Denton County, Texas

County ranked by announced AI data-center load

260 MW Announced AI load

Campuses

Lead operator

Core Scientific

Resi rate Δ (Denton Municipal Electric)

+20.5%

Home price Δ (3y)

-3.9%

Property tax Δ (3y)

+7.2%

Population (2024 ACS)

980K

Median HH income (2024 ACS)

$111,498

Key takeaways

Denton County has 979,561 residents and the campus city of Denton runs its own municipal utility, Denton Municipal Electric, with 58,941 residential customers. The Core Scientific and CoreWeave site is announced at 260 MW with a $1.2 billion 12-year contract.Source: Census ACS 2024 B01003 + data/cache/utility_rate_yoy.csv (City of Denton, TX) + sources[0] (Core Scientific press release)
Denton Municipal Electric's residential rate jumped 20.5% from 10.6 to 12.8 cents per kWh between 2021 and 2023, the steepest 3-year residential rate move of any batch-4 county. That works out to about $235 per year more on a typical household bill.Source: data/cache/utility_rate_yoy.csv (City of Denton, TX)
Home prices fell 3.9% over three years against a median home value of $437,200 and a $111,498 median household income. The campus expansion brings CoreWeave's total contracted infrastructure across Core Scientific's six sites to roughly 590 MW.Source: data/cache/realestate_yoy.csv (FIPS 48121) + Census ACS 2024 B19013, B25077 + sources[0]
Denton is the only batch-4 county where the lead operator runs on a municipal utility and where bills have already moved sharply. The 49.4% bachelor's share reflects the University of North Texas's presence in the same city.Source: data/sites/data_centers.csv + Census ACS 2024 B15003

10.3% of Denton County residents are Asian, the second highest Asian share in batch 4 after Collin. Frisco, Lewisville, and the I-35 tech corridor have built an Asian-American base larger than the entire population of any rural batch-4 county.Source: Census ACS 2023 B02001 (FIPS 48121)
95.5% of Denton households have broadband at home, second only to Collin in batch 4. The CoreWeave Denton site is anchoring on a fiber footprint already built for the suburban DFW workforce.Source: Census ACS 2023 B28002 (FIPS 48121)
65.4% of Denton households own their home and median gross rent is $1,642. The 20.5% utility-rate jump combined with $1,642 monthly rent means the per-household exposure to AI-driven bill increases is concentrated on the renter third of the county.Source: Census ACS 2023 B25003, B25064 (FIPS 48121)
Manufacturing employs 8.2% of Denton's workers and only 6.0% of adults are veterans. Peterbilt's truck plant in Denton city is the largest single industrial employer, a payroll the CoreWeave site will not match.Source: Census ACS 2023 C24050, B21001 (FIPS 48121)