Adds advisors, Crow detail in 11-15 paragraphs

By Sabrina Valle and David French

NEW YORK, June 29 (Reuters) - Members of the Texas billionaire Hunt and Crow families have partnered with Nasdaq-listed bitcoin-focused financial firm Empery Digital EMPD.O to invest in data centers for hyperscalers, according to people familiar with the matter.

The group agreed to buy a Midwest industrial facility for $230 million that has 150 megawatts of capacity and will be repurposed as a data center, the people said. In parallel, the group signed a non-binding letter of intent for a $1 billion leasing contract with a cloud computing company, they added.

The initiative combines Hunt’s expertise in power with the Crow family's real estate know-how and Empery Digital's access to public markets.

The partners expect the project to be the first of a series of acquisitions to build a data center business, the people said. They all declined to be identified because the information is private.

The investment comes as growing artificial intelligence workloads drive demand for data center capacity, with power supply emerging as a key constraint.

The Hunt family is better known in Texas for its oil fortune and owning the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs, while Crow is one of the largest real estate dynasties in the U.S.

Investing in data centers will allow the Dallas families with roots in energy and property to secure large electricity contracts and long-term tenants.

Empery Digital is a Nasdaq-listed, bitcoin-focused investment company with a market capitalization of about $100 million.

The partners plan to buy underutilized powered land properties, secure leases with hyperscalers and turn the sites into data centers, the people said.

Empery Digital has separately agreed to buy for $65 million a 25% stake in a private entity managed by an affiliate of Hunt Properties. The Crow family participates as minority partners, the people said.

The formal connection of the Crow family, which owns Crow Holdings, has not been identified, the people said.

The Midwest facility has operated as a power-intensive industrial site for the past three years. It includes an owned substation and associated infrastructure for the approximately 150 MW of currently available capacity under an existing power agreement with the local utility, the people said.

Capacity could potentially double to approximately 300 MW, the people said.

The Hunt-led private entity has executed a non-binding letter of intent to finalize a lease with an undisclosed cloud computing company that could potentially produce $1 billion in payments, the sources said.

Clear Street and law firm Ropes & Gray are advising Empery Digital, and Lake Street and Davis Polk & Wardwell are advising the industrial facility acquisition, the people said.