project schema documentation

overview

this document provides comprehensive documentation for the data center project json schema used throughout the database. each project represents a single data center facility or campus documented with standardized fields for location, scale, timeline, participants, and sources.

schema versions

current version: 1.0 (october 2025)
file locations: /support/datacenters/data/{state}/projects.json
total projects: 604 across 50 states

top-level structure

each state file contains:

{
  "state": "string",
  "lastUpdated": "YYYY-MM-DD",
  "projects": [
    // array of project objects
  ]
}

project object schema

core identification fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
projectName	string	Yes	Unique identifier for the project. Format: “[Company] [Location] [Type]” or official project name if available.
status	enum	Yes	Current project status. Values: “operational”, “under-construction”, “planned”, “announced”, “cancelled”, “delayed”, “on-hold”

example:

{
  "projectName": "AWS Louisa County Campus 1",
  "status": "under-construction"
}

location object

Field	Type	Required	Description
location.city	string	Yes	City where facility is located. Use “Unknown” if not disclosed.
location.county	string	Yes	County/parish where facility is located. Use “Unknown” if not disclosed.
location.region	string	No	Geographic region within state (e.g., “Northern Virginia”, “Central Texas”)

example:

{
  "location": {
    "city": "Louisa",
    "county": "Louisa County",
    "region": "Central Virginia"
  }
}

participants

Field	Type	Required	Description
sponsors	array	Yes	Companies financing the project. Array of strings with official entity names.
operators	array	Yes	Companies operating the facility. Array of strings. May overlap with sponsors.
tenants	array	Yes	Companies leasing space in the facility. Empty array [] if owner-occupied.

example:

{
  "sponsors": ["Amazon Web Services"],
  "operators": ["Amazon Web Services"],
  "tenants": []
}

example with separation:

{
  "sponsors": ["OpenAI", "Oracle", "SoftBank"],
  "operators": ["Oracle", "Crusoe Energy"],
  "tenants": ["OpenAI"]
}

size object

Field	Type	Required	Description
size.investmentUSD	number	No	Total investment in US dollars. Use conservative estimate if range provided.
size.powerCapacityMW	number	No	Total power capacity in megawatts. Critical IT load, not total utility capacity.
size.totalSquareFeet	number	No	Total building square footage. Use gross area including support spaces.
size.notes	string	No	Additional context about sizing, phasing, or caveats

example:

{
  "size": {
    "investmentUSD": 11000000000,
    "powerCapacityMW": 1200,
    "totalSquareFeet": 4000000,
    "notes": "Part of AWS's $35 billion Virginia investment by 2040"
  }
}

validation rules:

if powerCapacityMW > 1000, verify source documentation
if investmentUSD > 10 billion, verify multiple sources
use conservative estimates when ranges provided

timeline object

Field	Type	Required	Description
timeline.announcedDate	string	No	Date project publicly announced. Format: “YYYY-MM-DD” or “YYYY-MM” or “YYYY”
timeline.constructionStartDate	string	No	Date construction began. Format: “YYYY-MM-DD” or “YYYY-MM” or “YYYY”
timeline.expectedCompletionDate	string	No	Expected completion date for planned/construction projects. Format: “YYYY-MM-DD” or “YYYY-MM” or “YYYY-QN”
timeline.actualCompletionDate	string	No	Actual completion date for operational facilities. Format: “YYYY-MM-DD” or “YYYY-MM” or “YYYY”
timeline.phases	array	No	Array of phase objects for multi-phase projects
timeline.notes	string	No	Additional timeline context, delays, or schedule changes

phase object structure:

{
  "phaseNumber": 1,
  "description": "First 300 MW substation providing 150 MW",
  "expectedCompletion": "2025-10"
}

example:

{
  "timeline": {
    "announcedDate": "2025-01",
    "constructionStartDate": "2024-06",
    "expectedCompletionDate": "2026-06",
    "phases": [
      {
        "phaseNumber": 1,
        "description": "2 buildings, 200+ MW",
        "expectedCompletion": "2025-H1"
      },
      {
        "phaseNumber": 2,
        "description": "6 buildings, 1000 MW",
        "expectedCompletion": "2026-06"
      }
    ]
  }
}

purpose array

Field	Type	Required	Description
purpose	array	Yes	Array of purpose strings describing facility use cases

allowed values:

"hyperscale" - large-scale facilities (typically >100 MW)
"colocation" - multi-tenant retail colocation
"cloud" - public cloud infrastructure
"ai-ml" - ai/machine learning workloads
"enterprise" - single-tenant enterprise
"edge" - edge computing/cdn
"government" - government/defense
"wholesale" - wholesale data center space

example:

{
  "purpose": ["hyperscale", "ai-ml", "cloud"]
}

sustainability object

Field	Type	Required	Description
sustainability.renewableEnergy	boolean	No	Whether facility commits to renewable energy (true/false)
sustainability.waterCooling	boolean	No	Whether facility uses water-based cooling (true/false)
sustainability.certifications	array	No	Array of sustainability certifications (e.g., “LEED Gold”, “Energy Star”)
sustainability.notes	string	No	Additional sustainability information

example:

{
  "sustainability": {
    "renewableEnergy": true,
    "waterCooling": false,
    "certifications": ["LEED Gold"],
    "notes": "Runs on 100% renewable energy, enables 700 MW of solar projects across Virginia"
  }
}

sources array

Field	Type	Required	Description
sources	array	Yes	Array of source objects documenting project information

source object structure:

Field	Type	Required	Description
url	string	Yes	Full URL to source document
title	string	Yes	Article/document title
date	string	No	Publication date (YYYY-MM-DD format)
publisher	string	Yes	Publishing organization

example:

{
  "sources": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.datacenterfrontier.com/hyperscale/article/33010712/aws-plans-11b-investment",
      "title": "AWS Plans $11B Investment For 2 Data Center Campuses In Louisa County, VA by 2040",
      "date": "2024-03-15",
      "publisher": "Data Center Frontier"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/data-center/amazon-continues-push-120569",
      "title": "Why Amazon Is Investing $11B In A Small, Rural Virginia County",
      "publisher": "Bisnow"
    }
  ]
}

validation rules:

minimum 1 source required per project
prefer 2+ sources for major claims
use official sources (company press releases, sec filings) when available
include date for all news articles

notes field

Field	Type	Required	Description
notes	string	No	Free-form notes providing additional context, analysis, or important caveats

example:

{
  "notes": "AWS is expanding beyond Northern Virginia into rural counties"
}

complete example

{
  "projectName": "Stargate Project - Abilene Campus (Oracle/Crusoe)",
  "location": {
    "city": "Abilene",
    "county": "Taylor County",
    "region": "West Texas"
  },
  "status": "operational",
  "sponsors": ["OpenAI", "Oracle", "SoftBank", "Crusoe Energy", "Lancium"],
  "operators": ["Oracle", "Crusoe Energy"],
  "tenants": ["OpenAI"],
  "size": {
    "totalSquareFeet": 4000000,
    "powerCapacityMW": 1200,
    "investmentUSD": 40000000000,
    "notes": "Part of $500 billion Stargate program; 8 buildings at full buildout"
  },
  "timeline": {
    "announcedDate": "2025-01",
    "constructionStartDate": "2024-06",
    "expectedCompletionDate": "2026-06",
    "phases": [
      {
        "phaseNumber": 1,
        "description": "2 buildings, 200+ MW",
        "expectedCompletion": "2025-H1"
      },
      {
        "phaseNumber": 2,
        "description": "6 buildings, 1000 MW",
        "expectedCompletion": "2026-06"
      }
    ]
  },
  "purpose": ["hyperscale", "ai-ml", "cloud"],
  "sustainability": {
    "renewableEnergy": true,
    "waterCooling": true,
    "certifications": [],
    "notes": "Zero-water evaporation cooling system; natural gas turbines for backup"
  },
  "sources": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/23/openai-first-data-center-stargate-project-texas.html",
      "title": "OpenAI's first data center in $500 billion Stargate project is open in Texas",
      "date": "2025-09-23",
      "publisher": "CNBC"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/oracle-40bn-nvidia-chips-openai-texas/",
      "title": "Oracle to spend $40bn on Nvidia GPUs for OpenAI Texas data center",
      "publisher": "Data Center Dynamics"
    }
  ],
  "notes": "First operational Stargate facility; Oracle 15-year lease; designed for 100,000 GPUs on single network fabric"
}

field relationships

status dependencies

Status	Required Fields	Expected Fields
operational	location, sponsors, operators	actualCompletionDate, size metrics
under-construction	location, sponsors, constructionStartDate	expectedCompletionDate, size metrics
planned	location, sponsors	announcedDate, investmentUSD or powerCapacityMW
announced	location, sponsors, announcedDate	investmentUSD or powerCapacityMW

purpose combinations

common combinations:

["hyperscale", "cloud"] - hyperscaler-owned cloud infrastructure
["hyperscale", "ai-ml"] - ai-focused hyperscale facilities
["colocation", "enterprise"] - multi-tenant enterprise colocation
["colocation", "cloud", "interconnection"] - carrier-neutral interconnection hubs

validation checklist

when adding new projects, verify:

common patterns

hyperscaler expansion

{
  "projectName": "Microsoft Leesburg Campus",
  "status": "under-construction",
  "sponsors": ["Microsoft"],
  "operators": ["Microsoft Azure"],
  "tenants": [],
  "purpose": ["hyperscale", "cloud"],
  "size": {
    "notes": "Part of Microsoft's $80B fiscal year investment"
  }
}

colocation facility

{
  "projectName": "Equinix DC12 Ashburn",
  "status": "operational",
  "sponsors": ["Equinix"],
  "operators": ["Equinix"],
  "tenants": [],
  "purpose": ["colocation"],
  "size": {
    "totalSquareFeet": 41000
  }
}

ai/ml specialized

{
  "projectName": "CoreWeave LAS1",
  "status": "operational",
  "sponsors": ["CoreWeave"],
  "operators": ["CoreWeave"],
  "tenants": [],
  "purpose": ["ai-ml", "cloud"],
  "size": {
    "powerCapacityMW": 14
  },
  "notes": "GPU-optimized for AI inference and training workloads"
}

schema evolution

version history

v1.0 (october 2025): initial schema definition
- 604 projects documented
- standardized field naming
- comprehensive validation rules

planned enhancements

potential future additions:

contractors array for construction firms
powerSource object detailing utility/renewable/nuclear
coolingType enum for cooling technology
networkConnectivity object for fiber/peering
gpuCount for ai/ml facilities
rackCount and rackDensityKW for capacity detail

for questions or schema change proposals, reference the main data center database documentation.

overview

schema versions

top-level structure

project object schema

core identification fields

location object

participants

size object

timeline object

purpose array

sustainability object

sources array

notes field

complete example

field relationships

status dependencies

purpose combinations

validation checklist

common patterns

hyperscaler expansion

colocation facility

ai/ml specialized

schema evolution

version history

planned enhancements

more in infrastructure