Stack Infrastructure Advances $100 Billion Virginia Data Center Campus

Key Takeaways

• Stack Infrastructure’s Berry Hill campus could span 2,990 acres and include 21 data centers supported by two on-site natural gas facilities.
• The binding agreement calls for at least $73.5 billion in investment and 2,050 permanent jobs, while the full campus could require approximately 3 gigawatts of power.
• Grid capacity, cooling efficiency, water access, and long-term tax policy will shape how quickly Stack Infrastructure can build the campus.

Stack Infrastructure is moving forward with plans for a massive data center campus at the Berry Hill megasite in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. The proposed development represents up to $100 billion in investment over roughly 30 years, placing it among the most ambitious digital infrastructure projects contemplated in the United States.

The scale of the project is immense. According to Virginia Business, Stack Infrastructure’s plan covers approximately 2,990 acres and could produce 21 data center buildings. Two on-site natural gas facilities would support the campus, helping address the challenge of securing enough reliable power for high-density computing workloads.

At full build-out, the campus could require approximately 3 gigawatts. That is not simply a large corporate energy purchase; it is the kind of sustained load that directly influences regional transmission planning, generation investment, and utility rate discussions.

The $100 billion headline figure represents a long-term goal rather than an immediate capital commitment. Stack Infrastructure’s binding performance agreement establishes a minimum investment of $73.5 billion, with at least 2,050 permanent jobs created within 20 years. Those positions are expected to carry an average annual wage of $80,500. Longer-range plans refer to as many as 2,500 jobs.

Even those employment numbers need context. Data centers can generate considerable property value without employing as many people as manufacturing campuses of comparable cost. For Pittsylvania County, however, the fiscal impact will be substantial. The completed project could produce up to $48 million annually in property-tax revenue at full build-out, giving local officials potential funding for schools, public safety, transportation, and other services.

Local approvals have moved the project ahead, although community concerns remain part of the conversation. WSLS reported on the approvals by Danville and Pittsylvania County leaders, while WSET covered citizen concerns surrounding the proposed AI data campus. For residents, the practical questions include noise, transmission infrastructure, construction traffic, water use, and the visibility of the natural gas facilities.

Power delivery may be the most immediate operational constraint. Stack Infrastructure expects to need an initial 299-megawatt allocation by the end of 2028, along with a 150-megawatt substation by mid-2028. Those milestones leave utilities, grid planners, and developers with a demanding coordination schedule.

Virginia’s wider electricity market is already under pressure from data center expansion. Commercial electricity sales in the state increased by nearly 30 million megawatt-hours between 2019 and 2025. PJM expects the Dominion zone to experience its largest absolute increase in peak demand during 2026 through 2030, driven largely by data center growth. The central infrastructure question remains whether transmission and generation projects can arrive at the same pace as new computing capacity.

Stack Infrastructure’s proposed on-site natural gas generation offers one possible response. It could provide additional resilience and reduce dependence on grid capacity during certain operating conditions. However, it also introduces questions about emissions, fuel availability, permitting, and the economic role of gas assets over a 30-year development period.

Water planning adds another layer. The Berry Hill site has planned access to as much as 7 million gallons per day of water and 3 million gallons per day of sewer capacity. Stack Infrastructure also plans to use closed-loop cooling, which can reduce ongoing water consumption compared with cooling approaches that rely heavily on evaporation. Actual demand will depend on equipment density, operating temperatures, and the final mechanical design of each building.

Efficiency benchmarks will matter as the campus develops. Power Usage Effectiveness, or PUE, can help customers and local stakeholders compare the energy used by computing equipment with total facility consumption. Thermal operating guidance can also support higher server inlet temperatures where equipment specifications permit, potentially reducing cooling overhead.

The project positions southern Virginia as a potential alternative to the state’s established Northern Virginia data center market. Stack Infrastructure will still compete with operators such as Equinix, QTS Realty Trust, and Digital Realty for customers, equipment, and specialized workers. Berry Hill offers enough land to plan power, cooling, and network infrastructure at an AI-era scale. Execution now depends on whether those supporting systems can develop alongside the servers they are intended to serve.