STACK Infrastructure’s JTIP award would support 95 trainees in Santa Teresa, as Doña Ana County officials press developers for overdue job reports tied to the data center project.

Damien Willis, Organ Mountain News

LAS CRUCES - STACK Infrastructure, the developer behind Project Jupiter, has been approved for up to $3.06 million in state job-training funds for 95 trainees in Santa Teresa.

The award was included in the New Mexico Economic Development Department’s quarterly Job Training Incentive Program announcement, which said STACK Infrastructure’s Santa Teresa project would train 95 workers at an average hourly wage of $48.

STACK is a global developer and operator of purpose-built data centers designed to meet the high-capacity needs of hyperscale cloud providers and large enterprises, according to the state. The award is the company’s first JTIP application.

The funding puts new state workforce money behind Project Jupiter at a moment when Doña Ana County officials are seeking more transparency about the project’s promised jobs.

According to reporting by the Albuquerque Journal, Doña Ana County Economic Development Director Denisse Carter told commissioners last week that developers had not submitted job-hiring reports due in January and April under the project’s industrial revenue bond agreement.

The Journal reported that an annual project report is due July 31 and that county officials discussed requiring representatives from Oracle, STACK Infrastructure and Bloom Energy to appear publicly before commissioners.

The county approved a historic $165 billion industrial revenue bond agreement for the project last year. The agreement does not require the county to borrow or spend public money, but allows the county to hold title to the project’s property and lease it back to developers under a contract that includes direct payments instead of property taxes.

Project Jupiter has drawn scrutiny from residents and elected officials over water use, energy demand, emissions, job projections and public transparency as construction continues in Santa Teresa.

Data center Project Jupiter’s greenhouse gas emissions could rival NM’s largest cities

Developers behind Project Jupiter, a massive data-center campus planned near Doña Ana County, say the site could emit more than 14 million tons of greenhouse gases annually — a level that would rival the combined emissions of the state’s two biggest cities.

Organ Mountain NewsJoshua Bowling

STACK’s award was the largest listed in the state’s quarterly JTIP announcement.

The only other southern New Mexico company listed in the announcement was Stampede Culinary Partners Inc. in Sunland Park, which was approved for up to $385,710 to train 71 workers at an average hourly wage of $16.

Stampede Culinary Partners is a food-processing and protein-solutions company that manufactures ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook proteins and further-processed food products.

Statewide, the JTIP board approved 31 applications from 27 companies from April through June, supporting more than 440 jobs, according to the Economic Development Department.

For the full fiscal year, from July 2025 through June 2026, JTIP supported 70 companies and helped train up to 1,460 workers in full-time positions with an average hourly wage of more than $37.

Of those companies, 20 were in rural communities, where the program supported 656 workers at an average hourly wage of $28. Fifty were in urban communities, where the program supported 804 workers at an average hourly wage of $45.

JTIP reimburses companies for a portion of a trainee’s wages for up to six months. The program also funds Step Up, which supports training and upskilling for current employees.

Damien Willis is founder and editor of Organ Mountain News. If you have a personal story to share or a lead we should follow up on, reach out at OrganMountainNews@gmail.com or connect with him on X at @damienwillis.