⭐ Morning Briefing — September 18, 2026

(Latest updates through September 18, 2026)

Top Story: Attorney General Ken Paxton opened an investigation into a proposed AI data center in Taylor, saying the land beneath it was conveyed for $10 in 1999 "to be held in trust for future use as parkland" before eventually selling last year for $10 million to the developer behind the project — and he's threatening to go to court if the parkland restriction was disregarded.

📰 Today's News

1. 🏞️ Paxton Investigates Whether a Data Center Is Being Built on Land Promised as a Future Park

Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Wednesday he's investigating the proposed Blueprint Projects data center in Taylor over land records showing the property was conveyed by the Bland family in 1999 for $10, explicitly "to be held in trust for future use as parkland" by Williamson County. The land changed hands several more times — to the City of Taylor for $10 in 2003, then to the Taylor Economic Development Corporation in 2009 — before TEDC sold it in April 2025 for $10 million to NCP Travis TPP Project, LLC, the Delaware entity developing the data center.
Paxton's office says the investigation will determine whether the 1999 trust and restriction were ever lawfully modified, released, or terminated; if not, he says he'll "seek court intervention to ensure the restriction is not disregarded." "I will not allow any person or entity to disregard the rule of law or obligations owed to the public," Paxton said. "If the Taylor data center development is unlawful, I will do everything in my power to stop it and hold those who have violated the law accountable."
The announcement lands the same week this briefing has already tracked Gov. Abbott's criminal-penalty threat over water-survey compliance and Lt. Gov. Patrick's intervention in ERCOT's CEO pay fight — a third distinct arm of state government now training legal pressure directly on data-center projects in a single week.

Today's Signal: Every other fight this briefing has tracked over zoning power has been about counties lacking authority to say no; this one is different — it's a state official using existing trust law to potentially unwind a deal already signed, which, if it holds up, would be the most direct legal reversal of a data-center land deal this briefing has seen.

2. 💰 Dallas-Based GDT Sells to UK's Softcat for $1.05 Billion

GDT, a Dallas-based IT provider specializing in data center infrastructure and networking, announced Thursday it's being acquired by UK-listed Softcat for $1.05 billion. GDT employs 900 people at its northwest Dallas headquarters plus a 200-person campus in Bangalore, India, and will keep its workforce, leadership, and name as a Softcat subsidiary.
Softcat, which trades on the London Stock Exchange with a market cap above $5 billion, said GDT met "every benchmark we looked for" to expand into North America, citing its "meaningful U.S. scale" and "deep data center and networking capabilities," according to Softcat CEO Graham Charlton. GDT CEO Shawn O'Grady framed the deal as giving GDT's team "deeper resources and global reach."
The deal is the second time in two days this briefing has tracked a nine- or ten-figure transaction tied to DFW's data-center buildout, following Wednesday's four separate construction filings totaling roughly $1.2 billion across Ellis, Tarrant, Dallas, and Garland.

Today's Signal: This deal isn't a data center itself — it's the infrastructure company that helps build and network them — which is its own kind of signal: the market for picking-and-shoveling this boom is now big enough to draw billion-dollar buyers on its own.

3. 🏗️ Irish Power-Infrastructure Firm Opens a Dallas Hub, Pledges 1,000 US Jobs

H&MV Engineering, a Limerick, Ireland-based firm that designs and builds the high-voltage electrical infrastructure connecting data centers to power grids, said Wednesday it's establishing its North American headquarters in Dallas and plans to create 1,000 US jobs in engineering, construction, and project delivery over the next five years. The company said Texas and Louisiana are already its most active US markets.
"Dallas is the right base for the next stage of our US growth," said Ken Gilmartin, H&MV's executive vice-president for the US, citing proximity to customers and "a deep pool of engineering and construction talent." CEO PJ Flanagan said AI and data-center growth is "putting huge focus on the need for power infrastructure."
H&MV, which employs more than 1,900 people company-wide and grew revenue from €61 million in 2020 to over €1 billion today, entered the US market last year and expanded further by acquiring Texas-based Cooke Power Services earlier this year. The firm was recently valued at €1.4 billion after private equity firm Exponent rolled its stake into a new investment vehicle backed by Apollo S3, Pantheon, and SQ Capital.

Today's Signal: Coming two days after Dallas Morning News reporting that Texas can't independently count how many jobs its data-center boom actually creates, this is a rare case of an exact, attributable number — 1,000 jobs, a five-year timeline, a named Dallas hub — from a company that isn't a data-center operator itself but supplies the power infrastructure every one of them needs.

4. ⚡ ERCOT's Large Load Working Group Meets on How to Rein In Big Users During Grid Emergencies

ERCOT's Large Load Working Group met in Austin on Wednesday to discuss how large power users — chiefly data centers and other big new loads — could be required to cut back during high-demand days or grid emergencies, CBS Austin's KEYE reported. The session was a working discussion, not a vote on a new rule, but it follows months of talks between ERCOT and lawmakers over whether data centers should help pay for the power and transmission upgrades their growth requires.
ERCOT officials cited data centers already drawing close to 10 gigawatts from the Texas grid during peak hours — roughly the demand of 2.5 million homes — while a Cleanview tracker cited in the report counts around 500 data-center facilities and projects statewide, with about 140 already operating.
The meeting's backdrop includes the now-resolved fight over CEO Pablo Vegas's pay: Vegas confirmed to The Texas Tribune this week that the board-approved contract extension, worth up to $6.4 million, will not be executed after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's public objection, and that he'll remain under his current agreement.

Today's Signal: A working group proposing to let ERCOT dial back large loads during emergencies is the flip side of this week's Batch Zero classifications — the same data centers now getting graded and connected are the ones regulators are simultaneously trying to build an "off switch" for.

Quiet today on data-center-specific developments in Collin, Ellis, Johnson, Denton, Wise, Tarrant, and Parker counties beyond what's already on the record; Hood County's data-center permit discussions remain tabled until the county's Oct. 13 public hearing.

📍 Today's Watch List

Actionable Signals for Friday, September 18

Whether Paxton's investigation into the Taylor land deed produces an actual court filing, and whether it slows or stops the Blueprint Projects data center.
Whether the GDT/Softcat deal draws scrutiny or comment from other D-FW data-center infrastructure players now that a billion-dollar buyer has entered the picture.
Whether H&MV's 1,000-job pledge comes with specifics on pay, timeline, or which Texas projects it's staffing up for.
Whether ERCOT's Large Load Working Group turns Wednesday's demand-response discussion into an actual proposed rule, and how large-load operators respond.
Whether Hood County's tabled data-center permit item actually comes up for a vote at the Oct. 13 public hearing.
ERCOT's December 10 audit-completion deadline and the roughly 250-300 projects (~200 GW) in the first review batch — no material movement expected before the December PUC meeting, so this stays at the bottom of the list until that date approaches.