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Clayco and Kiewit New Mexico Co. topped out the 855,000-square-foot first building at Project Jupiter, a data center campus in Doña Ana County, New Mexico. The contractors placed the final structural beam atop the building, completing its primary structural framework, Clayco announced on October 22.
Featured: Editorial photograph capturing heavy machinery, cranes, and structural progress on the Project Jupiter worksite.
Clayco and Kiewit serve as general contractors for the first portion of the campus as joint venture partners. Oracle and STACK Infrastructure selected the joint venture in August 2025, and construction broke ground that October. BorderPlex Digital Assets and STACK develop the campus, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure leases it under an 18-year agreement, and OpenAI is the primary client, according to El Paso Matters.
The campus covers about 1,400 acres and is planned for four data centers, according to Project Jupiter Together, a site funded by Oracle and STACK. On-site Bloom Energy fuel cells will power a microgrid for the campus, replacing the gas turbines and diesel generators in the original design and cutting nitrogen oxide emissions by about 92 percent. The one-time fill of the buildings' closed-loop, non-evaporative cooling systems and the fuel cell system will use non-potable well water purchased from a New Mexico water-rights holder. No public drinking water is used for cooling or power generation.
"Clayco is proud to reach this benchmark moment in the construction of Project Jupiter," said Ryan McGuire, President of Construction and Clayco Compute at Clayco. "Reaching this milestone reflects the extraordinary coordination and commitment of the teams bringing Project Jupiter to life," said Mike Casey, Chief Operating Officer at STACK Infrastructure.
Clayco expects the project to deliver more than $13 billion in long-term economic impact, including $360 million for schools and infrastructure, $50 million for local water systems, and $6.9 million for workforce and community programs. Project Jupiter is expected to create 7,000 construction jobs and more than 3,100 ongoing project-supported roles.
The project has faced setbacks. New Mexico officials rejected a proposed natural gas pipeline extension in July 2026, and Oracle issued a force majeure notice to Blue Owl Capital over delays and potential cost increases, according to earlier Baxtel coverage. Baxtel tracks 26 data center facilities in New Mexico, where Meta leads with 10 sites and the largest is Meta's Los Lunas Building 1 at 40 MW.
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