Built by contractors, for contractors. Hyperscale data center campuses are going up around Abilene, Temple, San Antonio and Houston, and new chip fabs are running or under construction in Sherman and Taylor. Black Forge Technology supports the general contractors and MEP subcontractors on these jobs with fabrication models, coordination, laser scanning and BIM scope pricing, from a veteran-owned team based in Dallas–Fort Worth.
Our founder has personally worked on semiconductor projects for some of the world's largest chipmakers. Black Forge is a new firm and those weren't company projects. The fab experience comes with us.
What these jobs ask of VDC
Data centers
Hyperscale and AI campuses repeat the same building several times on schedules measured in months. Crusoe says the first two buildings on its Abilene campus were built and energized in under a year. At that pace, coordination comes under pressure in four places:
- Dense MEP repeated hall after hall: busway, cable tray, chilled water and, on the AI campuses, closed-loop liquid cooling piped to the racks.
- Prefabrication. Skids, racks and pipe spools built off site need fabrication-level models, usually LOD 400, signed off before the shop starts cutting.
- Consistency between buildings. Standards, families and clash rules set on building one and held on every building after it.
- As-built checks. Scanning installed work against the model, so a problem found in building one is fixed in the model before building two starts.
Semiconductor fabs
Fabs pack dense process systems into the fab and subfab levels: ultrapure water, process cooling water, bulk and specialty gases, chemical distribution and several exhaust streams. Tool layouts can change late, and hookup design often waits on tool data. Many Texas fab jobs are also expansions next to fabs that are already running, so existing-conditions scans and tight access rules come with the work.
How we help on data center and fab projects
LOD 400 fabrication models
Fabrication-level models and spool drawings for prefab racks, skids and pipe spools, built from the signed-off coordination model. What we take on depends on the job and the site, so we scope it project by project.
VDC and coordination capacity
We run coordination as your VDC team or add capacity to the one you have: clash detection, coordination meetings, model management and sign-off tracking. The scope is set per project and can grow as the job ramps up. More on BIM and VDC consulting.
Standards for multi-building campuses
Model standards, naming, clash rules and handoffs written once and held across every building, so each new building starts from what the last one taught the team.
Laser scanning and Scan-to-BIM
We scan installed work and compare it with the coordination model, so deviations get fixed before the next trade builds on them. On expansions next to running facilities, we capture existing conditions around your access windows and turn point clouds into Revit models for tie-ins and fit-outs. More on 3D laser scanning · What Scan-to-BIM delivers.
Slab flatness (FF/FL)
Full-surface FF/FL scans and deviation maps on slab pours, with files your QA/QC team and inspectors can use. More on FF/FL scanning.
BIM scope pricing for MEP bids
MEP subcontractors bidding these jobs have to price the BIM and VDC scope along with the install. BIM-IQ prices it for plumbing, mechanical pipe, sheet metal and electrical: work that typically takes 2–7 days, done in minutes.
Where the work is: active Texas projects
Status as of September 22, 2026, taken from owner announcements, state filings and news coverage linked under each market. Black Forge Technology has no affiliation with the owners or developers named here, and listing a project doesn't mean we've worked on it.
Sherman: Texas Instruments and GlobalWafers
Texas Instruments started production in December 2025 at SM1, the first of up to four connected 300 mm fabs on its Sherman site. The SM2 shell is built, SM3 and SM4 are planned, and TI puts the site's potential investment at $40 billion. GlobalWafers opened a 300 mm silicon wafer plant in Sherman in May 2025.
Sources: Texas Instruments: Sherman fabs · Texas Instruments news release, June 18, 2025 · GlobalWafers, May 16, 2025
Taylor: Samsung
On its July 2026 earnings call, Samsung said it expects its first Taylor fab to begin operations in 2026 and then gradually expand 2 nm capacity, and that construction of a second Taylor fab will begin at the end of 2026 with production targeted for 2030. Korean press reported in September that prototype 2 nm production for Tesla has started there, with full-scale supply planned for 2027.
Sources: The Korea Times, July 30, 2026 · Seoul Economic Daily, Sept. 15, 2026
Austin area
Cushman & Wakefield's 2026 ranking puts Austin–San Antonio first among secondary data center markets, and Samsung runs an existing manufacturing site in Austin. Inside city limits, the Austin City Council started drafting rules for large-scale data centers on Aug. 27, 2026, and several council members back an outright ban on hyperscale projects. Until rules are adopted, large projects in the city need council approval.
Sources: Cushman & Wakefield, 2026 Global Data Center Market Comparison · Samsung: Taylor fab · KUT, Aug. 27, 2026
San Antonio and Medina County
State filings show Microsoft adding data centers in the San Antonio area: two 245,000-square-foot buildings scheduled to finish by June 2027, and a roughly 195,000-square-foot building in Castroville, Medina County, filed to start construction in August 2026 and finish in 2028.
Sources: DCD, Feb. 20, 2025 · MySA via Yahoo Finance, Jan. 11, 2026
Temple and Milam County
Meta announced on July 22, 2026 that its Temple data center is serving traffic. Rowan announced in January 2026 that construction is under way on a 300 MW campus in Temple for an unnamed global technology company, with operations expected in 2027. In neighboring Milam County, OpenAI picked SB Energy to build and operate a 1.2 GW Stargate data center site, and satellite images from March 2026 showed the first building going up.
Sources: Meta, July 22, 2026 · Rowan, Jan. 5, 2026 · SB Energy, Jan. 2026 · Epoch AI, April 17, 2026
Abilene and Shackelford County
Crusoe's Abilene campus, the first Stargate site, has had buildings running since September 2025, and a second phase of six buildings, bringing the campus to about 1.2 GW, is due by the end of 2026. In March 2026, Bloomberg reported that Oracle and OpenAI had dropped plans to expand the site beyond that. Later that month, Crusoe announced an adjacent 900 MW campus for Microsoft, with its first building expected to be energized in mid-2027. Northeast of Abilene, Vantage's Frontier campus in Shackelford County is planned for 10 buildings and 1.4 GW, with the first due in the second half of 2026.
Sources: Crusoe, March 27, 2026 · DCD, March 6, 2026 · Vantage Data Centers: Frontier · DCD, Dec. 2025
Houston area
State filings reported in July 2026 show Amazon planning Project Eagle in Boling, Wharton County, with four buildings filed at $1.2 billion and construction listed to start in August 2026. In August, CRE Daily put the full campus at $10 billion on about 3,000 acres, with site preparation under way and county permits still pending. In Spring, TRG broke ground in November 2025 on a 24 MW, 110,000-square-foot data center due in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Sources: DCD, July 8, 2026 · CRE Daily, Aug. 18, 2026 · DCD, Nov. 19, 2025
Dallas–Fort Worth
Cushman & Wakefield's 2026 ranking puts Dallas first among primary data center markets in the Americas, and CBRE counted more than 765 MW of capacity under construction in DFW in the first half of 2026, 95% of it preleased. Texas Instruments runs two 300 mm fabs in Richardson, both in production. We're based here: see BIM and VDC services in Dallas–Fort Worth.
Sources: Cushman & Wakefield, 2026 Global Data Center Market Comparison · Dallas Innovates, Sept. 3, 2026 · Texas Instruments: Richardson fabs
Related: BIM and VDC consulting · 3D laser scanning · Concrete flatness (FF/FL) · BIM-IQ · What is LOD in BIM? · BIM and VDC services in Dallas–Fort Worth
Questions from GCs and MEP contractors
- Do you support data center and fab projects outside Dallas–Fort Worth?
- Yes. We're based in Dallas–Fort Worth and serve contractors across Texas and the continental U.S., including the Sherman, Taylor, Austin, San Antonio, Temple, Abilene and Houston markets.
- Can you add VDC capacity to our team on a data center job?
- Yes. We can run coordination as your VDC team, or back up your in-house team with clash detection, coordination meetings and model management. We set the scope per project.
- Do you build LOD 400 fabrication models?
- Yes. We build LOD 400 fabrication models and spool drawings for prefab work such as pipe spools, racks and skids. What we take on depends on the job and the site, so we scope it project by project.
- What LOD should data center and fab MEP models be?
- Coordination models usually run at LOD 350. Anything headed to a fab shop or prefab yard, such as pipe spools, racks and skids, usually needs LOD 400. On a multi-building campus, set the LOD and model standards on the first building and hold every later building to them.
- Can you laser scan installed work on an active site?
- Yes. We capture as-built conditions and compare them with the coordination model, so deviations are found before the next trade builds on them. Scan days are scheduled around your access windows and coordinated with your site security team.
- How do MEP subcontractors price the BIM scope on these bids?
- BIM-IQ, our estimating software, prices BIM and VDC scope for plumbing, mechanical pipe, sheet metal and electrical: work that typically takes 2–7 days, done in minutes. You bring the quantities and choose the LOD, and BIM-IQ produces a budgetary PDF for your precon review.
- Has Black Forge Technology worked on the projects named on this page?
- No. Black Forge is a new firm, and the company hasn't worked on these projects. We list them, with sources, to show where Texas data center and fab construction is happening, and we have no affiliation with their owners or developers. Separately, our founder has personally worked on semiconductor projects for some of the world's largest chipmakers; those weren't Black Forge projects.
Tell us about your Texas project
Send the market, your role on the job and where coordination is getting stuck.
What happens next
- We typically respond within one business day.
- Quick scoping call to talk through your project.
- You get a written proposal.
Prefer to talk? +1 (682) 294-0953
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