Hale County, Texas

County ranked by announced AI data-center load

168 MW Announced AI load

Campuses

Lead operator

TeraWulf

Resi rate Δ (AEP Texas)

n/a

Home price Δ (3y)

n/a

Property tax Δ (3y)

+10.4%

Population (2024 ACS)

32K

Median HH income (2024 ACS)

$51,897

Key takeaways

Hale County has 32,131 residents and Plainview, the county seat, fell 9% from 22,194 to 20,187 between 2010 and 2020. TeraWulf and Fluidstack announced a 168 MW campus in Abernathy backed by a Google offtake commitment.Source: Census ACS 2024 B01003 + sources[0] (Wikipedia: Plainview, TX) + data/sites/data_centers.csv
Median household income is $51,897 and the median home value is $116,500, the second lowest values in batch 4 after Dickens. Property tax assessments still rose 10.4% over three years on the smaller base.Source: Census ACS 2024 B19013, B25077 + data/cache/property_tax_yoy.csv (FIPS 48189)
Only 15.3% of Hale residents over 25 hold a bachelor's degree, second lowest in batch 4 after Childress. The 168 MW Abernathy site is the smallest disclosed MW in any batch-4 county, but a Google-backed deal is unusual for TeraWulf.Source: Census ACS 2024 B15003 + data/sites/data_centers.csv
Abernathy sits on AEP Texas inside ERCOT, with no published residential rate delta because of deregulation. The campus adds about 5.2 kW of AI compute per Hale County resident, the lowest per-capita density in batch 4.Source: data/cache/utility_rate_yoy.csv (no AEP Texas residential row) + data/sites/data_centers.csv

60.8% of Hale County residents are Hispanic, the second highest Hispanic share in batch 4 after Bexar. The TeraWulf Abernathy campus is landing in a majority-Hispanic county with falling population.Source: Census ACS 2023 B03003 (FIPS 48189)
19.0% of Hale residents live below the poverty line, the highest poverty rate in batch 4. Cargill's Plainview beef plant closed in 2013 and the county has not replaced that wage floor.Source: Census ACS 2023 B17001 (FIPS 48189)
Only 80.8% of Hale households have broadband at home, tied for second lowest in batch 4. The TeraWulf site is plugging into ERCOT in a county where one in five households is offline.Source: Census ACS 2023 B28002 (FIPS 48189)
5.9% of Hale's labor force works in manufacturing and 4.2% of adults are veterans. The Wayland Baptist student population skews the broader workforce demographics in Plainview.Source: Census ACS 2023 C24050, B21001 (FIPS 48189)