CHEYENNE — America is in a digital arms race right now with other countries, Gov. Mark Gordon told construction workers during a tour of the Related Digital data center site this past week, and Wyoming can be part of winning that race.
“We need to have AI, we need to own that property,” he said. “We need to make sure that our data is better, stronger, and more efficient than anywhere else. You all are the vanguard of that, and I say, God bless you.”
Wind gusts punctuated the governor’s hard-hat tour of Related Digital’s facility on Thursday, kicking up little dust devils as Gordon and Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins walked to and from the rapidly rising concrete walls for the data center.
Work is nearing completion on the first 184,000-square-foot phase of the campus, which is expected to be finished in late 2026.
The tour was an opportunity for an inside look at how this $1.2 billion data center will operate, as far as fire suppression, energy use, and water cooling.
It was also a chance for Gordon and Collins to talk about things like affordable housing, worker training, and opportunities that can keep Wyoming youths at home.
Related’s Cheyenne campus will ultimately deliver up to 420 megawatts of computational capacity for its client, CoreWeave, and they claim will generate more than $250 million in tax revenue for Cheyenne over its first 15 years of operation.
Wind gusts punctuated a tour of Related Digital’s Cheyenne data center this past week, an inside look at the $1.2 billion campus. “We need to make sure that our data is better, stronger, and more efficient than anywhere else,” said Gov. Mark Gordon. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Gov. Mark Gordon, left, listens as Related Digital employees explain how power travels to its data center east of Cheyenne. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
From left, Related Companies CEO Jeff Blau, Gov. Mark Gordon, and Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins talk with workers at Related Digital's data center east of Cheyenne. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
Model For Building Data Centers
Gordon said Related Digital is offering a model for how data centers can and should be built in Wyoming.
“What Related has done here is absolutely astounding,” Gordon said. “I used to work for an oil and gas company, and I have a ranch, and I’ve tried to bring that same philosophy to it, too.
“But you have demonstrated it here, and that’s do the right thing, do it the right way, and do it right away.”
One challenge Wyoming faces will be affordable housing.
“One of the things that’s really important is that if you’re going to get educated, and if you’re going to have a job, we want to make sure you have a place to live that you can afford,” Gordon said. “And that’s something I know that (Cheyenne) Mayor (Patrick Collins) has put a tremendous amount of effort into.”
For Gordon and Collins, the real test of projects like Related’s won’t be just the servers humming on the prairie, but whether the jobs and housing they help create give more Wyoming families a reason — and a way— to stay in Wyoming.
How The Power Flows
A member of the Related Digital team explained how power leaves the Black Hills substation, disappearing underground in buried lines that have been tucked safely away from the wind, before rising again into two massive switchboards that feed the front and back halves of the data halls.
Traditionally, the electrical “guts” of a data center have been assembled on site, the employee added.
But to speed the process along, Related’s gear was built off-site and shipped in fully formed blocks. That’s allowing contractors to set and wire everything more quickly.
Such speed-to-market tactics are what the market demands right now in the race to build out a massive surge in artificial intelligence and data centers.
Row upon row of batteries stand quiet but ready outside the building. They can provide about seven minutes of battery time.
If the power dips or there’s an outage, those batteries take the load instantly while it’s passed along to backup generators.
This approach ensures a constant flow of power to Related’s servers, which are running 24-7.
Black Hills Energy will deliver power to Related under Wyoming’s large-load tariff, which has been designed to ensure data center companies are paying 100% of their costs, including the infrastructure required to serve them.
Gov. Mark Gordon talks about how Related Digital's. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Back-up power generators, transformers, and an ePod, which is essentially an electrical room built inside a shipping-container. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
An employee with Western States Fire Protection talks about how the fire protection systems inside Related Digital's data center east of Cheyenne will work. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
Zero Water Consumed For Cooling
From there the tour filed into the Related Digital Facility itself.
A huge concrete wall swallowed tiny humans whole and the sound of blustery wind was replaced with the light and easy hum of machinery.
Inside the facility, the tour stopped near a wall of fans and coils which are an integral part of keeping the facility at an even 73 degrees.
“The racks are laid out kind of perpendicular to where we are,” a Related Digital employee explained. “Each of those racks has a chimney system taking the hot air out.”
The air chillers work in combination with a closed-loop, direct-to-chip, liquid cooling system, which soaks up heat directly at the source and moves it to a heat exchanger.
“We use the environment of Cheyenne, which has some colder temperature throughout the year,” an employee explained. “The evolution of these (systems) has gotten significantly more energy-efficient.
"That overall kind of allows us to build a closed system and run a highly efficient animal.”
As long as the closed-loop system is kept tight and filled, there’s essentially no ongoing makeup water required, he added.
“It’s basically set as soon as this is put in place,” he said. “It’s like your car radiator. If it’s leaking, you have a problem. Otherwise, you’re set.”
Magnetic-bearing compressors help the chillers remain efficient even when temperatures outside climb above the optimal 70 degrees.
Those compressors will work harder, but remain highly efficient, thanks to advanced technology.
Related’s approach is about four times more efficient than past approaches, which allows the company to run its server racks more densely, creating more computing power per square foot.
The huge, pre-cast concrete walls dwarf the humans going inside the facility, which is nearing completion of its first phase. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Four hundred workers listen to Gov. Mark Gordon applaud their efforts building the Related Digital data center east of Cheyenne. Gordon said the data center is a model of how data centers can and should be built in Wyoming. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Workers on Related Digital's site talk to Mayor Patrick Collins, Gov. Mark Gordon and Related Companies CEO Jeff Blau. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
Fire Protection For Billion-Dollar Building
Fire safety is not an afterthought at a facility like a data center. The strategy there focuses heavily on mitigating risk, while avoiding water damage.
“All of our systems are pre-action systems,” a fire protection expert explained, which will remain dry under normal conditions.
A box on the wall constantly sniffs at the air to detect smoke. Only when both air sampling detection and other triggers align will water finally surge into the pipes through sprinkler heads.
That helps prevent accidental deluges on millions of dollars of sensitive equipment.
Separate pods throughout the facility, meanwhile, each have their own shutoff valves, so that an incident in one area doesn’t necessarily have to knock the entire building offline.
Not Just Jobs, Careers
It wasn’t all about the building during the tour. Gordon and Collins also had panel discussions with employees of various contractors to talk about how they came to be part of the project, as well as what kind of training was required.
One worker talked about bringing his son into the trade, and having him help with side projects and shop work, to help him learn a skill that could keep him in Wyoming.
That was a point that particularly interested both Gordon and Collins.
Wyoming, Gordon said, has invested heavily in career and technical education (CTE), in an effort to give high school students and community college enrollees a head start on apprenticeships and technical credentials.
Staffing the projects has been a challenge, a different employee noted but, those who do come to Cheyenne are often finding there’s plenty of work to keep them in Cheyenne long-term.
Brad Harless, for example, originally came to Cheyenne to work on Microsoft data centers.
“They kept sending me to Cheyenne for work,” he said.
So he just decided to move to the area and stay.
Miles Of Pipe
Related Digital broke ground in October and has since installed about 80,000 feet of chiller pipes, 40,000 feet of medium-voltage conduits to feed the data center power, which is 111 football fields long, according to Related Companies CEO Jeff Blau.
There’s another 21,000 linear feet of underground utility pipe going in, which is 90% complete.
All of that work has been done by Wyoming businesses and Wyoming workers.
“That’s exactly why I feel good standing here with the governor and saying that I believe this project lives up to the principles you outlined in your executive order,” Blau said.
“The governor laid out a vision for attracting investment and creating jobs, while protecting Wyoming’s water and natural resources, respecting local communities and ensuring growth creates lasting benefits to the state,” he added.
The closed-loop system and high-efficiency air chillers mean water use will be on the order of a standard office building, said Blau.
“We’re very proud of that responsible approach,” he said. “The executive order also talks about protecting ratepayers. This project pays the full cost of the energy infrastructure it requires and then some.
"We’re investing more than $20 million to purchase a new transformer and expand the existing substation to service this data center.”
That investment bolsters the overall energy grid in the region, and will help protect ratepayers from future cost increases.
“Gov. Gordon’s order also talks about workforce growth and opportunity,” Blau said. “Just look around this tent. We have over 400 construction workers today, and we’ll have more than 700 at peak.
"We’re going to need another tent. Continuing to invest in infrastructure and development enables workers to have careers, not just temporary jobs.”
Related is also going the extra mile, Blau added, by contributing to organizations like Wyoming food banks and supporting regional and cultural events like Cheyenne Frontier Days.
They’ve also made a $3.5 million commitment for affordable housing in Cheyenne, something Blau said he’s particularly proud of doing.
“Related is building and preserving a part of Cheyenne where there’s a true need for affordable housing,” he said. “Since the very beginning, Mayor Collins and the governor provided the leadership and partnership to make this project possible.
"That’s not to say every step has been easy. They’ve held us accountable to make sure we live up to each of these promises.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
