A massive artificial intelligence data center is coming to Cheyenne, Wyoming. This facility will use more electricity than every home in the entire state combined. According to the city’s mayor, this is just the start. The center could expand to five times its initial size.
Wyoming’s cool climate and cheap electricity make it attractive for companies needing huge amounts of power to run their computers. The city already hosts Microsoft data centers and a nearly finished project by Meta Platforms, Facebook’s parent company.
The new center is a joint project between Tallgrass, a regional energy company, and Crusoe, an AI data center developer. It will start at 1.8 gigawatts of power and could grow to 10 gigawatts. To put that in perspective, one gigawatt can power up to one million homes. Wyoming has about 590,000 people in total.
Wyoming is one of the nation’s largest energy producers, exporting much of the electricity it creates. It produces about twelve times more energy than it uses. Still, this data center is so large that it will need its own dedicated energy sources from both gas and renewables.
Governor Mark Gordon called the project exciting news for the state’s natural gas industry. But while data centers consume huge amounts of electricity, experts warn that the choice of energy sources matters. Using renewables can reduce the climate impact, but utilities may still raise prices for customers as they adjust to this new demand.
The center will be built near the Colorado border south of Cheyenne. Local and state officials must approve the plans, but the mayor is optimistic construction will start soon.
OpenAI, the company behind Chat GPT, has been searching for locations for its massive AI data center project called Stargate. A spokesperson for Crusoe would not confirm if this Cheyenne center is part of that.
OpenAI recently opened a Crusoe-built data center in Texas that uses about one gigawatt of power. The company says it plans to develop over four and a half gigawatts more across the country. Wyoming is not currently on the list of states where OpenAI is looking to build.
This story raises important questions. What does it mean for a single facility to use more electricity than all the homes in a state? How will this affect local communities, electricity prices, and climate goals? Are states trading long-term environmental concerns for short-term economic gains?
As AI technology grows, so does its demand for energy. How we balance innovation with sustainability will shape not just Wyoming, but the future for all of us.