Dona Ana County, New Mexico

County ranked by announced AI data-center load

Undisclosed Announced AI load

Campuses

Lead operator

Oracle

Resi rate Δ (El Paso Electric)

-9.8%

Home price Δ (3y)

+3.0%

Property tax Δ (3y)

+10.4%

Population (2024 ACS)

224K

Median HH income (2024 ACS)

$56,848

Key takeaways

Dona Ana County has 221,665 residents with a $55,663 median household income. Santa Teresa, where Project Jupiter sits, is a 5,044-resident community 81% Hispanic or Latino, anchored by a US-Mexico port of entry and the Dona Ana County International Jetport.Source: Census ACS 2023 B01003, B19013 (FIPS 35013) + sources[0] (Wikipedia: Santa Teresa, NM)
Oracle and OpenAI's Project Jupiter is the public name for a $165 billion Stargate site at Santa Teresa, on El Paso Electric's grid rather than New Mexico's PNM. El Paso Electric's New Mexico residential rate actually fell 9.8% from 2021 to 2023, the steepest 3-year rate decline of any AI host county in this batch.Source: data/sites/data_centers.csv (Project Jupiter) + data/cache/utility_rate_yoy.csv (El Paso Electric Co, NM)
31.4% of county adults 25 and older hold a bachelor's degree, lifted by New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. Median home value is $205,400 and home prices rose 3.0% over three years.Source: Census ACS 2023 B15003, B25077 + data/cache/realestate_yoy.csv (FIPS 35013)
Property tax assessments rose 10.4% over three years, well above the 3.0% home-price delta. The Santa Teresa Gateway Rail Park, a 1,100-acre Union Pacific interchange, gives Project Jupiter direct rail access to the wider Stargate logistics chain.Source: data/cache/property_tax_yoy.csv (FIPS 35013) + sources[0]

22.2% of Dona Ana County residents live below the federal poverty line and 67.6% are Hispanic. Project Jupiter sits in the second-poorest county in this batch behind Richland LA and the highest Hispanic share of any AI host county tracked.Source: Census ACS 2023 B17001, B03003 (FIPS 35013)
Only 4.6% of Dona Ana workers are in manufacturing, the lowest manufacturing share of any county in this batch. The local economy runs on government, NMSU, agriculture, and the Santa Teresa port of entry rather than industrial wages.Source: Census ACS 2023 C24050 (FIPS 35013)
Unemployment is 6.8% in Dona Ana County, the highest jobless rate of any AI host county in this batch. Project Jupiter is being announced into the loosest labor market in the dataset.Source: Census ACS 2023 B23025 (FIPS 35013)
34.7% of Dona Ana households rent rather than own. Median gross rent is $903 a month, low by national standards but high relative to the 22.2% poverty rate, so a Stargate-driven rent move would hit the working-poor Hispanic majority hardest.Source: Census ACS 2023 B25003, B25064, B17001 (FIPS 35013)