According to DCD, Blue Owl-backed developer Beale Infrastructure has broken ground on its $1 billion Project Clydesdale data center campus in Tulsa County, Oklahoma. The 506-acre development in Owasso will feature at least one phase with three potential additional phases, each covering approximately 200,000 square feet. Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor Matt Pinnell celebrated the project for creating 100 high-paying jobs and demonstrating the state’s leadership in modern technologies. The county board approved the project’s economic development plan and tax incentives in September, with Beale reportedly planning additional developments in Coweta and other locations including Kansas and Arizona. This massive investment comes as Oklahoma attempts to establish itself in a data center market currently dominated by other regions.
The Infrastructure Reality Gap
While the $1 billion price tag sounds impressive, the real question is whether Oklahoma’s infrastructure can support hyperscale data center operations. Major data center hubs like Northern Virginia, Dallas, and Phoenix didn’t become dominant by accident—they offer robust fiber connectivity, redundant power grids, and established ecosystem partnerships. Tulsa County faces significant hurdles in power infrastructure alone, particularly given the increasing energy demands of modern AI workloads that can consume 30-50MW per building. The region’s electrical grid hasn’t historically been tested at the scale required by hyperscale operators, and grid reliability concerns could become a major operational risk.
The Talent Pipeline Problem
The promise of 100 high-paying jobs sounds appealing for local economic development, but it overlooks a critical challenge: Oklahoma’s limited data center talent pool. Specialized roles in data center operations, critical facilities engineering, and network architecture require experience that simply doesn’t exist in significant quantities in the Tulsa region. Established hubs benefit from decades of accumulated expertise and training programs. Beale will likely need to import talent initially, which increases costs and creates retention challenges. The Uptime Institute’s industry surveys consistently show talent shortages as a top concern, particularly in emerging markets trying to compete with established regions.
Competitive Landscape Reality Check
Oklahoma’s attempt to enter the data center market comes at a time of unprecedented competition. Established hubs are expanding aggressively, with Northern Virginia alone adding more capacity than many entire countries. Meanwhile, secondary markets across the Midwest and Southwest are all chasing the same limited pool of hyperscale tenants. Beale’s simultaneous developments in Kansas and Arizona suggest a scattered strategy rather than focused market dominance. The presence of Google’s Pryor campus and TierPoint’s Tulsa facilities provides some validation, but these are relatively small players compared to the massive capacity being built in primary markets. The latest market reports show that while demand remains strong, secondary markets face steeper challenges in attracting anchor tenants.
The Economic Incentives Gamble
Tulsa County’s approval of tax incentives represents a calculated gamble that could take decades to pay off. While data centers bring construction jobs and limited permanent employment, their property tax contributions are often negotiated downward through incentives. The real economic benefit comes from attracting technology companies and creating ecosystem effects, but this requires critical mass that single projects rarely achieve. Similar incentive programs in other states have produced mixed results, with some communities questioning whether the trade-offs were worthwhile. The success of this bet depends entirely on Beale’s ability to not only build but successfully lease the capacity in a market that lacks natural data center demand drivers.
Sustainability and Water Concerns
Data center development increasingly faces scrutiny around environmental impact, particularly water usage for cooling systems. Oklahoma’s climate requires significant cooling capacity for much of the year, and water availability could become a constraint as development scales. While the source article doesn’t detail Beale’s sustainability plans, modern hyperscale operators demand strong environmental credentials, including commitments to water stewardship and renewable energy. Oklahoma’s energy mix remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels, creating potential conflicts with the sustainability goals of major cloud providers who are the most likely tenants for this type of capacity.
