OpenAI Stargate Freebird Milam County AI Data Center

OpenAI's Stargate buildout now has a concrete construction record in Milam County, Texas. The clean building-level signal is Freebird Data Center Phase 1 / DC01, a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation record tied to County Road 133 in Burlington. The TDLR filing lists a privately funded new-construction data-center project with a $470 million estimated cost, 548,950 square feet, four data halls, an October 20, 2025 start date, and an October 15, 2026 completion target.

That record matters because Stargate headlines can get broad fast. The public low-voltage opportunity is not just "OpenAI is building in Texas." It is a specific first phase with a named legal owner, a named design firm, a tenant contact tied to Open AI, a site road, a schedule window, and a data-hall count. The broader campus context comes from SB Energy and OpenAI. SB Energy says OpenAI selected it to build and operate a 1.2 GW Milam County data-center site. OpenAI's Stargate site announcement identifies Milam County as a Stargate location developed with SB Energy, which is providing powered infrastructure for a fast-build data-center site.

The working read for LVN is simple: Freebird gives contractors the building-level record, and SB Energy gives the powered-campus frame. The TDLR filing does not publish phase-specific critical IT load, and it does not name the general contractor, EPCM firm, electrical contractor, low-voltage contractor, fiber carrier, security integrator, fire alarm contractor, BAS/BMS controls partner, DAS provider, network integrator, grounding contractor, or commissioning agent. That boundary is important. The project is source-backed and active, but the specialty package layer is still mostly invisible in public.

Item	Public evidence	LVN read
Project	Freebird Data Center Phase 1 / DC01	Named first-phase data-center construction record inside the broader Stargate Milam site.
Location	County Road 133, Burlington, Milam County, Texas	Specific enough for permit, inspection, utility, and local-record monitoring.
First phase	$470M estimated cost, 548,950 sq ft, four data halls	Scale supports meaningful pathway, fiber, security, fire alarm, controls, and commissioning scope.
Schedule	October 20, 2025 start; October 15, 2026 target completion	The public window is active now, so package and turnover signals matter.
Broader campus	SB Energy and OpenAI describe a 1.2 GW Milam County site	The first building should be tracked with the larger power and campus buildout.

The named-company picture is stronger than the named-trade picture. TDLR TABS2026017746 names Milam County Data Center LLC as the owner on the filing and Corgan Architects Inc as the design firm. SB Energy is the most important operating partner in the public sources because its release ties the company to build-and-operate responsibility for the Milam County site. SoftBank Group is part of the Stargate/SB Energy capital and partnership context. SB Energy's data-center page lists Milam Data Center as a 1GW+ total-capacity site under construction.

Company	Source-backed role	Evidence
OpenAI	AI infrastructure tenant / Stargate partner	OpenAI Stargate announcement, SB Energy release, and TDLR tenant context.
SB Energy	Build-and-operate / powered-infrastructure partner	SB Energy partnership release and data-center page.
SoftBank Group Corp.	Stargate partner and SB Energy investment context	SB Energy release.
Milam County Data Center LLC	Legal owner on first-phase TDLR filing	TDLR TABS record.
Corgan Architects Inc	Design firm listed on first-phase filing	TDLR TABS record.
TDLR	State public-record source	TABS2026017746.

The power story is part of the construction story. SB Energy is not just describing a speculative data-center lead. Its public pages frame data centers around powered sites, grid integration, local tax revenue, and workforce impact. The SB Energy communities page says the Milam County Data Center and Orion case-study footprint supports nearly $100 million in local revenue and lists 10,000 construction jobs in that combined context. LVN should treat that as a broad community and workforce signal, not as a phase-one trade headcount. It still matters because large labor and infrastructure commitments usually create the conditions where prequalification, site access, safety, documentation, and commissioning discipline become differentiators.

Baxtel is useful as a secondary tracker for project-family naming. Baxtel's OpenAI Stargate Milam County profile ties the site to OpenAI and SB Energy, lists the broader campus acreage context, and helps keep the Milam County Stargate record separate from Abilene Stargate, Saline / The Barn, Rowan Temple, Google Meitner, Prime Lockhart, and other Central Texas data-center builds. For source discipline, the primary facts should still come from TDLR, OpenAI, and SB Energy where those sources answer the question.

For low-voltage contractors, the important thing is not to overclaim. No reviewed public source names the low-voltage subcontractor or says who has the fiber, structured cabling, access control, CCTV, fire alarm, BAS/BMS, DAS, networking, grounding, or commissioning package. But the four-data-hall first phase creates predictable surfaces where those systems will show up. The right move is to map the owner, operator, designer, public records, power partner, aliases, and site geography before the specialty names become obvious.

Scope	Where it shows up	Evidence boundary
Fiber / OSP	Carrier entrances, diverse routes, vaults, duct banks, data-hall backbone, and test records.	Expected for this facility type; public carrier and fiber contractor names are not confirmed.
Structured cabling	Pathways, trays, labeling, telecom spaces, MMR/IDF coordination, and turnover documentation.	Inferred from the four-data-hall phase; installer names are not public.
Access control / CCTV	Perimeter, gates, secure lobbies, data halls, loading areas, camera coverage, and VMS integration.	Mission-critical requirement; security integrator not public.
Fire alarm / life safety	Alarm interfaces, suppression coordination, monitoring, inspections, and AHJ acceptance.	Scope likely, but contractor and device package are not public.
BAS/BMS / networking	Cooling and power monitoring, alarms, facility networks, OT segmentation, and commissioning scripts.	Controls and network package names are still unknown.
DAS / grounding	Public-safety coverage, in-building wireless, telecom bonding, rack/pathway grounding, and final QA.	Watch for permit language, tests, and acceptance records.

The skills angle is practical. Data-center work rewards crews that can pass background and site-access requirements, work safely around electrical and mechanical trades, keep labeling consistent, produce clean test records, and support commissioning without creating rework. Fiber techs should be ready for OTDR, power-meter testing, cleaning, labeling, and as-builts. Security teams should expect controlled access, device schedules, network coordination, camera placement, and VMS commissioning. Fire alarm teams should expect suppression interfaces, monitoring, inspection sequencing, and AHJ-driven documentation. BAS/BMS and network teams should expect close coordination around equipment alarms, facility networks, trend logs, OT boundaries, and handoff packages.

Training and credential signals matter because this is not light commercial cabling. Useful references for crews moving toward this market include BICSI Installer 2, Optical Fiber, BICSI Installer 2, Copper, FOA workforce fiber resources, and OSHA outreach training. The credential itself is not the whole story, but the discipline behind it is exactly what data-center sites punish or reward: testing, cleanliness, documentation, safety, and repeatable quality.

The near-term watch items are specific. Search the public trail for Freebird Data Center Phase 1, DC01, Milam County Data Center LLC, County Road 133, Burlington, OpenAI Stargate Milam County, SB Energy Milam Data Center, TABS2026017746, and Corgan. Watch TDLR updates, Milam County records, SB Energy updates, OpenAI Stargate updates, ERCOT or interconnection references, utility-region filings, local permit or inspection movement, and company project pages that name package partners. The first high-value public clue may be a job posting, a supplier announcement, a permit description, an inspection record, or a construction-company page rather than a press release.

For contractors and vendors, the takeaway is to build the account map now. The public evidence supports an active AI data-center construction lead: TDLR provides the first-phase building record, SB Energy and OpenAI provide the broader Stargate powered-campus context, and Baxtel helps monitor aliases. The missing part is the specialty contractor layer. That is where LVN Signal is useful: tracking the project family, company roles, low-voltage systems, jobs and skills, and public evidence while there is still time to position before the opportunity is old news.