How big is the data center boom currently underway in Cheyenne?
So big that on my short drive into town most afternoons, I pass five big data centers.
Four are under construction, and one is up and operating. And that's just on the east side of town.
There's a big one over our back fence, with a $1.2 billion price tag, and over 184,000 square feet when completed. Down the road is a big Microsoft data center, which is up and running. It doubled in size recently, with two very big buildings side by side, bristling with auxiliary power generators and security fences worthy of a prison.
Not far away, they're clearing land near the State Liquor Warehouse for another data center. And across I-80, heavy equipment is preparing land for what sure looks like another data center. (There are so many going in these days that they aren't being announced anymore.)
And then there's the data center between the Union Pacific tracks and the Sierra Trading Post/TJ Maxx warehouse along Campstool Road, currently under construction.
My jaw dropped at dinner a couple weeks ago when our son learned via Artificial Intelligence (so it has to be true, right?) that by 2030, it's expected Cheyenne will have 40 data centers in and around town. Then a few days later, Cheyenne City Council member Larry Wolfe speculated that there could ultimately be 65 to 70 data centers here.
This dwarfs the power plant construction booms in Rock Springs and Wheatland in the 1970s.
On that drive into town, I notice that there are usually around 30 cars parked at the completed Microsoft data center. But down the road at the Magpul Industries warehouse, there are a couple hundred cars in the parking lot.
The comparison is stark. Data centers bring thousands of construction workers to town, but not many full-time employees.
Local officials have stars in their eyes as they contemplate the millions in new tax dollars from this boom. The governor, the mayor and company officials attended the groundbreaking last year for the data center in our neighborhood. And at a closed-door meeting held in Jackson Hole (where else?) recently, the governor reportedly encouraged tech giants Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Google to bring their data centers to Wyoming. (Participants could be quoted, but not identified.)
The meeting was hosted by the University of Wyoming.
Microsoft sent out fliers to residents recently, reporting that they paid $11 million in property taxes in 2025, making them the biggest taxpayer in Cheyenne, and the second biggest in Laramie County.
The Related Digital project underway in my neighborhood will add $250 million in tax revenues over the next 15 years. Multiply that kind of money by 40 projects in future years, and you can see why local officials may figure that Cheyenne's ship has finally come in.
Some folks in town, however, are less enthused. There are concerns over water, noise, electric rates, the electric grid, and losing the small-town atmosphere of Cheyenne. City Council meetings have been packed by those voicing concerns.
And last week the British tabloid “The Daily Mail,” ran a story on Cheyenne's data center boom, headlined, “Midwest town becomes ground zero in America's war on AI.”
Between this, the influx of people working in Colorado and looking for less expensive housing here, and the looming missile system overhaul, housing everyone coming to Cheyenne is a major problem.
Mark Moody, a member of the Cheyenne City Council, has called for a 12-month moratorium on additional data center construction.
Particularly interesting is how unexpected this boom has been. The first we knew about that data center going in across our back fence was when bulldozers arrived. We're told that since the land was designated as a business park, and data centers are permitted in business parks, approval was a pretty much a done deal, and did not require public hearings.
At the same time, local news coverage of economic development efforts like this has suffered with the migration of advertising dollars from local newspapers to other sources of information. Small-town papers aren't the central meeting place for news they once were, with fewer publication days and decimated reporting staffs.
For now, it's hard to think of a community that is more out on a limb than Cheyenne if data center problems ensue, and the tax-dollar dreams of local officials turn into something entirely different.
Like it or not, we're up to our necks in this, folks.
Dave Simpson can be contacted at DaveSimpson145@hotmail.com
