Baker Botts is a market leader in the data center ecosystem—advising clients across the data center ecosystem, from developers, operators, and hyperscalers, to investors, lenders, and energy suppliers on the full lifecycle of siting, powering, financing, building, and operating mission-critical facilities in a market increasingly shaped by power availability, grid constraints, AI-driven demand, water access and complex regulatory requirements.

Our strength is the combination of market-leading energy, project development, corporate, technology and regulatory experience. We bring together lawyers across power, real estate, construction, environmental, water, tax, incentives, finance, privacy, cybersecurity, AI governance, IP, antitrust and disputes to provide coordinated, end-to-end support throughout the full data center lifecycle.

Why Baker Botts & How We Help

Data center projects sit at the intersection of digital infrastructure, power markets, real estate, construction, technology and regulation. Baker Botts is built for that intersection. We help clients move from strategy to execution with an integrated team that understands both the legal complexity and the commercial urgency of bringing large-scale data center projects online.

Data Center Development & Operations

• We have advised on hundreds of data center matters, including many end-to-end projects, with some projects exceeding 1 GW of total operational demand
• Comprehensive support for greenfield and redevelopment projects, including site acquisition, leasing, EPC contracting, interconnection, and permitting to compress timelines and manage risk

Power Strategy & Energy Market Expertise

• Unmatched power market insights to secure approvals, structure participation, and optimize cost and reliability
• Guidance on retail energy issues, private use networks, interconnections, PPAs, and complex behind-the-meter arrangements
• On-site and BTM solutions: gas-fired, renewable, and storage-backed generation; microgrids; resiliency planning

Specialized Data Center Agreements

• Lease and services agreements, colocation (retail, wholesale, powered shell), MSAs, SOWs, and managed services addenda (remote hands, security monitoring, compliance reporting, backup, disaster recovery)
• Data connectivity agreements with carriers, clouds, and data exchanges to ensure robust network integration
• O&M contracts, facilities management, vendor/supply agreements for critical infrastructure procurement (e.g., GPUs, racks), SLAs, compliance, and certification agreements
• Trade and compliance, CFIUS, sanctions, tariffs, and cross-border trade issues

Regulatory & Permitting

• Experienced team to help you manage local, state, and federal approvals
• Deep bench of attorneys focused on environmental and water permitting, wastewater, and contested case defense

Financing & Incentives

• Corporate financing for data center-specific matters, including SPAs, APAs, SHAs, JVAs, and various other types of financing agreements
• Project finance, tax equity, and structured capital solutions
• Navigation of state and federal incentive programs as well as incentive stacking opportunity maximization

Technology, Privacy, Cybersecurity & AI

• We advise on the technology and data issues embedded in modern data center operations, including AI governance, data privacy, cybersecurity, cloud services, software, managed services, security obligations, IP ownership and risk allocation.
• Contracting for compliance frameworks and risk management in data center operations

Trade, National Security & Cross-Border Issues

• CFIUS, export controls, sanctions, tariffs and customs issues involving sensitive technology, equipment and foreign investment
• Supply chain risk allocation for critical infrastructure, GPUs, servers, networking equipment and other strategic inputs
• Cross-border technology, data infrastructure and investment structures

Disputes & Risk Management

• Construction, EPC, procurement and delay disputes arising from large-scale data center development
• Commercial disputes involving colocation, power supply, service levels, vendor performance and customer obligations
• Environmental, IP, technology, cybersecurity, ESG and operational risk disputes, including litigation and arbitration