Fluidstack Breaks Ground on 99-Acre, $1 Billion Virginia AI Campus

Construction has started on a 99-acre AI data center campus in Wythe County, Virginia, with a county-projected investment above $1 billion and no disclosed power capacity, tenant or building sizes. Fluidstack, the AI cloud provider building capacity for Anthropic, confirmed the start of work at Progress Park on Tuesday, according to DatacenterDynamics. Most of the campus is due for completion by the end of 2027, with operations beginning in phases.

That timeline came from Fluidstack itself, in a presentation to county supervisors last month. The company has not published a megawatt figure. It has not named an end customer. The county does not know the building footprints either. For a project priced above $1 billion, the silence on power is notable.

How the project reached Fluidstack

The site first surfaced in December 2025 under a different name. Solis Arx, a new developer led by founder and CEO Rob Noll, announced it with a total projected investment of "over $1 billion," according to county administrator Stephen Bear. Fluidstack later took the project over. Wythe County's board approved an amendment renaming it Fluidstack in August.

The county's role in the deal was modest. It gave the ungraded Progress Park lot to the developer at no cost. Fluidstack says it did not seek or accept project-specific tax incentives. The county projects more than $10 million a year in tax revenue by 2028 if the schedule holds, which would make the campus the county's largest taxpayer. Both figures are projections, not booked revenue.

What does the campus need in power and water?

Solis Arx arranged electric service directly with Appalachian Power, and the county said the project would not affect local electricity rates. Fluidstack says it will pay for its electricity use, the infrastructure it needs and upgrades to the nearby substation. Those commitments came from the company's own statements to county supervisors, not from an independent assessment.

Water demand is comparatively small. The campus will use a closed-loop cooling system requiring an initial fill of about 400,000 gallons, with ongoing use mostly serving staff. That figure, again, is Fluidstack's.

The company expects about 1,000 construction workers at peak and 75 permanent jobs once the campus runs. Seventy-five permanent positions is a thin jobs return for a billion-dollar industrial site, and local residents have noticed.

Who is objecting, and on what grounds?

Opposition has formed around the absence of land-use rules. Wythe County has no zoning outside its two towns. "The deal has been done. The grading is underway," Andy Kegley, leader of the residents' group Preserve Wythe, said at an Oct. 28 open house. The county is now drafting its first land-use ordinance — after the excavators arrived.

Where does this fit in Fluidstack's buildout?

The Virginia campus is one piece of a wider expansion. Anthropic said in November 2025 it would invest $50 billion in U.S. computing infrastructure with Fluidstack, starting with sites in Texas and New York. Fluidstack is also the anchor tenant at bitcoin-miner conversions backed by Google, including TeraWulf's Lake Mariner campus in New York and Cipher Mining's 168 MW lease. In April, it was in talks to raise $1 billion at an $18 billion valuation, according to MLQ.ai.

Note the asymmetry in disclosure across that portfolio. The Cipher lease carries a stated capacity of 168 MW. The Wythe County campus, larger in investment terms, carries none. Investors and county officials alike are working from company statements and county projections, not verified figures.

The tax projection assumes the 2027 schedule holds; data center projects of this size frequently slip, and neither Fluidstack nor the county has published penalties or milestones tied to the $10 million revenue forecast. If the buildout lands on time, Wythe County gains its largest taxpayer by 2028 — but the county's first zoning ordinance may arrive after the concrete has already been poured.