Data Center Company Cipher Digital Presents at Commissioners Court Tuesday

SAN ANGELO, TX — Cipher Digital is on the Tom Green County Commissioners Court agenda at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. It’s listed as a dialogue, not a vote.

Lee Bratcher, the company’s head of policy and government affairs, is expected to talk about Colchis — a planned 1-gigawatt data center on private land off Highway 67 North near City Farm Road. That’s just east of the Skybox site the city has been fighting over.

Cipher already bought the land. ERCOT has it in Batch Zero. Target date is around 2028. No tenant named. Nothing built yet. It’s outside the city limits, so San Angelo’s ordinances don’t cover it.

Commissioner Rick Bacon said Cipher asked for the meeting and the court hadn’t heard from them until recently. Bacon wanted it in open court so everybody hears the same thing at the same time.

Here’s the lay of the court.

Judge Lane Carter hasn’t said he wants data centers or not. We know he runs the very expensive county budget. He needs the tax money.

Shawn Nanny is against them. He says his people don’t want them either.

Rick Bacon put this on the agenda in public. His wife, Glenda, is online fighting data centers.

Some of Chad Decker’s people are in the land deal, selling to Cipher. Decker has already said most folks don’t want these things and don’t want the county helping recruit them byu subsidizing the Chamber of Commerce.

Ralph Hoelscher’s precinct is where it would sit. He hasn’t said where he stands. He’s a budget hawk. He’ll look at the tax revenue number. He’ll also look at what it costs to run the county.

Tuesday is Cipher’s first pitch. Not a decision. If you want answers on water, power, and who pays for what at Red Creek, that’s likely the content of the presentation. In the end, the county has little authority to regulate what private land owners do on private land and Cipher owns its own land.