New owner revives stalled RELLIS data center as a 73-megawatt AI computing hub

The stalled data center on Texas A&M's RELLIS campus in Bryan has a new owner and a new plan. ThisWay Global, an Austin company that took over the project's assets through bankruptcy court, says it will develop the 25-acre site as a computing center for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, with up to 73 megawatts of capacity built in phases.

The company announced the plan Thursday, calling it the Research and AI Compute Center. It said the acquisition closed Sept. 30 and that it has started remobilizing the project. KBTX reported that the center is expected to be running by the second quarter of 2027.

A long road

The project dates to 2021, when Bryan signed an economic development deal for a project then described as the biggest taxpayer Brazos County had ever landed, according to KBTX. Ground was broken in 2024.

The original developer, RELLIS Campus Data and Research Center LLC, sought Chapter 11 protection in November 2025 when a key financial backer reportedly withdrew, leaving some local contractors unpaid, the station reported.

In June, after two postponed votes, Bryan's City Council approved a replacement abatement deal for the site. In August, Brazos County commissioners voted 4-0 to move the county's abatement for the $700 million project to ThisWay Global; the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents had already approved the same transfer. The land belongs to the A&M System and has not been taxable.

Under the county deal, the project is taxed at half its value for the first 10 years and at full value for the next 30, KBTX reported.

What the company says it will build

In its announcement, ThisWay Global said the center would offer computing capacity to eligible researchers, public agencies and businesses, along with research partnerships and workforce training. The current design calls for closed-loop, direct-to-chip liquid cooling, the company said, but final cooling and water needs will be set during engineering and permitting. It said noise, land use and environmental requirements will also be addressed.

KBTX reported the company plans a 73-megawatt substation for the site, about six times the power the entire RELLIS campus uses today.

Founder and executive chair Angela Hood told the station the center would train workers through a pipeline with Texas A&M, with a goal of moving people who have no background in the field into jobs that start at $65,000 to $70,000 a year. "It will happen right here at Texas A&M RELLIS campus," she said.

The company's release lists several conditions on the timeline, including final engineering, permits, utility and grid connections, financing and customer demand.

Earlier concerns

The project has drawn some public pushback. At the June Bryan council meeting, two residents spoke against the abatement, one citing the water and power that large data centers use, KBTX reported. At the August county meeting, the lone public speaker said he felt better about the deal because the land would become taxable but still had reservations about data centers in general.

Sources

KBTX

manilatimes.net

KBTX

KBTX

datacenterdynamics.com