Drone Imagery Confirms Helios 1 DC01 at Afton Is Operational

In three minutes you will know which Afton units are actually energized today — months before reported milestones say so — and how to verify your own highest-conviction sites the same way.

Galaxy Digital | Afton, Texas (ERCOT) | Helios 1 DC01, 200 MW (campus planned for 800 MW across four units) | Drone flight: July 31, 2026

A July 31 drone flight shows Helios 1 DC01 — the first data hall at Galaxy Digital's Afton AI Data Center campus (Helios) — running. Its heat exchangers are actively rejecting heat, the unmistakable signature of an operating data center.

Galaxy brought this first phase online in early July, delivering power to CoreWeave and reporting the campus as revenue-generating. Reported dates routinely lag what is happening on the ground: IIR Energy still shows a November 30, 2026 startup for Helios 1 DC01, yet our July 31 pass finds the unit already operating. Helios is a converted Bitcoin mining site, not a greenfield build, so it started with existing structures and an established power connection. That gave satellite change detection less to flag as the hall came online — and the thermal pass settles the question.

What this means for you

The number to watch is Vulcan's WPI online date — our momentum-based estimate of when a unit reaches completion and nears operation. For Helios 1 DC01, WPI pointed to early October, well ahead of IIR Energy's late-November date.

Early October reflects an average data-center build. Helios is not average: because it was repurposed from Bitcoin mining, it carried a head start over greenfield development, so the true readiness date should — and did — land earlier still. On a repurposed site, week-to-week change is hard to see; little moved through May and June, and the hall already looked finished. So we flew it, to confirm the hall was operating and not merely built.

Vulcan WPI for Helios 1 DC01 by vintage. The weekly score ramped through construction, then flattened from spring 2026 as work wound down.

The Afton campus, July 31, 2026. Helios 1 DC01 and its heat exchangers at center, the substation in the foreground, and further capacity under construction across the site.

The facility in thermal. The heat exchangers read warm to hot along the rows, with the hall roof warm behind them.

A clear operational signal at Helios 1 DC01

Helios 1 DC01 is served by long rows of heat exchangers fed by overhead fluid headers. In the July 31 thermal, the fan decks read hot and the rows read warm — the facility is actively rejecting heat. Construction continues across the rest of the 800 MW campus, where the second unit's site has been cleared and two more units are planned.

Helios 1 DC01 heat exchangers, July 31, 2026. Visible (left) and thermal (right). The fan decks read hot, indicating active heat rejection.

A second view of the heat exchangers, July 31, 2026. Visible (left) and thermal (right). The unit tops read warm across the rows.

Unit status — July 31, 2026

Reported status and dates are from IIR Energy; observations are from the July 31 drone pass.

Look past the milestone. Trust the ground truth.

Reported dates told the market Helios 1 DC01 would start in late November. The heat coming off its exchangers on July 31 told the truth. Vulcan pairs satellite monitoring with on-site thermal drone verification so you see which facilities are energized before the market does — not when a filing catches up.

SynMax · Vulcan · Energy infrastructure intelligence