Hyperscale data center projects are once again moving from planning desks to onsite construction in Virginia.
CleanArc, an Arlington, Texas-based data center developer, broke ground on a $3 billion hyperscale campus in Caroline County, according to announcements from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office and the company. The project, called VA1, will deliver 900 megawatts of grid capacity in phases through the mid-2030s, according to the company news release.
The groundbreaking adds another hyperscale project to Virginia’s data center pipeline at a time when construction activity remains reliant on AI-related work to balance weakness across other nonresidential segments.
The 900-megawatt VA1 campus, CleanArc’s first in the Greater Fredericksburg region, will span multiple phases, with 300 megawatts expected in 2027, another 300 megawatts planned for 2030 and the final 300 megawatts slated for the 2033 to 2035 period, according to the data center developer.
The campus will use closed-loop systems to minimize water consumption and incorporate design features to limit noise and light pollution, according to the releases. It will also use modular, pre-engineered components and offsite manufacturing to speed deployments and reduce onsite complexity, according to the company release.
“Virginia is the data center capital of the world, and I am thrilled that CleanArc has selected Caroline County as the site to invest $3 billion for their newest data center campus,” said Youngkin in the release. “This is the largest announced economic investment in the history of Caroline County and a testament to the results that come from strong collaboration between local and state leaders and industry partners.”
Data center construction projects remain one of the few segments of consistent megaproject volume in 2025. About 50 miles away in Stafford County, for example, Vantage Data Centers recently announced a $2 billion investment to build a three-building data center campus.
Dallas-based contractor Jacobs also posted record backlog levels in its fiscal fourth quarter earnings, largely due to data center momentum. Its CEO Bob Pragada said its data center pipeline had increased five-fold during the quarter.
