New Era Energy & Digital's Joint Venture, Texas Critical Data Center, Initiates Phase Two Engineering for AI Data Center Campus in West Texas; Updates Company Financial Status via 8K

New Era Energy & Digital, Inc. (Nasdaq: NUAI) (“New Era,” or the “Company”), a developer and operator of next-generation digital infrastructure and integrated power assets, today announced the commencement of Phase Two engineering for Texas Critical Data Centers LLC (“TCDC”), its flagship data center and power development project located in West Texas. In addition, on October 3, 2025, the Company filed a Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission providing an update on its financial status.

Phase Two Engineering Underway

New Era recently announced the completion of Phase One engineering for the TCDC project [read here], its joint venture with Sharon AI Inc. TCDC has now advanced into Phase Two engineering, focusing on detailed site planning, site clearing, and infrastructure integration for the data center campus. TCDC is collecting bids for site clearing, with work expected to begin within the next 60 days.

TCDC also highlighted significant progress on obtaining air permits. The data center site is located in an air-quality attainment zone, a positive factor differentiating it from other data center projects. TCDC is pursuing a minor source air permit, a streamlined process that allows up to 250 tons of emissions per year and can typically be approved within 90 days. By comparison, a major source air permit under current air emission standards can take 18 months or longer. TCDC believes its flexibility to develop multiple power islands under minor source air permitting standards provides another key competitive advantage, setting its data center campus apart from other developments.

Land Expansion

TCDC plans to close on the acquisition of the additional 203 acres previously announced within 60–90 days, expanding the site to 438 contiguous acres and further strengthening its land position for long-term scalability. With this land expansion, TCDC’s West Texas data center campus is now being designed to ultimately scale to 1 GW or above, supporting the surging demand for AI and GPU-driven digital infrastructure.

Project Timeline

Additional near-term milestones include expanding behind-the-meter power capacity and submitting a large-load interconnection application. In 2026, the focus will shift to starting construction of behind-the-meter power, and commencing initial data center construction, with capacity expansion planned to begin in 2027 to meet demand.