Anthropic Barber Lake · Mitchell County, TX
Last change recorded 2026-10-05 · Last checked 2026-10-04
Latest: Cipher's Barber Lake contracted revenue above $9bn after a second ten-year lease commitment (reported September 2026) · Financing closed · 2026-09-15 · recorded 2026-10-05
Cipher Digital's Barber Lake site near Colorado City (ERCOT). Fluidstack for Anthropic: 168 MW (September 2025) plus 39 MW (November 2025), extended in late September 2026 to 300 MW and 20 years ($9bn contracted). Cipher also signed a 15-year AWS lease on 2025-10-29 for 300 MW to be delivered in 2026 at another site. Phase 1 (168 MW) targeted for 2026-09-30 and phase 2 (39 MW) for 2027-01-31. · source ◐ secondary, confidence medium
Recorded readiness — 2 of 6 applicable milestones have a dated public record
Gate to first power — target 2026-09-30 (announced) · path: Grid supply · each step must finish its lead time before the target
1 of 3 required steps have a public date. Red = recorded date past the rule-based deadline · grey "no public date" = required step without a record · green = on record in time · context steps never colour.
| Step | Must finish by | Others did it | Known date | Status | Basis | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Site secured (context) | 2025-06-28 (15 mo before) | 13 mo before (n=26) | 2025-09-01 | context | 168 MW lease signed · ◐ | |
| Grid supply agreed | 2025-12-28 (9 mo before) | 7 mo before (n=11) | no public date | no public date · would need to be done by 2025-12-28 | No date on record | |
| Substation and lines energized | 2026-07-28 (2 mo before) | 15 mo after (n=1) | no public date | no public date · would need to be done by 2026-07-28 | No date on record | |
| Building ready for IT | 2026-09-28 (0 mo before) | 2 mo after (n=7) | 2027-03-31 plan | plan 6 mo past the deadline | Data halls delivered to Fluidstack in phases from Q4 2026 through Q1 2027 (slightly later than planned); a second ten-year lease by an AI lab from Q4 2026 · ◐ | |
| Full build-out complete (context) | 2027-09-28 (-12 mo before) | — | 2027-01-31 plan | context | Phase 2 delivery target (39 MW) · ◐ | |
| Financing closed (context) | 2025-09-28 (12 mo before) | 12 mo before (n=2) | 2026-09-15 | context | Cipher's Barber Lake contracted revenue above $9bn after a second ten-year lease commitment (reported September 2026) · ◐ |
Lead-time assumptions
- Site secured 15 months before first power — Land under control and campus announced. Rarely binding; shown for context.
- Permits in hand 0 months before first power — Final air and siting permits. Operators often energize on standard or temporary authorisations and receive the major permit later; flagged only when the permit lands more than 6 months after first power or is missing for an on-site plant.
- Grid supply agreed 9 months before first power — Interconnection or large-load agreement approved. Observed median 7 months before first power; the physical works (substation, lines) run in parallel with construction.
- Substation and lines energized 2 months before first power — Utility delivery point live; final tests before the load is taken.
- New generation online 1 months before first power — Utility plant or on-site plant generating; needed just before energization when the grid cannot carry the load alone.
- Major equipment on site 6 months before first power — Turbines, transformers, switchgear delivered; installation and commissioning take the remaining months.
- Construction started 24 months before first power — Groundbreaking of the building that gives first power. Observed 4-26 months for recent AI campuses; Meta's redesigned campuses took 35-58.
- Building ready for IT 0 months before first power — First building ready for IT. 'Complete' or 'opened' is usually reported after first power; flagged only beyond 3 months.
- Full build-out complete -12 months before first power — All announced buildings operational. Comes after first power by design; context only.
- Water supply secured 12 months before first power — Water rights, municipal agreement or desalination contract in hand. Context only; one of the feasibility items.
- Financing closed 12 months before first power — Project financing, anchor lease or committed capital announced. Context only; not applicable when the owner is a hyperscaler building on its balance sheet.
Dated steps (from the sources; later dates are plans)
Build-out timeline (Epoch AI; dated status notes with IT power; rows after today are estimates)
Recorded fact building ready for it has a recorded date later than the rule-based deadline for a 2026-09-30 first power.
Calculated requirement Grid supply agreed must finish by 2025-12-28; no public date is on record for it. Under the current rule set the recorded dates plus their lead times give a first power no earlier than 2027-03-28 (6 mo after the announced target). This is a floor set by the record, not a forecast.
Sources (Epoch AI selection): Cipher signs 168 MW AI hosting deal with Fluidstack, Google backs it (Sep 2025) · Cipher adds 56 MW gross to reach 300 MW at Barber Lake (Nov 2025) · Cipher 8-K exhibit: 207 MW total critical IT load (SEC, Nov 2025) · Anthropic to expand use of Google Cloud TPUs (Oct 2025) · Anthropic $50B US AI infrastructure with Fluidstack (Nov 2025) · DCD: Cipher secures Fluidstack as customer, Google as investor
Epoch AI, 'AI data centers', epoch.ai/data/ai-data-centers (CC BY 4.0); coordinates from GeoNames cities500 (CC BY 4.0) and hand-entered places; overrides in tools/project_overrides.csv with their own sources. Campuses outside the Epoch dataset come from tools/campuses.csv (public reporting, source per row). Data retrieved 2026-10-05. Report a correction to contact@ailoadmap.com (campus id anthropic-barber-lake; include the row and a source link).