Houston-based general contractor Satterfield & Pontikes Construction has entered a strategic partnership with North Carolina-based DG Matrix to integrate solid-state transformer technology into AI data center builds across Texas, as conventional transformer shortages continue to push project timelines back by as much as nine months.

The Partnership and Its Core Technology

The agreement gives Satterfield & Pontikes priority access to DG Matrix's Interport platform, which the company describes as the first commercially available multiport solid-state transformer.

DG Matrix, which positions itself as the global leader in solid-state transformer solutions, is headquartered in Morrisville, North Carolina. Satterfield & Pontikes, ranked among the Engineering News-Record Top 400 general contractors, maintains offices across Texas and has been expanding into multi-gigawatt data center construction.

The Interport platform consolidates what has traditionally required multiple discrete power systems into a single, software-configurable solution. According to the companies, the platform integrates UPS capability, behind-the-meter energy aggregation, simultaneous AC or DC outputs, 800-volt DC architecture, and pulse-load mitigation for generative AI servers.

The design allows developers to deploy a single solution across their entire portfolio while reducing power conversion loss and avoiding dependence on utility interconnection queues.

Conventional transformer procurement lead times have stretched to two to three years, a bottleneck the companies say is pushing first-power dates back six to nine months on projects that rely on legacy equipment.

The partnership is structured to close that gap, enabling S&P to bring data center capacity online within timelines that conventional supply chains cannot currently match.

Texas Regulatory Backdrop

The timing of the announcement coincides with significant regulatory changes in the Texas energy landscape. Texas Senate Bill 6, signed into law in June 2025, introduced new rules for large-load customers connecting to the ERCOT grid.

Any facility drawing 75 megawatts or more now faces interconnection cost-sharing requirements, mandatory load curtailment capabilities during grid emergencies, and remote-disconnect obligations for sites energized after December 31, 2025.

The legislation has placed added importance on behind-the-meter power self-sufficiency, a design philosophy at the center of the DG Matrix and Satterfield & Pontikes model.

For data center developers seeking to avoid the regulatory and financial exposure that comes with large-scale grid interconnection, the Interport platform offers flexible power architectures that do not depend on utility approval timelines.

"Texas has become the most consequential data center market in the country, and the regulatory landscape with SB6 makes intelligent, behind-the-meter power infrastructure a requirement," said Haroon Inam, CEO and co-founder of DG Matrix.

"Satterfield & Pontikes has the Texas DNA, the construction track record, and the foresight to build with us. Our Interport platform accelerates time-to-power and speed to compute, getting AI infrastructure online faster than any legacy approach can match."

Texas as a Data Center Market

Beyond the regulatory environment, the companies point to a range of structural advantages that make Texas the focus of their joint strategy. The Permian Basin provides access to natural gas.

The state's wind and solar resources rank among the largest in the nation, and abundant land supports utility-scale battery storage. Texas currently holds roughly one-fifth of the entire U.S. national data center pipeline.

Analysts project Texas will surpass 40 gigawatts of total data center capacity by 2028, which would represent nearly 30 percent of all U.S. demand. That growth trajectory, if sustained, would position Texas to overtake Northern Virginia as the world's largest data center market by 2030.

Cam Thrutchley, Vice President of Mission Critical at Satterfield & Pontikes, described the convergence of factors that led to the partnership. "In mid-2025, we began to see the stars aligning between Texas and Silicon Valley," he said.

"Texas had all the ingredients to become the ideal place on Earth where hyperscalers could build at speed and scale behind the meter. And fortunately, it's where we call home. We have the relationships, the workforce, and now, through DG Matrix, the multi-port power router technology that can optimize and future-proof data center designs and drive faster delivery schedules."

Construction Capabilities and Delivery Model

Satterfield & Pontikes brings a technology infrastructure that the companies say streamlines complex, multi-trade data center builds. The firm was an early adopter of Building Information Modeling technology, work that contributed to the development of the Autodesk Construction Suite, one of the most widely used construction management platforms in the industry.

That same BIM-based workflow now drives the company's data center delivery operations. The partnership is structured as a turnkey, end-to-end delivery model that aligns power strategy, engineering, and construction under a single integrated approach.

According to the companies, unifying system design with execution reduces engineering complexity, streamlines coordination across stakeholders, and eliminates traditional integration bottlenecks.

The model is intended to produce a more predictable build process, faster time to power, and lower project risk. For hyperscalers competing to bring AI compute infrastructure online, those elements carry direct financial implications.

Data center development timelines have become a competitive differentiator as demand for AI compute capacity continues to expand. The ability to compress the schedule by six to nine months, the window that conventional transformer procurement currently consumes, represents a meaningful advantage in a market where speed to compute translates directly to revenue.

"General contractors competing for the next generation of hyperscale data center work are going to be defined by who they partner with," Thrutchley said. "Access to Interport changes our delivery calculus in a meaningful way. While others wait years for transformer supply, we build."

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