Owner of ICE detention facility sees big opportunity in AI man camps

To house the hundreds or thousands of temporary workers needed to build an AI data center, developers are increasingly relying on temporary villages known as human camps.

This camp style was popularized as housing for men working in remote oil fields. For example, a Bitcoin mining facility in rural Dickens County, Texas, is being converted into a 1.6 gigawatt data center. Bloomberg reports employees live in gray housing units with access to a gym, laundry, games rooms and a cafeteria where steaks are grilled on request.

A company called Target Hospitality has signed multiple contracts totaling $132 million to build and operate the Dickens County camp, which could eventually house more than 1,000 workers.

Target apparently sees the US data center construction boom as its most lucrative growth opportunity, with Chief Commercial Officer Troy Schrenk describing it as “the largest, most actionable pipeline I’ve ever seen.”

Purpose too owns the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, where families are being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Lawsuits allege that the center’s food contains worms and mold, and that children have suffered allergies and special diets without accommodations.