Fluidstack breaks ground on $1bn Virginia data center campus

Fluidstack has started construction on a data center campus exceeding $1 billion in investment at Progress Park in Wythe County, Virginia. The AI cloud firm is developing 99 acres for the project, first proposed in December 2025.

WDJB reported the groundbreaking. The campus, named Solis Arx, will absorb capital across real property improvements, power infrastructure, IT hardware, equipment, and workforce.

What does the timeline look like?

Fluidstack will build in phases. The company expects the majority of the campus to be complete by the end of 2027. Construction should generate 1,000 jobs, with 75 permanent positions once the site is operational.

The company has not disclosed the number or size of the data center buildings. That gap leaves capacity, megawatt footprint, and tenant mix unspecified.

Cooling will rely on a closed-loop system — a water circuit that recirculates rather than discharging — with an initial fill of approximately 400,000 gallons. Fluidstack has also committed to covering costs tied to power infrastructure upgrades.

What does this change for Wythe County?

Money, mostly. The county expects an additional $10 million in annual revenue by 2028 from the project. That's a material figure for a locality of its size.

Wythe County sits in southwest Virginia, near the borders of West Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina. The state's data center industry looks nothing like this geographically. The vast majority of Virginia's facilities cluster in the north, forming the world's largest data center market.

Progress Park has existed since 1999. County officials have spent three years courting data center investment at the site, according to the county's own website. Solis Arx is the payoff.

Where else is Fluidstack building?

The company is developing or operating data centers in three other states: Indiana, Texas, and New York. The Virginia campus joins a multi-state expansion driven by AI cloud demand.

Key project facts at a glance:

• Site: 99 acres at Progress Park, Wythe County, Virginia
• Investment: more than $1 billion total
• Proposal date: December 2025
• Completion: majority of campus by end of 2027
• Jobs: 1,000 during construction, 75 permanent
• Cooling: closed-loop system, ~400,000-gallon initial fill
• County revenue: +$10 million annually by 2028

The build marks a shift of hyperscale-adjacent capacity into a region that has watched Northern Virginia absorb the state's data center growth for decades. Whether it stays an outlier or becomes a corridor depends on power availability and the next wave of site selections.