Microsoft Restarts Its Three Paused North Carolina Data Center Campuses, Up to 810 MW

Side-by-side satellite comparison of Microsoft's Boyd Farm data center campus in Catawba County, North Carolina, dated November 11, 2025 and February 10, 2026, with a new electrical substation cluster and freshly graded building pad in the south of the campus circled in the later image

Microsoft is re-mobilizing construction across three permitted data center campuses in Catawba County, North Carolina, Lyle Creek, Boyd Farm and Stover North, that had sat as bare concrete slabs since roughly Q2 2025.
Aterio's satellite checks in January and February 2026 captured the re-mobilization signals: slab work at Lyle Creek, substation and land-grading progress at Boyd Farm, and significant substation progress at Stover North.
The three campuses are each permitted for five 48 MW data center buildings in Army Corps of Engineers filings, an implied 720 MW of critical IT load across 15 buildings, or up to about 810 MW of generator-backed nameplate capacity.
The restart reverses a pause: Microsoft signaled in April 2025 that it was slowing or pausing some data center builds, and even now the earliest meaningful activations are Q3 2027, with a phased rollout local incentives allow to run to 2032.
The 720-to-810 MW range is itself an estimate: the 48 MW per building is Aterio's read of critical IT load from the 2023 Army Corps filings, not confirmed nameplate, and Microsoft paused these sites once already.

Microsoft's three permitted data center campuses in Catawba County, North Carolina, went quiet in 2025. Concrete pads and slabs went in and then work stopped, and by the middle of the year Lyle Creek, Boyd Farm and Stover North were sitting still. Aterio's satellite checks in January and February 2026 show all three moving again.

The restart is a real signal: up to 810 MW of hyperscale capacity, a minimum $1 billion Microsoft commitment, and Duke Energy substations visibly taking shape. The catch is what came before it. Microsoft flagged in April 2025 that it was slowing or pausing some builds, its North Carolina sites among the ones that stalled, and the campuses still will not deliver their first buildings until late 2027 at the earliest. What Aterio caught from orbit is a company restarting a project it paused, not switching one on.

Figure: Boyd Farm on February 10, 2026 versus November 11, 2025. The recent pass shows a new substation cluster and land grading in the south of the campus after months of stillness. Captured via Vantor, sourced through Vantor; image analysis by Aterio. Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers public notice SAW-2023-00665-PN (Boyd Farm).

The restart, seen from space

Aterio's satellite passes over Catawba County in January and February 2026 caught fresh activity on all three campuses after roughly seven months of stillness, and the signals differ by site. At Lyle Creek, the movement is on the concrete slabs themselves, the first change there since the middle of 2025. At Boyd Farm, the progress is at the substation and in land grading across the south of the campus. At Stover North, the substations are advancing markedly while the slabs show only small activity. Read as a group, each campus is re-mobilizing on a different front, but all three are moving.

Side-by-side satellite comparison of Microsoft's Lyle Creek data center campus in Catawba County, North Carolina, dated November 11, 2025 and February 10, 2026, with movement on the concrete building slabs circled in the later image

Figure: Lyle Creek on February 10, 2026 versus November 11, 2025, showing movement on the concrete slabs after about seven months of no activity. Lyle Creek is the only one of the three campuses served by two substations. Captured via Vantor, sourced through Vantor; image analysis by Aterio. Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers public notice SAW-2023-00898-PN (Lyle Creek).

Side-by-side satellite comparison of Microsoft's Stover North data center campus in Catawba County, North Carolina, dated July 13, 2025 and January 20, 2026, with significant progress on the substations circled in the later image

Figure: Stover North on January 20, 2026 versus July 13, 2025, showing significant progress on the substations with only small activity on the concrete slabs. Captured via Vantor, sourced through Vantor; image analysis by Aterio. Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers public notice SAW-2022-02515-PN (Stover North).

The capacity, if all 15 buildings come online

The Army Corps of Engineers public notices define the program. The three campuses sit in Catawba County (Lyle Creek in Conover, Boyd Farm near Maiden, Stover North in Newton), and each is planned for five 48 MW data center buildings with dedicated Duke Energy substation infrastructure: two substations at Lyle Creek, and one each at Boyd Farm and Stover North. Fifteen buildings at 48 MW is 720 MW of critical IT load, the filing-based floor for the three sites.

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720 MW across three campuses, fifteen buildings

Each Catawba County campus is permitted for five 48 MW data center buildings, 240 MW apiece, for 720 MW of critical IT load across 15 buildings. Generator-backed nameplate lifts the program toward 810 MW.

SOURCE: aterio.io

What is firm, and what Aterio is inferring

The filing-based 720 MW is the floor, not the ceiling. On Microsoft's standardized hyperscale footprint, the 48 MW reads as critical IT load, not total nameplate. Comparable Microsoft campuses on the same roughly 250,000-square-foot "Ballard" design carry about 20 backup generators per building, roughly 54 MW of generator-backed nameplate once redundancy, cooling and electrical overhead are counted. Across 15 buildings that lifts the program toward 810 MW. Because the Catawba filings date to 2023, Aterio treats 48 MW as the baseline critical IT figure and 54 MW as the nameplate read, and frames the campus as a 720-to-810 MW range rather than a single number, with the actual installed electrical capacity likely higher still.

Overhead satellite view of a completed Microsoft data center campus built to the Ballard design, showing two long data center buildings flanked by rows of about twenty backup generators each, used as a reference for per-building nameplate capacity

Figure: A completed Microsoft campus on the same roughly 250,000-square-foot "Ballard" design used in Catawba County, with about 20 backup generators lining each building, the basis for reading roughly 54 MW of generator-backed nameplate per building. Captured via Airbus Pleiades, sourced through Google Earth; image analysis by Aterio. Source: Aterio U.S. Data Center dataset.

Range chart in megawatts showing the Catawba County program at 720 MW of filed critical IT load rising to about 810 MW of generator-backed nameplate across 15 buildings, a gap of about 90 MW

Figure: The 15-building program spans 720 MW of filed critical IT load to about 810 MW of generator-backed nameplate, a roughly 90 MW gap that depends on how many backup generators Microsoft installs. Source: Aterio U.S. Data Center dataset.

How soon, and how sure

Even under an aggressive ramp, the earliest meaningful activations for the first buildings are likely Q3 2027. A more realistic expectation is late Q4 2027 to Q1 2028 for the first buildings, followed by a phased rollout across the remaining buildings after that. Local announcements frame the investment as a phased, multi-year program of at least $1 billion over ten years, and note that Microsoft "essentially has until 2032" to complete the project under local arrangements and incentives.

Key program parameters:

Operator: Microsoft, across three campuses in Catawba County, North Carolina (Lyle Creek, Boyd Farm, Stover North).
Buildings: 15 total (three campuses of five), 48 MW each of critical IT load in the filings, on the roughly 250,000-square-foot "Ballard" design.
Substations: two at Lyle Creek, one each at Boyd Farm and Stover North, all dedicated Duke Energy infrastructure.
Capacity: about 720 MW of critical IT load (filing-based) to about 810 MW of generator-backed nameplate (15 buildings at roughly 54 MW).
Timeline: first activations Q3 2027 at the earliest, realistically Q4 2027 to Q1 2028, phased through roughly 2032.
Investment: a phased, multi-year program of at least $1 billion over ten years.

Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers public notices SAW-2023-00898-PN, SAW-2023-00665-PN and SAW-2022-02515-PN; the Catawba County EDC Microsoft announcement; and the Aterio U.S. Data Center dataset.

The restart is not a guarantee. Microsoft paused these sites once, on a schedule it set, and the same standardized playbook that lets it re-mobilize quickly also lets it slow down again. Until buildings are energized, the 720-to-810 MW is committed capacity in motion, not delivered capacity.

Bottom line

Microsoft's three Catawba County campuses are back in motion, and the filings plus imagery put the program at 720 to 810 MW across 15 buildings. But it is a restart on a multi-year clock: first activations are still more than a year out, the exact nameplate depends on how many backup generators Microsoft installs per building, and the company has already shown it will pause these very sites when it wants to.

What to watch: whether all three campuses ramp together or Microsoft favors one, how many backup generators land per building (the difference between 720 and 810 MW), and whether the Q4 2027-to-Q1 2028 first-building window holds. Reading the restart from orbit is the same way Aterio confirmed Bell's 300 MW Saskatchewan campus was under construction and tracked Microsoft's parallel restart of roughly 869 MW in Licking County, Ohio: construction shows up in the imagery whether or not it shows up in a press release.

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