Lancium洽谈出售少数股权，AI数据中心“带电土地”资产估值被抬高

Any deal would likely be a stake sale, instead of a full acquisition, according to one of the people, and could potentially value Lancium at around $7 billion to $10 billion in enterprise value, including its debt. Discussions are ongoing and terms of the deal could change.

The discussions and lofty potential valuation reflect the tech industry’s interest in the work that Lancium and other companies such as Cloverleaf Infrastructure and Crusoe did in the early years of the AI race to find land parcels near the right substations, electric and gas transmission lines and often renewable installations—and to secure permits and approvals. New projects face longer waits to connect to the grid and even stronger local pushback as more players tap into public electric and water systems.

Both private equity firms and technology companies have been circling such “powered land” developers capable of supplying or working with utilities to arrange large amounts of electricity to a campus by 2027 for full operations by 2028.

Founded in 2017, Lancium touts its expertise in clean energy technology and has secured electricity connection rights to the grid at strategic locations in Texas. The company, which is about half-owned by Blackstone, has been building power infrastructure for Oracle and OpenAI at Lancium’s large campus in Abilene, Texas, that is part of OpenAI’s Stargate project.

**Big AI Plans in North Texas**

Lancium is also developing several other sites in Texas, including a second major campus in Childress County, Texas. Childress, in the Panhandle on the border of Oklahoma, is shaping up to be one of the biggest potential power crossroads for AI in Texas.

As The Information [previously reported](https://www.theinformation.com/newsletters/ai-infrastructure/ai-spurs-shockingly-big-plans-extra-high-voltage-power-lines), Texas is poised to consider a third extra-high-voltage network, to serve over 25 gigawatts of potential new data center load in the Panhandle area of North Texas.

Documents filed by transmission utility American Electric Power with the state grid operator state that it has executed letters of agreement to serve 8.35 gigawatts of potential projects in Childress County alone and intends for Childress to be a major node in its proposed $10 billion transmission upgrade planning map.

Lancium already [boasts](https://lancium.com/locations-childress/) a 1 gigawatt grid connection approval in Childress and last year received approval for a tax abatement and reinvestment zone for a 10-building site.

Developing data centers is capital intensive. Lancium’s existing publicly disclosed funding includes a $500 million investment from Blackstone in 2024, and last October raised $600 million in debt.

**Tech Industry interest**

The tech industry’s interest in locking down power was evident in Google’s deal early this year to pay $4.8 billion for power and data center developer Intersect, making it the first major tech company to own a power producer.

Intersect, which also did valuable front work scouting out giant land tracts over the past decade that could host clean energy plus industrial customers, has an estimated 8 to 10 gigawatts of power in development that could be ready or under construction by late 2028. (That’s equivalent to the power required for 8 to 10 medium-size cities.)

Anthropic’s interest in investing in data center and power developers, even in an exploratory stage, indicates it is also seeking more direct control over the data centers it needs to run its fast-growing business. The company has already shown an interest in leasing its own data center facilities, instead of renting servers from cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services and Google, The Information [has reported](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/anthropic-pursues-first-data-center-leases-seeks-financial-backing-google).

Anthropic has signed more than a dozen initial agreements, or letters of intent to be a direct tenant at data center facilities from various U.S. developers. Both OpenAI and Anthropic also took steps to control data centers through leasing agreements. On Monday, for instance, data center firm Terawulf [said](https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/terawulf-shares-soar-19-billion-anthropic-data-center-deal) Anthropic had agreed to a 20-year, $19 billion contract to lease a 400 megawatt facility in Kentucky that will come online in the second half of next year.

Lancium has focused on owning the land and the energy infrastructure that connects to the grid, and generate fees in perpetuity on the infrastructure that it builds and maintains. While it isn’t a traditional power plant or transmission operator, it builds substations and functions as a “retail electric provider.” It can also supplement grid power with off-grid deployments. Any would-be suitors could take advantage of both its grid approvals and land positions, but may need to line up further funds for expensive grid equipment.

Even campuses at advanced approval stages continue to face challenges. One is securing water, and Childress is located in a water stressed area. Last month, Lancium CEO Michael McNamara testified to the Texas House Natural Resources Committee that Lancium is prepared to pay for an expensive water project in Childress to tap non-potable water deeper in the earth than the aquifer long used by farmers and provide treated water to local users for free.

For the Abilene site it’s developing for OpenAI and Oracle, Lancium owns the land and electrical infrastructure, while Crusoe builds the data center for Oracle and OpenAI, McNamara [said](https://ktxs.com/news/local/lancium-crusoe-executives-brief-abilene-leaders-on-major-northside-investment) in a public meeting with Abilene leaders in March. Lancium also handled the work of coordinating with the utility commission, the operator and the transmission provider.