EL PASO, Tx., May 22, 2026: As controversy over datacenters continues to intensify several communities are seeking to keep them out of their neighborhoods. El Paso is home to a META datacenter expected to go online in 2028, a proposed military artificial intelligence (AI) datacenter at Fort Bliss and another $165 billion AI datacenter being built in Santa Teresa.
The META datacenter was originally conceived as a $1.5 billion campus but recently ballooned to $10 billion after META pivoted towards including more AI tools in its offerings.
Concerns over electrical and water requirements have led to several grassroots efforts opposing datacenters across several communities in the country, including El Paso. In El Paso a coalition of several neighborhoods called the Sembrando Esperanza have organized to oppose the Northeast META datacenter citing electrical and water concerns. A lawsuit was filed against the Project Jupiter datacenter being built at Santa Teresa last October alleging that the government benefits offered to the project were “illegal.” In March, the judge in the case ruled that the lawsuit can continue after Santa Teresa county commissioners attempted to stop it…