Facts About Construction Safety in Abilene

By Matt Souders, Senior Vice President, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure—Jun 25, 2026

Oracle’s data center in Abilene is one of the largest construction projects in the world with nearly 20 million worker hours and up to 9,000 workers onsite to date. As with all our AI data centers, the magnitude of this site is coupled with an unwavering commitment to safety, worker well-being, and an abundance of care and attention to safe working conditions. We believe it is the only way for our partners’ construction crews across the country to continue to advance our construction efforts safely, as they help to drive one of the largest reindustrialization efforts in our country’s history.

From day one, we’ve worked hand-in-hand with our partners to ensure that the safety of all workers is our #1 priority. Based on our current OSHA-recordable incident data and the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics benchmark for non-residential construction, the Abilene site’s incident rate is approximately 2.5 times lower than the industry benchmark.

Despite this, a media outlet’s reporting has alleged that our Abilene site is overrun with safety incidents and poor safety conditions. Upon receiving the feedback, we immediately conducted an investigation with our partners to uncover the truth. Our review did not substantiate the central claims in the report and found that key allegations omitted important context, mischaracterized site conditions, or were inconsistent with the safety records reviewed.

Here are the facts:

• Abilene operates with a safety-first culture. There have been no work-related fatalities, the incident rate is nearly 2.5x lower than industry norms, and when incidents have occurred, our partners responded urgently and immediately.
• Since construction began, work-related incidents requiring offsite hospital care have been rare. In several cases reviewed, medical transport was related to personal health issues rather than workplace incidents. We continue to encourage emergency medical calls whenever any individual may need care beyond what can be provided onsite.
• Air-conditioned buildings, lunch tents, break areas, offices, and medical trailers are available onsite, along with handwashing stations across campus. Site safety leadership has confirmed that workers have access to cooled rest areas and heat-stress controls. Any concern about heat exposure or access to cooling are encouraged to be reported immediately so it can be investigated and addressed.
• Managers are expected to reinforce hydration and heat-stress prevention as basic safety practices. We received no reports that workers were discouraged from staying hydrated. Any such claim would be investigated promptly and addressed through corrective action where appropriate.
• Construction employers on the site are required to verify employment eligibility consistent with applicable law.
• Electrical work requiring licensure is performed by licensed professionals in accordance with applicable code, permitting, and contract requirements. We do not permit unlicensed individuals to perform work that legally requires a license.
• Thanks to the tremendous work of the construction teams onsite, we have maintained rapid progress while our teams continue to operate under structured safety processes, inspections, training, and oversight.

We take allegations related to worker safety seriously and, when concerns are raised, we review them and take appropriate action. This is in addition to regular third-party audits, OSHA oversight, daily pre-task planning, and open reporting channels for workers. We have conducted site safety standdowns, additional training, and more. Our partners have conducted more than 14,000 site safety inspections to date. We encourage all workers to report any incident or concern about workplace safety, either to our partners or directly to Oracle.