City leaders promised this project would deliver prosperity. Here is what reporting from Time, Texas Monthly, Texas Standard, the Texas Observer, and local journalists has documented since construction began.
According to Zillow data cited by Time magazine, the average rent in Abilene is now $2,395 a month, up more than $1,000 from a year ago. Long time renters report rents doubling and tripling. The construction boom brought roughly 6,000 out of state workers into a city of just over 100,000 with an already tight housing market. Landlords are filling units with high paid construction crews while vulnerable residents are pushed out.
Time Magazine — February 2026
The executive director of Abilene Habitat for Humanity told Time that for the first time entire families, not just individuals, are arriving at the city's homeless encampments because landlords have doubled their rent. A community worker who has been in Abilene for more than a decade told reporters the homelessness situation is the worst he has ever seen it. A man with a walker told a Hope Haven worker outside the office that the AI plant took all the housing and he could not execute his housing voucher.
Time Magazine, Hope Haven, Habitat for Humanity
The City of Abilene and Taylor County approved an 85% property tax abatement on the Stargate site over a 10 year term. The same project straining housing, traffic, and emergency services pays a small fraction of what it would otherwise contribute to the local tax base. Oracle, as sub lessee, has already filed a formal protest to lower its $200 million assessed valuation even further on top of the abatement.
Texas Standard, Business Insider, Que Onda Magazine
Crusoe is contractually required to create just 357 full time permanent jobs after construction. There is no requirement that those jobs go to Abilene residents. Nathan Jensen, a professor of government at UT Austin, told Texas Monthly that data centers are not job creation engines and that giving an 85% tax abatement makes no sense if a city needs revenue. The Development Corporation of Abilene estimated a $4 billion economic impact over 20 years but has refused to share its methodology with journalists who asked how it arrived at that number.
Texas Monthly, Texas Standard, UT Austin
Few Abilene residents knew the deal was happening until it was nearly finalized. The Abilene City Council voted unanimously at a sparsely attended special meeting in February 2025 to lay the groundwork for the 85% tax abatement. Only two members of the public spoke during public comment and only one of them, Samuel Garcia, opposed the project. Project Ludicrous, the internal name for the Abilene site, is a fitting one.
Texas Monthly, Abilene City Council records
You probably would not target data centers for job creation. They are largely on the construction side, and there are very few permanent jobs. And if you need tax revenue, then you probably do not want to give them an eighty five percent tax abatement.
Nathan Jensen / Professor of Government, University of Texas at Austin
