Fort Lauderdale's Z Squared to Buy Arkansas AI Data Center Site
A South Florida company is putting its capital into rural Arkansas power capacity instead of home-market land, and that says something about where site selection is headed.
Z Squared Inc., headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of Paradox Data LLC and its Union County Campus at 713 Industrial Road in El Dorado, Arkansas, for total consideration of up to $25 million, all in stock. The deal expands a binding letter of intent Z Squared signed June 18, 2026 for only a majority stake in Paradox, according to the company’s press release and its own SEC filings.
Why it matters
South Florida developers chasing AI data center demand keep hitting the same limit: cheap power at scale is scarce close to the coast. Z Squared is based in South Florida, yet it is putting its capital into rural Union County, Arkansas, where the utility already has capacity in place and land for expansion is under contract. That is the pattern to watch. Power availability, not proximity to a metro or to a buyer’s own headquarters, is now setting where AI infrastructure gets sited, and developers evaluating their own sites should read Z Squared’s route to Arkansas as a signal of where the power is, not just where the land is cheap.
The numbers
Of the up to $25 million total, $5 million is payable at closing in Series A Convertible Preferred Stock convertible at $7.45 a share. The remaining $20 million is milestone based, earned only as the campus hits four development stages: initial energization, then 50 MW, 100 MW and 150 MW of capacity. Entergy Arkansas currently provides the site up to 8 MW under an interruptible service arrangement, with an executed land contract for adjacent expansion. The 150 MW figure is a target Z Squared says the campus can reach “over time” through utility power and on-site generation, not power that is under contract now. CEO David Halabu put the structure plainly: “Eighty percent of total consideration earned only as Union County Campus achieves defined execution milestones: capacity requested, then energized.”
What’s next
Z Squared expects to close within 30 days, with an outside date of September 30, 2026, extendable to December 31. Z Squared trades on Nasdaq as ZSQR and closed at $4.81 a share on July 31, a roughly $275 million market capitalization for a company that reported $1.4 million in revenue in 2025. That gap between market size and a 150 MW ambition is worth remembering before treating the target as a done deal.