As the construction of artificial intelligence data centers accelerates across the United States, an unlikely industry is quietly booming: the “man camps” built to house the thousands of workers needed to build them. Behind this emerging supply chain is a company already notorious for operating immigrant detention centers: Target Hospitality.
According to a report by Bloomberg, a Bitcoin mining facility in rural Dickens County, Texas, is being converted into a massive 1.6-gigawatt data center. To accommodate the thousands of construction workers, developers have turned to a specific kind of temporary community: modular housing units equipped with gyms, laundromats, game rooms, and even a cafeteria that cooks steaks to order.
This is exactly the kind of project Target Hospitality specializes in. The Texas-based company has signed contracts worth a total of $132 million to build and operate the Dickens County camp. The site is expected to house more than 1,000 workers, serving as a microcosm of a larger trend fueled by the AI boom.
Troy Schrenk, the company’s Chief Commercial Officer, has made no secret of his ambition in this sector, calling the current wave of data center construction “the largest, most actionable pipeline I’ve ever seen.” For Target, this isn’t just a short-term opportunity, but a potential core driver of future growth.
Peitai, the company has another side. Target Hospitality also operates the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, a facility that holds families detained by U.S. Femalagaaiga ma le Ofisa o Tiute. According to court filings, conditions inside the center have been harsh, with reports of worms and mold in the food, and children suffering due to a lack of accommodations for allergies and special dietary needs.
I le tasi itu, Target provides comfortable, standardized housing for workers building the infrastructure for AI. I le isi, it runs a detention center repeatedly accused of humanitarian failures. The story of Target Hospitality offers a stark illustration of a divide in America’s infrastructure boom: the flow of capital determines who is seen, and who is forgotten.