Shackelford County, Texas

County ranked by announced AI data-center load

Undisclosed Announced AI load

Campuses

Lead operator

Oracle

Resi rate Δ (AEP Texas)

n/a

Home price Δ (3y)

n/a

Property tax Δ (3y)

-9.9%

Population (2024 ACS)

3,175

Median HH income (2024 ACS)

$73,047

Key takeaways

Shackelford County has 3,169 residents and Albany the seat has 1,854. The Stargate Shackelford build is the third Oracle / OpenAI campus in Texas, with megawatts not yet publicly disclosed.Source: Census ACS 2023 B01003 (Shackelford County, TX and Albany) + sources[0] (Wikipedia: Albany, TX)
Median household income in Shackelford County is $64,659 against a median home value of $176,900, the highest home value of the four West Texas counties in this batch. The 34.6% bachelor's-degree share is the highest, lifted by ranch-management and oilfield-engineering wages.Source: Census ACS 2023 B19013, B25077, B15003 (FIPS 48417)
Property tax assessments in Shackelford County fell 9.9% over three years, the steepest tax drop of any county in this batch. Stargate land transactions have not yet shown up in the assessor's roll.Source: data/cache/property_tax_yoy.csv (FIPS 48417)
Albany's motto is Home of the Hereford and the Fort Griffin Fandangle is the official state theatrical production. The county sits in the heart of Permian-adjacent cattle country, not the oilfields that anchor the other Stargate Texas sites.Source: sources[0] (Wikipedia: Albany, Texas)

91.0% of Shackelford County residents lived in the same house one year earlier, the highest residential stability in this batch. Stargate will need to import nearly every operator from outside the 3,169-person base.Source: Census ACS 2023 B07001 (FIPS 48417)
The county is 86.8% white, 12.7% Hispanic, and 1.2% Black, the smallest Black population share of any Texas county in this batch. The Hispanic share has nearly doubled since 2010 driven by oilfield service work.Source: Census ACS 2023 B02001, B03003 (FIPS 48417)
Median gross rent in Shackelford County is $485 per month, the lowest in this batch by a factor of two. A construction-trade family relocated for Stargate can absorb the cost of living with room to spare.Source: Census ACS 2023 B25064 (FIPS 48417)
81.9% of occupied homes are owner-occupied and only 5.7% of adults are veterans, the lowest veteran share of any county in this batch. This is ranching country first, with no nearby base anchoring federal-employee turnover.Source: Census ACS 2023 B25003, B21001 (FIPS 48417)