CHEYENNE — According to Mayor Patrick Collins, an artificial intelligence data center will be built near Cheyenne soon, using more electricity than every Wyoming home combined before expanding to up to five times its current size.
Wyoming’s capital has become a computing powerhouse, thanks to cool weather (which helps keep computer temperatures low) and an abundance of low-cost electricity from a top energy-producing state.
Since 2012, the city has been home to Microsoft data centers. Collins said the $800 million data center announced by Facebook parent company Meta Platforms last year is nearing completion.
According to a joint company statement, Tallgrass, a regional energy infrastructure company, and Crusoe, an AI data center developer, will start with 1.8 gigawatts of electricity and scale up to 10 gigawatts.
A gigawatt can power up to one million homes. However, there are more homes than people in Wyoming. Wyoming, the least populous state, has approximately 590,000 people.
Wyoming, a top producer of coal, oil, and gas, is the fourth highest net energy-producing state in the United States, trailing only Texas, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania, according to the Energy Information Administration.
According to Collins and company officials, this proposed data center is so large that it will require its own dedicated energy from gas generation and renewable sources.
Gov. Mark Gordon praised the project’s significance to the state’s gas industry, calling the announcement “exciting.”
The data center would be built several miles south of Cheyenne, off US 85 near the Colorado state line. State and local regulators would need to approve the project, but Collins was optimistic that construction could begin soon.
