(Editor’s note: Although a proposed 936-acre AI Data Center in East Lubbock was removed from the City Council agenda last month, developers are expected to bring the proposal back with changes.)
If you haven’t read about the proposed AI data center for East Lubbock; let me tell you something straight: this is not a gift.
This is a siphon. And it’s aimed squarely at our wallets, our water, and our future.(
Lubbock already has the highest electricity rates in Texas. Families here are sweating through record bills every summer. Now we’re told this facility will use as much power as the entire city does in the summer months. That’s right — one corporation’s server farm, gobbling the same electricity as every home, business, and school in Lubbock combined. Who do you think is going to pay for the grid upgrades? Spoiler: it’s not them.
And water? This thing is going to gulp millions of gallons — in a region that’s been in and out of drought for decades, where farmers and families already fight for every drop and pray for rain even when it pours.
Noise, light pollution, industrial heat — all on the east side, where residents have been ignored for generations. No public benefit plan. No guaranteed local jobs beyond a handful of security guards and maintenance techs. No community reinvestment. Just extraction.
They’ll tell you it’s “progress.” I call it a raw deal. Progress is when our people prosper, when our neighborhoods get stronger, when our resources are used to lift us all. This project is none of that. It’s a giant straw jammed into Lubbock’s veins, pumping out our water, power, and peace of mind for corporate profit.
We can say no. When this proposal inevitably comes to city leaders, we must say no — before we wake up to find we’ve sold our future for nothing more than a zoning change and a press release.
Stuart Williams is the chair of the Lubbock Coalition of Black Democrats and a candidate for chair of the Lubbock County Democratic Party in the March 2026 Democratic Primary.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Williams warns against bleeding Lubbock dry for an AI Data Center | Opinion
Reporting by By Stuart Williams, special for the Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
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