Data center developer HyperDataGrid is moving forward with plans to build a facility outside Lufkin, Texas, targeting a former timber processing site as the location for what the company describes as a high-density, liquid-cooled operation capable of supporting extreme power densities per rack.

A Former Mill Gets a New Purpose

The planned facility would be built on Highway 103 West, on the site of the old Northern Chip Mill, a former 40-acre timber facility located on Ben Dunn Road.

The site sits in Angelina County, a region positioned between Houston and Dallas near the border with Louisiana.

Angelina County Judge Keith Wright confirmed to local media outlet KLTV that HyperDataGrid has already secured electrical and water agreements for the project and has begun clearing land on the property.

The move to a repurposed industrial site follows a pattern seen across the data center industry as developers seek large, pre-cleared parcels with existing infrastructure access.

HyperDataGrid has not publicly disclosed the full scope of its plans for the Lufkin-area project, though its website lists two planned facilities in Texas while providing limited detail on either.

High-Density Cooling at the Core of the Design

The Texas-based company has built its technical identity around high-density liquid cooling. According to its website, HyperDataGrid designs facilities using closed-loop systems and direct-to-chip cooling technology capable of supporting up to 600 kilowatts per rack, a figure that places the company at the upper range of what current data center cooling technology can handle.

The company also states that its 20-megawatt facilities can be brought online within 12 months, a relatively fast deployment timeline compared to traditional large-scale data center construction, which can span multiple years from site selection through commissioning.

Angelina County Draws Data Center Interest

The HyperDataGrid announcement is not the only data center activity drawing attention to the Angelina County area. Separately, a company identified as AmpZ is also working to develop a data center campus near Lufkin, targeting the Southland/Abitibi Paper Mill site.

The parallel development interest suggests the region is emerging as an attractive destination for data center investment, with its geographic positioning between two of Texas's largest metro markets and proximity to Louisiana potentially offering logistical and connectivity advantages.

The convergence of multiple developers in the area reflects broader trends in the data center industry, where secondary markets outside traditional hubs such as Northern Virginia, Phoenix, and the Dallas-Fort Worth core are absorbing growing demand driven by artificial intelligence workloads and cloud infrastructure expansion.

Expansion Beyond Texas

The Lufkin-area project would not be HyperDataGrid's only active development.

The company is also known to be working on a 20-megawatt facility in Parsons, Kansas, giving the firm a multistate footprint as it works to establish itself in the competitive data center development market.

The Kansas project and the Texas plans collectively reflect HyperDataGrid's stated focus on bringing large, technically sophisticated facilities to markets that may have historically attracted less attention from major hyperscale developers.

The company's emphasis on rapid deployment timelines and extreme rack density positions it within a segment of the market increasingly oriented around artificial intelligence infrastructure, where power and cooling requirements have escalated sharply.

Texas Remains a Dominant Market

Texas has continued to attract significant data center investment, with the state's deregulated energy market, available land, and business-friendly regulatory environment making it a favored destination for domestic and international developers alike.

The Dallas-Fort Worth metro area has long been a primary target, but activity has spread to secondary and tertiary markets as prime locations in core markets face constraints related to power availability, land costs, and grid interconnection timelines.

Angelina County, as a less saturated market, presents the kind of availability that developers seeking to move quickly may find attractive, particularly when combined with the ability to secure water and electrical agreements ahead of construction, as HyperDataGrid appears to have done at the Northern Chip Mill site.

The company's combination of a ready site, secured utility agreements, and active land clearing suggests the project is progressing beyond the early planning stage, though no timeline for construction completion or operational launch has been publicly announced for the Texas facility.