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How long it takes to build a data center, by stage

Build time for a data center, stage by stage, from filing to energization. Each range is tied to the document that starts or stops the clock.

Stages · 8 min ·

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For the largest AI campuses, Epoch AI measured 1 to 3.6 years from the start of construction to 1 GW of facility power. The permits and the power connection each run on their own clocks before and during that build, and several of those clocks are set in days by statute or agency rule.

No single number covers all of it. Each stage has a range, and each range starts and stops on a dated document. Where the record gives no clock, this article says so instead of guessing one.

The short answer, by stage

The table lists the published durations we could trace to a primary source. Texas rules are used where a state rule applies.

StageClock starts and stops onDuration on the record
AnnouncedPress release to first filingNo published clock
FiledZoning notice to hearing; plat filing to decisionNotice at least 15 days before a city zoning hearing; plat decision within 30 days (Texas)
ApprovedAir permit receipt to final actionTCEQ targets of 45 to 285 days, by permit type
Under constructionLand clearing or construction start to first powerAbout a year at Abilene, per the operator
EnergizedConstruction start to 1 GW of facility power1 to 3.6 years across the campuses Epoch tracks
Durations are rules, agency targets or measured cases, as labelled in each section below. They do not add up to a single build time, because the tracks overlap.

Announced to filed: no clock

Nothing sets how long a project may sit between announcement and its first filing. An announcement is the developer’s statement, and the clock for every later stage starts only when a document reaches a public body.

That makes the first filing the useful date. It is usually a rezoning request, a site plan, a plat or a permit application, and it fixes the location in a way a press release does not. Announced isn’t built lists which documents count.

Filed to approved: zoning and plats

Inside a Texas city, the Local Government Code sets two short clocks. A zoning change “is not effective until after a public hearing”, and notice must be published “before the 15th day before the date of the hearing” (§211.006).

Plats move faster on paper. The approving authority “shall approve, approve with conditions, or disapprove a plat within 30 days after the date the plat is filed”, and a plat is approved by default “unless it is disapproved within that period” (§212.009). That is the outer limit for the decision on a filed plat; the work before filing can take far longer.

Both clocks apply to cities. Chapter 211 is the municipal zoning chapter, and a site in an unincorporated county area may not go through a zoning vote at all. Read the agenda that carries the item and date the stage from the vote or the signed plat.

Filed to approved: air permits

Large data centers usually install backup generators, and in Texas those need air authorization from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). The agency publishes target time frames, counted “from the receipt date to the final action date of a permitting project.”

New NSR permit285 days
Standard permit, with public notice150 days
Permit by rule45 days
Standard permit, no public notice45 days
TCEQ Air Permitting Target Time Frames, fact sheet RG-616, revised January 2026. Targets, not legal deadlines.

Which line applies depends on the authorization route the applicant uses, and the application states it. Where public notice is required, TCEQ says “the publication starts a 30-day comment period”, and a second notice can add “an additional 30-day comment period.” Those notices are dated documents, which makes them good markers for the filed stage.

These are goals for the agency’s review. A permit can issue faster or slower, and the application date and the issuance date on the permit itself are what you record.

The power track: ERCOT’s large-load study

Getting grid power runs in parallel with permits, and in ERCOT it has its own written schedule. Planning Guide Section 9 sets most of its steps in business days, while the study itself has no fixed length in the text we read.

Some of the clocks, as written:

  1. The developer has "seven Business Days from the date of notification to post the financial security."
  2. The lead transmission provider drafts a study scope "within ten Business Days following the kickoff meeting."
  3. Affected parties can comment on that scope "within ten Business Days of posting", and the final scope follows within ten more.
  4. ERCOT reviews the preliminary study report "within ten Business Days" and "may extend this review period by an additional 20 Business Days."

Power can still wait after the study. ERCOT grants conditional approval for load “in accordance with the schedule” in the load commissioning plan, “as the necessary transmission upgrades identified in the LCP become operational.” Energization then needs “written approval to energize from ERCOT.” If a project needs new transmission, power arrives with that transmission, whatever the building schedule says.

Under construction to energized

The best measured cases are the largest campuses. Epoch AI tracks frontier AI data centers and dates construction kickoff as “the start of visible land clearing or construction, verified via satellite imagery or local permits.” Its end point is “the earliest point at which total facility power reaches or exceeds 1 GW.”

Across facilities that broke ground in the past three years, Epoch reports that this span “ranges from 1 to 3.6 years”. It also says its timelines “between first power and 1 GW are approximate”, because permits and imagery can lag real events.

Abilene shows how the start date depends on the source. Crusoe says construction “began in June 2024” and that “within a year, the first two buildings were energized.” Epoch’s site timeline dates land clearing for the first two buildings to 2024-05-31. Crusoe announced the first phase was running on 2025-09-30.

Crusoe · News release · 2025-09-30

Construction began June 2024. First two buildings energized within a year.

Operator statement, not a grid operator record. Epoch AI dates land clearing to 2024-05-31 from imagery.

An operator release is the weakest kind of energization proof, because it is the developer’s own word. Record it with its date and source, and upgrade the stage when a utility, grid operator or regulator document confirms it.

Why requested dates slip

Requested in-service dates tend to run early. In a 2025 filing at the PUCT, ERCOT said that “all new large loads that had in-service dates from 2022 through 2024 were delayed in coming in service on average by approximately 220 days.”

The same filing says data center loads with in-service dates in that period “came into service with 49.8% of the requested amount.” ERCOT used both findings to cut and delay forecast loads that were backed only by a utility officer’s letter, not an interconnection agreement.

For a model, treat a requested energization date as a plan. The date to use is the one on an energization approval or a confirmed in-service record. Data center megawatts: IT load vs utility load covers the same gap on the MW side.

How to date each stage from the record

Every duration above runs between two documents. To date a stage, record both ends.

  1. Filed: the filing or receipt date on the application, not the hearing date.
  2. Approved: the vote date in the minutes, or the issue date on the permit.
  3. Under construction: a dated inspection or dated imagery, not the permit issue date.
  4. Energized: a dated approval to energize or in-service confirmation from the utility or grid operator.

When two sources give different dates for the same event, as at Abilene, keep both with their sources and say which one your model uses.

Sources

Accessed 2026-11-07.

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