Abilene, Texas
Three jobs, one town: Stargate One, Crusoe’s new campus for Microsoft next door, and Vantage Frontier out in Shackelford County. What it’s like to work here and what it costs.
First edition. Some sections are still being sourced, and they say so. Know something we got wrong? Tell us.
Nine thousand workers a day, in a city of a hundred thousand
Stargate One alone has had about 9,000 craft workers on site every day, according to Crusoe. Abilene has just over 100,000 people. Taylor County had 143,208 at the 2020 census.
And it isn’t one job. Two more are starting on the same roads, the same RV parks and the same rents. Everything else in this guide follows from that.
Who’s building what
- Stargate One. Crusoe builds it on Lancium’s land for Oracle and OpenAI, on Abilene’s north side. Eight buildings, all topped out. Crusoe says the work runs into the first quarter of 2027.
- Crusoe’s Microsoft campus, next door. Two buildings. Site work started in March. The first building is due to power up in mid‑2027.
- Vantage Frontier, Shackelford County. Ten buildings on 1,200 acres for OpenAI and Oracle, northeast of Abilene where Highway 351 meets FM 604. The state filings give it an Abilene address. Ground broke in December 2025. Kiewit is the design firm on the filings, and the buildings filed so far are due between February and August 2027.
General contractors: we’re still sourcing this. Kiewit is on Frontier’s state filings as the design firm. No general contractor has been named for the other two jobs. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
Your employer is the company doing your trade’s work — not OpenAI, not Oracle. Get its name before you agree to anything.
Nineteen more of these are coming
Eight guides are written. Leave an address and the next one reaches you when it is done — nothing here is behind a wall, and nothing else gets sent.
Each new site guide when it’s done, and a note when a new tool goes up. Nothing else, ever.
A hotel room costs more than the per diem
The RV parks and motels were full by February. Hotel rooms are there if you pay for them:
- Hampton Inn, Abilene — $239 a night.
- Hampton Inn & Suites, Abilene — $311 a night.
Listed rates for the night of 21 October 2026. Even the cheaper one is more than the whole $181 a day of per diem, meals included. A week at $239 is $1,673. A week of per diem is $1,267.
People working the area tell us a one‑bedroom runs about $3,000 a month with everything in, and the trailer parks in town are in use.
The new RV parks on Elmdale Road
- Elmdale RV Park, north Taylor County. Due to open in December 2025, for the Frontier job.
- Nearly 1,000 tiny homes at 1202 Elmdale Road, just south of I‑20, approved by the city council in January 2026 for the data center northeast of town. Built in phases, and gone when the job ends. The city’s planning director said the developer would run a bus to and from the site.
- Cottages at The Frontier, also on Elmdale Road. $1,550 a month, but approved tenants only — Vantage leadership, per the developer.
Lot rents and open spots: we’re still sourcing this. Neither park has published a rate. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
Don’t drive in without a place lined up. At hotel rates, a week burns more than a week of per diem before you’ve eaten.
The drive
Stargate One is on Abilene’s north side, so for anyone living in town the drive is short. Neighbors say the traffic is not: they report collisions and cars run off the road. Taylor County set new speed limits on Elmdale Road for the park traffic.
Highway 351 at FM 604
Frontier’s gate traffic backed up hundreds of feet as trucks waited to get onto Highway 351. In December, TxDOT put temporary signals at FM 604, running as a flashing three‑way stop. Sheriff’s deputies direct traffic there at morning and evening rush. A permanent signal and a rebuilt intersection are planned.
Some Albany residents now go through Baird to get to Abilene rather than drive 351.
Traffic counts and gate times: we’re still sourcing this. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
Who holds Taylor and Shackelford counties
We’re still sourcing this. No building‑trades local is based in Abilene. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
Until then, two calls will answer it for your trade:
- West Texas Building & Construction Trades Council — (806) 549‑8748. Ask who holds Taylor County and Shackelford County for your trade.
- IBEW Local 681 — (940) 322‑1661. Runs out of Wichita Falls and Abilene. Ask whether it holds these jobs.
Ask whether your package is union, merit shop, or both. It decides your rate, your overtime and whether a hall can help you.
How the one-year rule works
What counts is how long the job was expected to run. Not how long it actually runs.
- Expected to run a year or less, and it does. Per diem stays out of your wages.
- Expected to run longer than a year. Wages from your first day, however long it actually runs.
- Expected short, then extended past a year. Wages from the day a year or less stopped being realistic — not your 365th day, and not when the paperwork catches up.
It doesn’t reach back. Expect nine months, get extended at month eight, and the first eight months stand. That’s the IRS’s own example. The day you were told matters more than anything else here.
Keep three things: what you were told at the start (offer letter, requisition, the recruiter’s text), the day the extension came down and who it came from, and proof of a home you pay for while you’re away. Without that last one, none of the per diem was tax‑free to begin with.
What you’d actually keep here
The per diem rate here, the tax trap on this ground, and what to ask before you accept.
Abilene gets the standard rate
No special rate here. Since 1 October 2026 it’s the federal standard: $113 lodging plus $68 meals, $181 a day. Texas has no state income tax.
That’s the most that can come to you tax‑free. Anything over it is wages and lands on your W‑2, whatever the recruiter calls it. Rates reset every 1 October.
Three jobs side by side make it easy to roll from one to the next. Stargate One is winding down while the Microsoft campus starts next door. Finish one, start the other, and it may count as the same place of work.
If the two together were expected to run past a year, your per diem is taxed — from the day that became the plan. Ask a CPA before you take the second one, and get the end dates in writing.
At Frontier, the filings already run past a year. The buildings Vantage has filed with the state each run 16 to 18 months. A job quoted as “the whole building” is over the line on paper before you start.
A cost table with real lot rents: we’re still sourcing this. It goes up when the parks give us rates. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
Before you accept
- Which of the three jobs is this, and how long is it expected to run? Will they put it in writing?
- Is the per diem taxed from day one, or could it get reclassified later?
- Who is my employer?
- Is there a bed or an RV spot that comes with the job, or a bus from one?
- Is the per diem paid seven days a week, or only days worked?
- If this job ends, is the next one next door — and does that start a new clock or continue this one?
- How many hours are guaranteed, and is overtime daily or only past forty? (Union daily overtime doesn’t count for the federal overtime deduction.)
If they can’t answer the first two, you don’t have enough to decide.
Run the whole offer through the calculator.
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Sources
- Workers on site, the eight buildings and the end date: Crusoe, to Abilene city leaders — KTXS, March 2026; DCD, November 2025.
- The Microsoft campus: Crusoe, March 2026.
- Vantage Frontier: DCD, December 2025; the state’s building filings, TABS2026024094 and TABS2026024068.
- Population: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020; Abilene’s from Texas Standard, February 2026, which also reported the full RV parks and motels.
- Hotel rates: listed rates, checked 21 October 2026. Rents: what people working the area tell us, October 2026.
- The Elmdale Road parks: KTAB, October 2025; KTXS, January 2026; KTAB, January 2026; KTAB, December 2025.
- Traffic: Texas Standard, January 2026; KTAB, October 2025; The Albany News, December 2025.
- Per diem rate: GSA, fiscal year 2027. The one-year rule: IRS Publication 463 and Tax Topic 511.