Four deals crossed the wire this week outside Texas, and only one of them is a signed lease. The other three are a contingent land contract, a state filing and an 8-K for a warehouse. Strip the legal wrappers off all four and the same asset is changing hands each time: energized, or nearly energized, megawatts. Buildings are the cheap part. Interconnects are the scarce part, and the prices in this issue run from a few million dollars to a few billion on that single logic.
I will walk them from the most contractual to the most speculative: Duos Edge AI with a 20 MW lease, Microsoft with a 422 MW filing in Georgia, Valor Energy with an 18 MVA interconnect in Ohio, and TerraWatt with a steel mill in Illinois.
Duos Prices 20 MW at $2 Million a Megawatt-Year, Floor
On October 20 Duos Technologies announced a customer agreement for 20 MW of colocation capacity over 10 years, with the customer described only as a mature, publicly traded cloud services provider. The company put total contract value at more than $400 million. Divide that by 20 MW and 10 years and you get at least $2.0 million per megawatt-year, which is the number to carry into your next pricing conversation. The word "more" in the release makes it a floor, not a midpoint.
Be careful about what that figure includes. The release does not say whether the $400 million covers only capacity charges or also passes through power, cooling and services. A powered-shell rate and a fully serviced colo rate can sit a million dollars apart per megawatt-year, so a headline total without a definition is a comp with an asterisk.
Deployment is targeted for the second quarter of 2027, which tells you the capacity is not sitting energized today. Duos is selling a delivery date. The same release says the company has roughly 25 MW of powered land under contract and about 75 MW more in negotiation, around 100 MW in total. That ordering is worth noticing: the lease came first and the site control is still being assembled behind it.
The site was not disclosed, so density and distance to a city limit are blank.
Deal specs. Sponsor: Duos Technologies Group (Duos Edge AI) · Site: n/d · Footprint: n/d · Load: 20 MW (density n/d) · Lease: 10-yr colocation, escalator n/d, unnamed public cloud provider, delivery Q2 2027 · Deal value: more than $400M (at least $2.0M per MW-year, my arithmetic) · Source: Duos release.
Microsoft Files for 1.66 Million Square Feet in Rome, Georgia
Microsoft's Development of Regional Impact filing, dated October 20, describes a three-building campus on 349 acres at Huffaker Road in Rome, in Floyd County. The load is 422 MW across 1,659,000 square feet. Divide one by the other and the design density works out to about 254 watts per square foot, which is a long way above the 190 to 210 range that the Virginia powered-shell filings have clustered around this year. Higher density in a bigger shell is a power-first design, and the filing reads that way: an on-site substation, diesel-only backup, and Georgia Power as the sole supplier.
The timeline is the sobering part. The land was acquired in 2023, and the filing targets completion in 2032. A filing is an entitlement step, not a construction start, and a 2032 finish line means the capacity you are reading about will not serve a 2027 or 2028 model release.
Money figures need a warning label. DCD reported the investment at about $360 million, while other local coverage cited $340 million, and the annual local tax estimate also varies between outlets.
This is a separate site from the Lowndes County campus covered last month, in a different corner of the state and a different utility conversation. Georgia is now carrying two gigawatt-class asks on the same grid, and Georgia Power will eventually have to say which one it can serve first.
Deal specs. Sponsor: Microsoft (self-build) · Site: Huffaker Rd., Rome, Floyd County, GA; distance to city limits n/d · Footprint: 1,659 ksf, three buildings, 349 acres · Load: 422 MW (~254 W/sf at full utilization, my arithmetic) · Lease: owner-occupied, no lease; Georgia Power sole supplier; completion target 2032 · Deal value: ~$360M per DCD ($340M in other coverage) · Source: Baxtel, DCD.
Valor Buys an Energized Interconnect Wrapped in a Warehouse
The cheapest megawatt of the week was in Youngstown, Ohio. Valor Energy disclosed in an 8-K that it is acquiring the equity of the entity that holds a 30,888 square foot warehouse at 1911 Logan Avenue, which comes with an energized 23 kV, 18 MVA Ohio Edison interconnect. The price is $3.6 million: a $360,000 refundable deposit, $3.24 million at closing, and $30,000 to reimburse prepaid rent through the end of 2026. On October 26 the company followed with a $5.0 million private placement to pay for converting the site into an AI facility.
Run the ratio. Eighteen MVA for $3.6 million is $200,000 per MVA of energized capacity, and the building comes along for free. The density is about 583 volt-amperes per square foot, but that is apparent power, not real power, and a typical power factor would shave it. Treat the figure as an upper bound, and do not set it beside a W/sf number from a hyperscaler filing without that caveat.
Terms matter more than the headline here. The agreement carries a 30 business day diligence period and then a closing window of another 30 business days, so money does not move until roughly the new year. No tenant is named. This is an equity purchase of a shell company, which means Valor inherits whatever the entity owes, and the diligence period exists to find out. A buyer paying $200,000 per MVA for an interconnect is making a bet that a utility will not reprice that interconnect when ownership changes hands.
Deal specs. Sponsor: Valor Energy Inc. (buyer); seller entity Glorious Star LLC · Site: 1911 Logan Ave., Youngstown, OH, inside city limits · Footprint: 30.9 ksf warehouse · Load: 18 MVA energized at 23 kV (~583 VA/sf, apparent power; MW n/d) · Lease: equity purchase, 30 business day diligence then 30 business day close; no tenant disclosed · Deal value: $3.6M (~$200K per MVA, my arithmetic) · Source: SEC 8-K.
TerraWatt Wants a Steel Mill and Ameren's Blessing
The largest number of the week is the least certain. TerraWatt has a contingent contract to buy the Alton Steel site, 381 acres at 5 Cut Street in Alton, Illinois, in the St. Louis metro. The plan is 200 MW in a first block, with room to grow to as much as 1 GW in 200 MW increments, at a stated project cost of $3 billion. Closing is not expected until 2027, and only after two things happen: the city rezones the site, and Ameren finishes its study of what it can deliver.
Those two contingencies are the entire deal. Until they clear, TerraWatt owns an option on a brownfield, not a campus. The existing mill buildings total 1.26 million square feet and are slated for demolition, so the footprint of any data center is blank, and so is the density. Local coverage cites more than $17 million a year in tax revenue, and a public open house is scheduled for October 28 in Alton.
Whether Ameren will turn that service into 200 MW of firm capacity is exactly what the study decides. If it says yes, TerraWatt's purchase price is justified by the interconnect, as with Valor. If it says a few years of upgrades first, the land is worth much less than the headline implies. The purchase price itself was not disclosed, and the St. Louis mileage is my own estimate, so I have left it out of the spec block.
Deal specs. Sponsor: TerraWatt (buyer, contingent contract) · Site: 5 Cut St., inside Alton, IL, St. Louis metro · Footprint: 381 acres; 1.26M sf of existing mill buildings to be demolished; data center sf n/d · Load: 200 MW first block, up to 1 GW (density n/d) · Lease: none; purchase contingent on rezoning and Ameren study, close 2027 · Deal value: $3B project cost; price n/d · Source: St. Louis Public Radio.
The Spread Between a Contract and a Hope
Line the four up by how much is actually binding. Duos has a signed customer and a delivery date, but no disclosed site. Microsoft has an entitlement filing and balance-sheet certainty, and a finish line in 2032. Valor has a signed purchase and a diligence clock, with no tenant. TerraWatt has a contingent contract with two external gates. Nobody this week disclosed a lease with a named investment-grade tenant, a stated escalator and a located site all at once.
For brokers, the lesson is to ask for the interconnect letter before the rent roll. For developers, the pricing evidence this week says a located, energized block is worth a few hundred thousand dollars per megavolt-ampere to a small operator, and a delivered, serviced megawatt is worth about $2 million a year to a cloud provider. The gap between those two numbers is what building, commissioning and carrying risk are being paid for. That gap is where the money gets made, and where it gets lost if the utility study comes back late.
What to Watch Next Week
TerraWatt open house, October 28. The session in Alton is the first public test of local appetite.
Valor diligence. The 30 business day window opened on October 17 and runs to roughly the end of November. Any amended terms or an extension would show up in an 8-K.
Georgia regional review of the Rome filing. Comments from neighboring jurisdictions come in.
Duos site announcements. The company has 25 MW of powered land under contract.
FERC and large-load interconnection. The Department of Energy sent a proposed rule to FERC on October 23 that would pull load interconnections of 20 MW and larger into federal jurisdiction. Every deal above sits on the wrong side of that line if it passes, so watch the docket for comment dates.
Disclaimer: Edge Cases is Barrio Energy's deal-flow product. Nothing here is investment advice, a recommendation to transact, or a substitute for your own diligence. Specs are sourced from public filings, press, and reporting; verify before you wire anything.
