Lambda has put an estimated $33.1 billion price tag on a planned data-centre campus in Lowndes County, Alabama, naming the site the Red Clay Technology Center Campus. Lambda’s 4 November 2026 announcement presents the figure as an investment in the state, not as cash already spent. Cloverleaf Infrastructure’s matching newsroom post says Lambda will be the end user for the campus Cloverleaf has been preparing.
Neither primary discloses megawatts of IT load. The public file is CapEx, jobs, tax projections, power arrangements and a construction window — not a completed build or a named GPU capacity.
Jobs and tax lines are forecasts through 2049
Lambda and Cloverleaf project more than 1,000 construction jobs during development and more than 225 full-time roles once the campus is operating. Local tax revenue is projected at more than $2.8 billion through 2049, including more than $1.6 billion for Lowndes County Public Schools; combined state and local tax revenue is projected at $3.4 billion over the same horizon. Those are company and developer projections, not audited receipts or a guarantee that every dollar will land on that schedule.
Chief executive Michel Combes called the plan “a significant and historic investment in Lowndes County” and stressed thoughtful development around local resources and community priorities. Cloverleaf chief executive David Berry said Lambda “will serve as the end user for Red Clay Technology Center Campus,” tying the hyperscale user to Cloverleaf’s site-prep role.
Power, water and a five-year build window
Power is to come from Alabama Power, pending regulatory approval. Construction is expected to start in the first quarter of 2027 and to take up to five years. The campus is planned near U.S. Highway 80 and Alabama Highway 21, with final design still to be developed as planning progresses.
Lambda says it will pay the full cost of power and grid infrastructure required to serve the facility, including upfront commitments that apply even if plans change, so those costs are not shifted to Alabama Power’s existing customers. Both Lambda and Alabama Power have signed the White House Ratepayer Protection Pledge, according to Lambda. Cooling is described as closed-loop, aimed at cutting water use versus traditional data-centre cooling, with a planned N-Drip partnership so the project returns at least as much water as the facility uses. A $10 million Community Benefits Agreement with the Central Alabama Community Foundation sits beside those operating pledges.
How this sits next to other TSN AI campus and power posts
Large AI campuses now arrive as CapEx stories first and product stories second. TSN’s file already includes Meta’s multi-billion Nebius outsourcing bet, another case where cloud capacity is bought or built at national scale. Power packaging for AI halls shows up in NTT DATA’s Bloom Energy fuel-cell commitment, while the UK angle on big AI data-centre CapEx sits in Drax’s Brookfield partnership that could top £20 billion. Red Clay belongs on that CapEx shelf: a named county, a named developer, attributed projections, and an open regulatory power gate.
Projections are not a finished campus
For local readers and UK observers watching US AI siting, the useful distinction is between announcement economics and operating plant. An estimated $33.1 billion, a Q1 2027 start and a five-year build window describe intent. Alabama Power’s pending approval is a hard gate: without it, the campus has a site narrative but not a confirmed utility path. Closed-loop cooling and the ratepayer pledge answer political and resource questions that often stall US campus filings; they still leave IT megawatts unpublished.
Job and tax figures through 2049 should be read the same way. More than 1,000 construction roles and more than 225 full-time posts are Lambda’s and Cloverleaf’s projections for a multi-year programme, not a payroll already on site. School-revenue lines through 2049 inherit every scheduling risk in the build calendar.
UK readers get no UK delivery from this story. It is a US state and county CapEx plan. The transferable lesson is how AI cloud operators now package community benefits, school tax projections and ratepayer language beside the headline dollar figure — a template other jurisdictions will recognise even when the pounds and regulators differ.
What to watch next
Three public breadcrumbs would move the file: Alabama Power’s regulatory step clearing supply to Red Clay; a disclosure that finally states IT megawatts or phased hall sizes; or construction evidence that the Q1 2027 start held. Until then, Lambda Alabama is an estimated $33.1 billion Red Clay campus plan with attributed job and tax projections, not a completed data centre and not a megawatt claim TSN can invent.
Sources
Primary:
- Lambda: invest $33 billion in Alabama / Red Clay campus (4 Nov 2026)
- Cloverleaf Infrastructure: Lambda Red Clay Lowndes County (4 Nov 2026)
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