Microsoft и Chevron заключили 20-летний контракт на электроснабжение дата-центра в Техасе

Microsoft and Chevron have signed a 20-year power supply contract for a new data center in West Texas — by its planned scale, it could rank among the largest computing facilities in the United States.

Agreement Details

The deal stipulates that Chevron will supply the data center with electricity generated at gas power plants. The contract term is 20 years, which is atypical even for the energy sector: such long-term commitments allow Microsoft to attract financing for infrastructure construction, while Chevron can plan extraction and production volumes for decades ahead. The facility is still in the design stage.

If plans are implemented at the stated scale, it could become one of the largest computing complexes in the country — comparable to the flagship clusters of Google and Amazon in Virginia and Ohio. West Texas was chosen deliberately: the region has significant natural gas reserves, well-developed pipeline infrastructure, and land parcels and construction permits are easier and cheaper to obtain here than on the congested coast.

Why Gas, Not Green Energy

Large AI data centers impose strict power supply requirements: stable baseline load, minimal disruptions, the ability to rapidly scale capacity. Renewable sources — solar panels and wind turbines — cannot provide such reliability without large-scale storage systems. Natural gas remains the optimal choice for baseline load: quick startup, manageable power output, established infrastructure.

Despite Microsoft's declaration within its climate strategy of transitioning to carbon-free energy by 2030, the scale of AI computing consumption forces the company to pragmatically assess available sources right now. For Chevron, the contract means business diversification. Instead of selling gas on the spot market at volatile prices — a guaranteed long-term customer with fixed volumes.

This reduces risks and creates a predictable cash flow for decades ahead.

AI's Energy Hunger

Over the past two years, electricity consumption by data centers in the United States has reached record levels. Major players — Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta — have encountered a situation where traditional power grids cannot keep pace with growing AI loads. According to Goldman Sachs estimates, by 2030, electricity consumption by data centers in the United States will double. In response, technology giants have begun striking atypical industry deals:

• Microsoft restarted a reactor unit at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant to power its data centers
• Amazon is building a computing cluster next to an operating nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania
• Google is investing in small modular reactors (SMR)
• ExxonMobil and Occidental Petroleum are conducting similar negotiations with technology companies

Microsoft's deal with Chevron — a continuation of the same logic: secure a stable energy source for years ahead, become independent from overloaded public grids.

What This Means

The deal reflects a long-term structural shift: AI infrastructure is becoming increasingly vertically integrated. Large technology companies are ceasing to purchase electricity on exchanges and beginning to build their own supply chains — from gas wells to server racks. For the oil and gas sector, this is an unexpected but highly promising new market. For the climate agenda — yet another signal that decarbonization of critical infrastructure will take far longer than planned.

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