Poolside Seeks Fresh Partner for Texas Data Center After CoreWeave Deal Collapses
AI start-up Poolside is actively seeking new partnerships to revive its planned 2-gigawatt data center project in Texas, following the dissolution of its agreement with CoreWeave. The company is reportedly in discussions with cloud providers, including Google, to secure a new anchor tenant and funding Data Center Dynamics.
Project Horizon and the CoreWeave Split
Originally dubbed Project Horizon, the data center was slated for a 568-acre site and intended to have CoreWeave as its primary occupant. The initial agreement, reached in October 2025, envisioned a first phase offering 250MW of capacity under a 15-year lease, with plans to expand to 500MW. However, the partnership began to unravel in late 2025 due to Poolside’s inability to meet CoreWeave’s timeline for establishing the initial cluster of chips Data Center Dynamics.
CoreWeave stated that both companies “ultimately chose to pursue different paths for their own strategic and timing reasons,” while expressing continued interest in potential future collaborations Data Center Dynamics.
Funding Challenges and Shift in Strategy
Concurrent with the CoreWeave agreement, Nvidia reportedly considered investing up to $1 billion in Poolside as part of a larger $2 billion funding round. However, this investment did not materialize. According to reports, investors expressed concerns about Poolside’s ability to compete with established AI model training providers Financial Times.
Poolside has adjusted its strategy, seeking commitments for the construction of up to 400MW of capacity from other cloud providers, including Google Data Center Dynamics. However, recent reports indicate that Google is no longer in active discussions with Poolside Data Center Dynamics.
Current Status and Outlook
The future of Project Horizon remains uncertain as Poolside navigates the challenges of securing a new partner and funding. The demand for AI infrastructure continues to be strong, but Poolside faces the task of demonstrating its ability to deliver on its promises in a competitive market Data Center Dynamics.
Following the setbacks with the original Horizon plan and the failed $2 billion raise, Poolside explored a smaller 400-megawatt reboot before talks with Google cooled Finimize.