Joule Capital Taps Caterpillar to Power Huge AI, HPC Data Center in Utah

Joule Capital Partners, Caterpillar Inc., and Wheeler Machinery Co. have announced an agreement to power Joule's High Performance Compute Data Center Campus in Utah.

Joule, an infrastructure development firm, plans to create the largest single campus in Utah spanning 4,000 acres and set to launch in 2026. The goal is to create one of the most advanced data centers in the world. 

Designed specifically for AI-driven workloads, the campus will have 4 GW total capacity, using integrated combined cooling heat and power (CCHP) solutions.

It will be powered by Caterpillar's G3520K generator sets, or gensets—a single piece of equipment that combines an engine with an electrical generator to produce electricity—and support equipment. 

The distributed generation system produces electricity and captures waste heat to power and cool next-generation, high-density server systems. The solution includes 1.1 GWh of battery energy storage in addition to backup power generation served by various fuel sources. 

Beyond the gensets, the integrated system will include controls, switchgear, inverters, energy storage solutions, CCHP and more, providing a complete power solution for the Joule data center. 

With global headquarters in Irving, Texas, Caterpillar provides end-to-end power solutions for data centers, including primary and backup generators, sustainable energy options, microgrids, and service and support. The data center market has become a major driver of its growth.

Wheeler Machinery is a Utah-based Caterpillar dealer offering Cat power systems. The company will provide local expertise, service, and support for Joule’s new campus.

"This project represents the core of Joule's mission—to deliver artificial intelligence (AI) ready compute capacity by pairing world-class data center campuses with reliable, on-demand power," said David Gray, President of Joule Capital Partners. 

"By combining Caterpillar's advanced energy systems with Wheeler's local expertise, we can bring gigawatt-scale capacity to market faster and more efficiently than ever before, ensuring our tenants have the power and reliability they need to thrive in the next generation of high-performance computing," he added.

Caterpillar’s Expanding Role in Advanced Energy for Data Centers

The Joule project builds on Caterpillar’s growing presence in advanced energy solutions for the digital infrastructure sector. The company has increasingly moved beyond traditional backup diesel into integrated systems that blend generation, storage, and grid-interactive capabilities.

As highlighted in a Data Center Frontier feature last year examining the company's foray into hydrogen power with Ballard in Wyoming, Caterpillar has been positioning itself as a critical partner for data centers navigating both rising power demand and the industry’s sustainability commitments. Its portfolio now includes natural gas gensets optimized for continuous prime power, renewable-ready microgrid platforms, and combined heat and power systems tailored for hyperscale and high-performance compute operators.

North America has been a proving ground for these deployments. Caterpillar’s energy teams have been working with data center operators to integrate battery energy storage, advanced controls, and modular power architectures that can scale rapidly. The approach is designed to give operators more optionality—whether tying into the grid, running islanded, or incorporating cleaner fuels like hydrogen and renewable natural gas as they become viable at scale.

That experience is directly informing the architecture at Joule’s Utah campus, where the emphasis on CCHP, distributed energy, and large-scale storage represents a new frontier in how Caterpillar’s technology stack is being deployed.

Utah Emerges as a Data Center Hotspot

The Joule campus also underscores Utah’s emergence as one of the most important new growth markets for hyperscale and AI data centers. Over the past three years, the state has seen a steady uptick in large-scale builds, driven by its land availability, tax advantages, renewable energy resources, and favorable regulatory environment.

Equally significant is Utah’s role as a western interconnection hub. At last week’s DCF Trends Summit, Novva Data Centers CEO Wes Swenson emphasized that Utah sits at a strategic crossroads of long-haul fiber routes and regional network backbones. “Interconnect is key,” Swenson told the audience, noting that Utah’s positioning allows operators to balance latency-sensitive workloads across the West while accessing competitive connectivity.

That combination of scalable power, abundant land, and strong network infrastructure is propelling the state onto the radar of hyperscalers and next-generation infrastructure investors alike. The Joule Capital Partners campus—with its 4,000 acres and 4 GW capacity—illustrates just how large the ambitions have become.

As AI workloads push for ever-higher density and massive campuses, Utah is likely to remain central to site selection discussions, with interconnectivity giving the state an outsized role in shaping the western U.S. data center map.

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