Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is getting into the AI and data center race with his new startup, and he’s betting on rural West Texas and a failed railroad turned oil giant to help him build enough power to light up 7 million homes.
Schmidt’s new Bolt Data & Energy is taking the one-stop shop approach for hyperscalers’ land, power, and water needs for their data center campuses. Bolt has teamed up with Texas Pacific Land, a little-known oil and gas player with a long history and a $20 billion market cap that happens to offer 882,000 acres of West Texas land—more acreage than Rhode Island—with easy access to natural gas and renewable energy resources. Oh, and the company just so happens to have its own water services business for oil and gas that can translate to help for thirsty data centers as well.
“Energy is the main constraint in scaling AI. If we want to keep America competitive, we have to solve this problem. Bolt was created to address this challenge,” Schmidt said in an emailed interview with Fortune. “We realized that combining my technical expertise with TPL’s unrivaled land, abundant water, and access to low-cost energy could create the infrastructure needed to meet the virtually infinite demand for compute.”
Having literally co-authored the book on AI—The Age of AI: And Our Human Future, in 2021, a year before the launch of ChatGPT—Schmidt sees the age of AI and advanced robotics as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” He believes data center campus developers such as Bolt are necessary to compete with China in the global AI race.
“Our platform begins with West Texas’ abundant natural gas but is designed to transition to renewable and clean energy, with nuclear power also included in future plans,” Schmidt said. “By integrating land, power generation, and data centers, we can create a scalable, resilient infrastructure capable of meeting the growing global demand for compute. Our goal is to ensure AI develops responsibly, supports American competitiveness, and delivers technology that benefits humanity while minimizing climate impact.”
Schmidt, 70, served as Google’s CEO for a decade, from 2001 to 2011, and then continued as executive chairman of Google and then Alphabet through 2017 and as technical advisor until 2020. He’s stayed plenty busy since, though. He’s also now the CEO of aerospace manufacturer Relatively Space, and cofounder of the non-profit that organizes the AI+ Expo for National Competitiveness.
Schmidt is the chairman of Bolt, and he cofounded it with Investors Todd Meister and Allan Tessler, who is a major investor in Texas Pacific Land. To date, Bolt has raised $150 million in initial capital, with TPL contributing a $50 million investment, including right of first refusal to supply critical water resources to the new data center projects.
“We felt like we wanted to capture more of the value chain than just a land lease or a water contract, so that’s why we actually invested in Bolt,” Texas Pacific Land CEO Ty Glover told Fortune. “When you’re looking at who you might want to partner with in a space that you’re not an expert in, then who better than a titan of that industry like Eric Schmidt.”
Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket—Getty Images
West Texas as an AI epicenter
To understand how Texas Pacific Land came by such a massive acreage holding, it helps to look back at its history of more than 150 years.
The legacy dates to 1871, when a federal charter was granted to build a national railroad from Texas to California. At the time, railroad companies received federal land grants in exchange for laying tracks.
The railroad failed for a variety of financial reasons, but it resulted in the formation of the Texas Pacific Land Trust to manage the railroad’s acreage. That acreage became quite valuable when the Texas oil boom took hold in the Permian Basin more than a century ago.
Texas Pacific has been publicly traded for almost 100 years, but it existed as a sleepy trust collecting oil and gas royalties until 2021, when an investor feud resulted in the trust converting into a much more proactive corporation.
“Coming from a failed railroad to a gorilla in the oil and gas space and now entering the AI space is exciting. It’s a new frontier for us and for West Texas,” Glover said.
As legacy data center regions like Virginia get saturated with facilities, the frontier regions such as West Texas are going be more attractive, Glover said, with easier regulatory environments and more sparse populations.
“Our hope is we’re moving dirt on projects within the next couple of years,” he said. “What’s attractive about TPL is we can really scale this. You can build multiple, multi-gig data center campuses with one owner. Just like in other industries, scale really matters here.”
Schmidt said Bolt plans to start with one anchor customer and grow from there. He name-dropped many potential anchors: Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Oracle, OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Palantir, and even the White House’s new Genesis Mission for AI.
Bolt is taking a bespoke approach similar to that of Texas-based AI power startup Fermi, backed by former U.S. energy secretary and Texas governor Rick Perry. Fermi launched an IPO in October before it had even started collecting revenue and quickly surged to a $16 billion market cap, though its value has since plunged to $5 billion at the end of 2025. However, Bolt is staying private and not banking on public investor interest in the AI boom.
The plan is to start with natural gas-fired power and grow to 1 gigawatt capacity, Schmidt said, then build more campuses as the power generation sources expand to include wind, solar, and battery power and, eventually, nuclear power over time. The goal is to grow to 10 gigawatts of power—enough to electrify about 7 million homes—on Texas Pacific Land acreage.
“We’re taking a different approach from traditional data center models that lease space and buy power from the grid. By vertically integrating energy ownership with advanced data infrastructure, we can design a platform that is both efficient and resilient,” Schmidt said.
Tehran warned the US and Israel against any intervention over nationwide protests in Iran while it sought to placate its citizens, as demonstrations entered their third week and fatalities mounted.
Saturday marked the third night of intensified nationwide demonstrations, following calls by Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s former shah, to seize city centers and stage strikes. Since the unrests first began on Dec. 28, Donald Trump has repeatedly warned the Iranian regime not to fire on demonstrators, with the US president receiving a briefing in recent days on new options for military strikes.
The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group said on Sunday it had confirmed the deaths of at least 192 protesters, including nine individuals under 18. Separately, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said deaths linked to the recent unrest had reached 116, with most killed by live ammunition or pellet gunfire.
On Sunday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian struck a conciliatory tone in a state TV interview, offering condolences to families affected by the “tragic consequences” of the unrest.
“Your protests must be heard, and we must address your concerns. Let’s sit down together, hand in hand, and solve the problems,” he said, without offering details on how that would be done. “I promise the dear people, perhaps ninety percent of whom have concerns, that we will address their worries. We will get through this crisis.”
Still, Pezeshkian accused the US and Israel of bringing in “terrorists from abroad,” whom he claimed had set mosques and markets on fire, “beheaded some, and burned others alive.” Other officials took an even harder line.
“In the event of a US military attack, both the occupied territories and US military and shipping centers will be legitimate targets for us,” Iran Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in remarks broadcast on state television earlier on Sunday.
He reiterated a warning that Iran could act preemptively against potential threats. “Within the framework of legitimate self-defense, we do not limit ourselves to responding only after an attack,” he said.
Trump has been briefed in recent days on a range of options for military strikes in Iran, including nonmilitary sites, a White House official said, confirming an earlier New York Times report. The US president is seriously considering authorizing an attack, according to the official.
Israel’s Army Radio reported Sunday that the country’s security establishment views it as unlikely that Iran will attack Israel at this stage. “No such immediate willingness is identified in Israel — but rather an Iranian focus on internal matters,” it said, citing unidentified defense officials.
Footage from Iranian cities suggests that hundreds of thousands, including many elderly, are defying stern warnings from authorities to stay off the streets, despite a nationwide internet blackout and severe telecommunications restrictions that have blocked calls and text messages since Thursday.
The NetBlocks internet‑monitoring group said in a posting on X early Sunday that internet connectivity in Iran “continues to flatline around 1% of ordinary levels.”
Still, multiple social media videos, reportedly from a warehouse in southern Tehran, show people searching through dozens of corpses in body bags, lined up on the ground and on stretchers. Wailing can be heard as individuals bend over the bags, trying to identify their loved ones.
A video published later on Sunday by the state-run IRIB News appeared to show scenes from the same warehouse — one of the first glimpses by official media into the scale of the fatalities. In the video, a reporter described the site as a complex of the state forensic organization in Tehran, with dozens of bodies inside a large indoor facility. Outside, dozens of people are seen huddling around ambulances and the back of what appears to be a refrigerated truck, searching for their relatives.
Protests erupted last month among pockets of traders in Tehran over worsening economic and living conditions but have since grown into the largest anti-regime demonstrations to grip the country since 2022, when the death in custody of Mahsa Amini triggered nationwide anger and mass protests.
Other videos, reportedly from west of Tehran on Saturday night, show thousands of protesters packed into the streets, waving phone flashlights in the dark as city lights remain shut down, amid whistles and chants of “Death to the dictator.” A truck was seen on fire in Mashhad, while footage purportedly from Sunday shows a state tax administration building burned out overnight in eastern Tehran. Bloomberg couldn’t independently verify any of the footage.
In an X post on Sunday, Pahlavi urged protesters to continue their demonstrations through the weekend. He described Trump as “the leader of the free world” who is observing the unrest and “is ready to help you.”
Late on Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the US and Israel of fueling violent unrest and warned against any action directed at Tehran.
“The only ‘delusional’ aspect of the current situation is the belief that arson does not ultimately burn the arsonists,” Araghchi said.
Alongside those killed, another 2,638 people had been detained, the Human Rights Activists organization said. Some of those killed included medical personnel, and seven of the victims were under 18, it added.
Iran’s prosecutor general warned on Saturday of swift trials and death penalty charges against detainees, a day after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the security apparatus won’t tolerate “vandalism” or “people acting as mercenaries for foreign powers.”
A man who grabbed then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s podium and posed with it for photographs during the U.S. Capitol riot is running for county office in Florida.
Adam Johnson filed to run as a Republican for an at-large seat on the Manatee County Commission on Tuesday. That was the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot, where he was photographed smiling and waving as he carried Pelosi’s podium after the pro-Trump mob’s attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
Johnson told WWSB-TV that it was “not a coincidence” that he filed for office on Jan. 6, saying “it’s definitely good for getting the buzz out there.” His campaign logo is an outline of the viral photograph of him carrying the podium.
He’s far from the first person implicated in the Jan. 6 riot to run for office. At least three ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2024 as Republicans. And there are signs that the Republican Party is welcoming back more people who were convicted of Jan. 6 offenses after Trump pardoned them.
Jake Lang, who was charged with assaulting an officer, civil disorder and other crimes before he was pardoned, recently announced he is running for Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s vacant U.S. Senate seat in Florida.
Johnson placed the podium in the center of the Capitol Rotunda, posed for pictures and pretended to make a speech, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty in 2021 of entering and remaining in a restricted building or ground, a misdemeanor that he equated to “jaywalking” in the interview.
“I think I exercised my First Amendment right to speak and protest,” Johnson said.
After driving home, Johnson bragged that he “broke the internet” and was “finally famous,” prosecutors said.
Johnson served 75 days in prison followed by one year of supervised release. The judge also ordered Johnson to pay a $5,000 fine and perform 200 hours of community service.
Johnson told U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton at sentencing that posing with Pelosi’s podium was a “very stupid idea” but now says he only regrets his action because of the prison sentence.
“I walked into a building, I took a picture with a piece of furniture, and I left,” he now says.
Four other Republicans have filed to run so far in the Aug. 18 primary in what’s a deeply Republican county. The incumbent isn’t seeking reelection.
In March 2025, Johnson filed a lawsuit against Manatee County and six of its commissioners, objecting to the county’s decision not to seek attorney’s fees from someone who sued the county and dropped the lawsuit. The county has called Johnson’s claims “completely meritless and unsupported by law.”
Johnson said he objects to high property taxes and overdevelopment in the county south of Tampa, claiming current county leaders are wasteful.
“I will be more heavily scrutinized than any other candidate who is running in this race,” Johnson said. “This is a positive and a good takeaway for every single citizen, because for once in our life, we will know our local politicians who are doing things.”
Greenland’s party leaders have rejected President Donald Trump’s repeated calls for the U.S. to take control of the island, saying that Greenland’s future must be decided by its people.
“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four party leaders said in a statement Friday night.
Trump said again on Friday that he would like to make a deal to acquire Greenland, a semiautonomous region that’s part of NATO ally Denmark, “the easy way.” He said that if the U.S. doesn’t own it, then Russia or China will take it over, and the U.S. does not want them as neighbors.
“If we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way,” Trump said, without explaining what that entailed. The White House said it is considering a range of options, including using military force, to acquire the island.
Greenland’s party leaders reiterated that “Greenland’s future must be decided by the Greenlandic people.”
“As Greenlandic party leaders, we would like to emphasize once again our wish that the United States’ contempt for our country ends,” the statement said.
Officials from Denmark, Greenland and the United States met Thursday in Washington and will meet again next week to discuss the renewed push by the White House for the control of the island.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that an American takeover of Greenland would mark the end of NATO.
The party leaders’ statement said that “the work on Greenland’s future takes place in dialogue with the Greenlandic people and is prepared on the basis of international laws.”
“No other country can interfere in this,” they said. “We must decide the future of our country ourselves, without pressure for quick decision, delay or interference from other countries.”
The statement was signed by Nielsen, Pele Broberg, Múte B. Egede, Aleqa Hammond and Aqqalu C. Jerimiassen.
While Greenland is the largest island in the world, it has a population of around 57,000 and doesn’t have its own military. Defense is provided by Denmark, whose military is dwarfed by that of the U.S.
It’s unclear how the remaining NATO members would respond if the U.S. decided to forcibly take control of the island or if they would come to Denmark’s aid.
Politics8 years ago