All Forum Posts by: Neil Narayan

Tesla occupies more than 11 million SF in the Austin metro, one of the largest manufacturers here and they just signed a lease for another 300,000-SF industrial space at the Austin Hills Commerce Center.

It's unclear what Tesla plans to do at the site that's about as large as three H-E-B grocery stores, but it appears to be moving quickly. Representatives from The CoStar Group, which tracks real estate data throughout the country, could not confirm the tenant. But they confirmed a lease was signed on May 14, with the lease term beginning on June 1 — the same day the tenant plans to move in.

An Austin-based data center investment company is part of a strategic partnership funding development of a $15 billion AI data center in the Texas Panhandle.

The project is in the Lancium Clean Campus in Abilene, according to a previous announcement.

“The AI data center at the Lancium Clean Campus represents exactly the kind of strategic infrastructure investment our platform was built for: future-ready, operator-aligned and mission critical to fulfilling AI-driven compute demand,” stated Bill Stein, executive managing director and chief investment officer at Primary Digital Infrastructure. “By partnering with forward-thinking operators like Crusoe and financial lenders like Blue Owl, we are collectively delivering vital capacity with the scale, speed, and sustainability required to fuel AI innovation.”

Data centers have been proliferating across the country, but Austin has one of the more active markets for them. The metro is one of the fastest-growing data center markets nationwide, based on data from CBRE last year, and it has seen many new data center projects pop up in recent weeks, including a $3 billion data center campus planned in Milam County and another set of plans to transform 1,515 acres in Caldwell County.

Data centers are massive hubs for computer processing power — commonly called "the cloud" — that are used by many companies and industries. While they don't create many long-term jobs, they do add value to a city's tax rolls because of the large amount of investment at the sites. But the U.S. data center boom has drawn criticism based on a variety of factors, such as the amount of power and water the facilities use.

Regardless, Central Texas has become a target for the industry. Earlier this year, Caldwell County approved a $1.3 billion data center campus from Prime Data Centers, while Skybox Datacenters LLC and Prologis Inc. revealed they were planning another one in the Hutto Megasite to complement a billion-dollar data center they already are building. That adds to growing data center hubs in Pflugerville, Southeast Austin and in Round Rock.

The projects could help fill a demand for new data centers projects. CBRE found that the nationwide vacancy rate among primary data center markets was 3.7% in the second half of 2023, near an all-time low.

The Austin-San Antonio region's total inventory ranked No. 2 among secondary data markets across the country, trailing just Central Washington and ahead of regions like Southern California, Seattle, Houston, Denver and Minneapolis, according to the data. The Central Texas vacancy rate was 1.8% in the second half of last year.

Texas has awarded nearly $100 million in grants to date for private aerospace companies to grow, and the latest round includes a space payload and new developments at the Houston Spaceport.

“The projects awarded funding today will each play a critical role in ensuring Texas’ place as a leader in the emerging space economy while expanding our capabilities as a nation.”

The TSC awarded the following grants:

• - Aegis Aerospace Inc. of Houston received up to $10 million for an in-space materials platform.
• - Icon Technology Inc. of Austin received up to $694,350 to produce lunar soil, known as regolith.
• - Interlune Corp. of Seattle, performing work in Houston, received up to $4.8 million for a lunar regolith center at the Texas A&M University Space Institute near Johnson Space Center.
• - Kulr Technology Group Inc. of Webster received up to $6.7 million for improving battery performance in cold temperatures.
• Venus Aerospace Corp. of Houston received up to $3.9 million for a new engine testing range at Ellington Airport.

Based on the outlook for Austin (growth and investments) i would not sell it now at a loss. If it was me i would tighten the belt on the expense and look for ways to balance the equation (expenses vs income) i.e

Options for reducing expenses:

- get rid of koi pond (-$1680)

- do gardening yourself (-$2100)

- get rid of hot tub (-$2220)

- cleaning is the biggest expense for me, can you do it your self or find a cheaper alternative (-$4000-10000)

- your utility bill is really high at $7800 annual (try to see what is going on, removing koi pong and hot tub should help as well)

Increase income:

- list on VRBO as well, market the property on various sites and forums to increase visibility, switch to rent by room (house hacking)

If you are $6k negative, the above should help get you to cash flow even or positive. 

Nvidia (NVDA) on Monday said it will produce up to $500 billion of AI infrastructure in the US within the next four years as the tech industry looks to bolster its domestic manufacturing footprint in the face of Trump's approach to trade policy and desire to onshore more US heavy industry.

As part of this $500 billion commitment, Nvidia said it is building two new supercomputer manufacturing plants in Texas in partnership with contract manufacturers Foxconn (2354.TW) and Wistron (3231.TW).

A Minnesota-based developer is planning to build a five-megawatt data center in Temple across from Meta Platforms Inc.'s $800 million hyperscale data center campus.

Oppidan Investment Co.'s $31 million, 62,000-square-foot project at 2325 Eberhardt Road will break ground in July and finish in October 2026, according to a March 28 filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

Data center campuses are proliferating throughout Austin's outskirts. In fact, the Austin metro is among the fastest-growing data center markets in the country, according to August data from CBRE based on the first half of 2024. The Austin Business Journal has identified more than a dozen in various stages of completion, in cities ranging from Hutto and Georgetown to Taylor and Uhland, and in counties that include Caldwell, Bastrop and Williamson.

Construction of California-based Meta Platforms Inc's $800 million-plus hyper-scale data center campus "is progressing well". Actually Data center campuses are proliferating throughout Austin's outskirts. In fact, the Austin metro is among the fastest-growing data center markets in the country, according to August data from CBRE based on the first half of 2024.

Gov. Greg Abbott and his Texas Economic Development (EDP) & Tourism Office released a 155-page plan for the immediate future of the world’s eight-largest economy (excluding the U.S.).

The report also highlights Texas’ export growth, which has outpaced the overall United States’ from 2015 to 2021. Texas has led the country in exports every year since 2002

Texas is also spotlighted as a place Americans want to live, boasting the lowest rate of native-born Texans leaving the state and the highest rate of population growth.

Abbott also identified four goals to help new businesses grow: incentivize research, cultivate innovation, connect entrepreneurs to resources and promote Texas as a global destination for start-ups.

https://www.myhighplains.com/news/texas-politics/bigger-bett...

Texas notched another technology win this week when Apple said it is planning a new 250,000-square-foot factory in Houston to make servers for an artificial-intelligence system.

Tech investments are transforming the Texas economy, often via companies from California in search of lower taxes and fewer regulations on land use and labor.

https://www.wsj.com/business/texas-tech-industry-move-26f9e7...