s abundant natural gas, with a clear roadmap to transition towards renewable and clean energy sources, including wind, solar, and eventually nuclear power. This integrated approach, combining land, power generation, and data centers, is designed to create a scalable and resilient infrastructure. Schmidt has stated that the objective is to ensure AI development is responsible, supports American competitiveness, and delivers technology that benefits humanity while minimizing climate impact. The plan is to reach a 1-gigawatt capacity initially, with an ultimate goal of 10 gigawatts, sufficient to power approximately seven million homes.
This vertically integrated model represents a departure from traditional data center operations, which typically lease space and purchase power from existing grids. By owning the energy generation alongside the data infrastructure, Bolt aims for both efficiency and resilience. The company intends to begin with a single anchor customer and expand from there, with Schmidt identifying major tech players like Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Oracle, OpenAI, and Anthropic, among others, as potential clients.
Texas Pacific Land’s journey from a failed railroad in 1871 to a prominent oil and gas entity, and now into the AI infrastructure space, highlights its adaptability. The original railroad venture, granted a federal charter to build a national line from Texas to California, ultimately collapsed, leading to the formation of the Texas Pacific Land Trust to manage its vast acreage. This land later proved invaluable during the Texas oil boom in the Permian Basin. After nearly a century as a “sleepy trust” collecting royalties, an investor dispute in 2021 prompted its conversion into a more proactive corporation. This historical trajectory now brings it into the forefront of the digital economy, providing a new frontier for both the company and West Texas itself, as legacy data center regions become increasingly saturated.
