Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt launched Bolt Data & Energy and has aligned with Texas Pacific Land to assemble land, power and water resources for AI-scale data center campuses in West Texas. Schmidt framed the effort as solving an energy bottleneck that he says threatens U.S. competitiveness in AI and advanced computing. The move signals new private-sector investment opportunities for universities and research consortia seeking colocated compute, but also raises questions about regional infrastructure, renewable transition plans and partnerships between academia and hyperscalers.