Amazon acquires 1,300 acres in Texas for a hyperscale data center campus, Kevin O’Leary’s $100B Stratos Project gets greenlit in Utah, while Eli Lilly invests $4.5B across 2 Lebanon Indiana plants, and Virginia’s future tallest building starts to climb. Meanwhile, Hut 8 selects Jacobs for $17B data center in south Texas, a $650M children’s hospital moves forward in Tampa, and AI-powered platform Avola hits a $1B valuation. Let’s dive in!

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Amazon Web Services acquired roughly 1,300 acres near Cedar Creek in Bastrop County, Texas, about 30 miles southeast of Austin.

The deal closed earlier this month per local property records cited by BizJournals. The land was previously held by CTX Capital Partners and earmarked for a residential community called Creekside.

Amazon has not disclosed any plans. The company already operates in San Antonio, filed to develop in DeSoto near Dallas, and this year filed to build near Vistra's Comanche Peak nuclear plant 40 miles outside Fort Worth.

Bastrop County is drawing serious data center investment. EdgeConneX is developing a campus about seven miles north of Amazon's new site. A separate campus was proposed in 2023, though its status remains unclear. Read more here.


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Box Elder County commissioners unanimously approved the Stratos Project on May 4, greenlighting a 9-gigawatt AI data center campus on 40,000 acres in northwest Utah.

The site spans private, military, and state-owned land. Power will come from a dedicated on-site natural gas plant, which developers say avoids pushing electricity costs onto residents.

Kevin O'Leary, serving as public face, says the facility will prioritize U.S. government agencies and defense adjacent contractors. Developers have invested approximately $20 million and plan to pursue tenant letters of intent in coming weeks.

Construction job estimates differ. O'Leary has cited 10,000 positions, while the developer's representative told the Salt Lake Tribune the number is closer to 4,000. Permanent operational jobs are projected at 2,000.

Opposition has formed over water usage near the Great Salt Lake and plant emissions. Voters have filed for a November ballot referendum, requiring more than 5,000 signatures.

Eli Lilly opened Lilly Lebanon Advanced Therapies on May 6, its first genetic medicine manufacturing facility, and also announced an additional $4.5 billion investment across two of their Lebanon, Indiana sites on the same day. Indiana commitments since 2020 now exceed $21 billion. Fluor is managing LP1, the API facility currently under construction, while Jacobs and Messer Construction oversee LP2, which includes the advanced therapies build. At peak, both facilities are expected to require roughly 5,000 construction jobs.

LS GreenLink USA began vertical construction on its 660-foot VCV tower in Chesapeake, Virginia on May 5, a key milestone on its $681 million manufacturing and pier complex. When complete, it will be the tallest structure in Virginia. Hyundai Engineering is general contractor, Hanmi Global the construction manager, and Heerim Architects and Planners are the architect of record. Phase 1 targets Q4 2027 completion.

Jacobs has been awarded a sole-source EPCM contract by Hut 8 to build Beacon Point, a multi-phase AI data center campus on 525 acres in Nueces County, Texas, near Corpus Christi. The campus is designed for one gigawatt of total power capacity. Phase one will deliver 352 megawatts and is already leased to a confidential tenant. Phases one and two carry a combined capital investment of around $17 billion. Hut 8 previously selected Jacobs as EPCM lead on River Bend in Louisiana.

BayCare Health System has started phase one of construction on the Pagidipati Children's Hospital at St. Joseph's in Tampa, a freestanding pediatric facility backed by more than $650 million. Work begins with the demolition of the existing parking garage to prepare the site. Designed by Page, now Stantec, the hospital targets a 2030 opening and will house an ACS Level I Children's Surgery Center, one of only 55 in the country.

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Katara Towers is a pair of 36-story twin skyscrapers rising 211 meters above the Lusail Marina District in Qatar.

The project was developed by Katara Hospitality along with Qatari Diar and was designed by Dar Al-Handasah. HBK Contracting held the construction contract.

The towers sit on a 48,000 square meter waterfront plot with a total built area of around 300,000 square meters. The structure is divided into five areas with eight core walls.

Doka's SKE50 hydraulic climbing formwork was used on the core walls, helping the team outpace schedule. Floors one to fifteen ran on a 14-day cycle, with floors fifteen to thirty-six completed in eight days per floor.

Construction began in September 2018. The hotels opened during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, with the full complex officially opening in January 2023. It houses the Raffles Doha and Fairmont Doha hotels, along with apartments, restaurants, and event facilities.

Avoca, a New York-based AI platform for trades contractors, announced on April 27 it has raised more than $125 million across its Seed, Series A, and Series B rounds at a $1 billion valuation, giving it “unicorn status”.

The Series B was led by Meritech and General Catalyst, with Kleiner Perkins leading the Series A.

The platform targets HVAC, plumbing, roofing, and electrical contractors. It answers inbound calls within seconds, books jobs into a contractor's CRM, follows up on outstanding estimates, and runs marketing campaigns based on technician capacity.

The problem is simple. When a team is stretched, calls go to voicemail and jobs go elsewhere. Avoca handles the front office around the clock so that does not happen.

In 2025 the company crossed eight figures in annual recurring revenue. It is on track to book $1 billion in jobs in 2026.