AI — Data Center and Protection
AI works three jobs here: it computes for data center partners, it helps grow the crop, and it guards the infrastructure.
Across the country, AI data centers are waiting years for a utility to connect them. Butte Valley does not wait: the data center draws its power from the plant on site, behind the campus's own meter, with a utility line for standby. The data center runs around the clock, which keeps the engines busy and the power affordable for the growers and the homes.
AI also runs inside the greenhouses, setting heat, light, CO₂ and water hour by hour, and it watches the power plant, the water system and the fiber line around the clock, flagging break-ins and odd behavior a person would miss. It monitors the integrity of every operation on the campus to find where efficiency can be gained and to protect the assets.
Who is doing it now
xAI's Colossus in Memphis, Tennessee is backed by a 1.2-gigawatt off-grid power plant of gas turbines and batteries. Pacifico Energy's GW Ranch in West Texas pairs 7.65 gigawatts of gas generation with 1.8 gigawatts of battery storage. Developers build their own generation because the grid queue is too slow.
Amsterdam-based Source.ag's software runs in more than 500 greenhouses in 25 countries, forecasting harvests weeks ahead and automating irrigation. In October 2026 it bought Optimal, whose AI ran a commercial-scale Dutch greenhouse on its own and produced 13% more yield with 27% less energy than the benchmark grower.
At Butte Valley
- A partner model, not a landlord model: VetaNova builds the powered shell and the plant; the data center partner brings its own hardware and runs it.
- Power from the on-site plant, so capacity is not waiting on a utility study.
- Cooling water from the project's own rights, with closed-loop or adiabatic designs preferred.
- Carrier-class fiber in Walsenburg, with a separate second path north planned.
- AI monitoring the integrity of operations across the campus, for efficiency and asset protection.
Sources: Fortune / Bloomberg, April 24, 2026; HortiDaily, Source acquires Optimal, October 9, 2026.