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Chevron<\/a> will fuel a massive Microsoft<\/a> data center in West Texas with natural gas under a 20-year agreement, the oil major announced Monday. <\/p>\n The data center, called Project Kilby, is expected to consume nearly 2.7 gigawatts of electricity, which is equivalent to about 2 million homes. <\/p>\n A majority of the electricity will come from large gas turbines from Chevron’s partner GE Vernova<\/a>. Caterpillar<\/a> will also provide turbines. The power infrastructure will be located at the data center site.<\/p>\n Project Kilby has not started construction in Reeves County. Chevron expects to make a final investment decision on the project later this year. The data center would start receiving power in 2028. <\/p>\n Microsoft’s parternship with Chevron comes as it undertakes a massive buildout of data centers to power artificial intelligence applications. It plans $190 billion in capital expenditures<\/a> this year, a 61% increase over 2025.<\/p>\n Microsoft’s embrace of natural gas through a partnership with the oil industry shows it is willing to invest in a fossil fuel to meet its electricity needs. <\/p>\n The rapid growth of AI “requires energy infrastructure that can scale quickly and reliably,” said Noelle Walsh, Microsoft’s president of cloud operations and innovation, in a statement Monday.<\/p>\n Chevron is positioned to quickly and reliably deliver natural gas from the Permian Basin to data centers at a competitive cost, said Jeff Gustavson, Chevron’s president of new energies. <\/p>\n Microsoft has invested primarily in renewable energy to offset carbon-dioxide emissions from its data centers. But it is searching for power sources than can more reliably meet the 24\/7 demand of its data centers. It turned to nuclear power in 2024 with its investment in the restart of the Three Mile Island<\/a> nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. <\/p>\n