After months of fierce local pushback, Prometheus Hyperscale has officially abandoned plans for a massive data center project spanning Natrona and Converse counties, blindsiding local officials even as its multibillion-dollar southwest Wyoming flagship moves ahead.
Trevor Neilson, president of Prometheus Hyperscale, told Cowboy State Daily in an email Wednesday that the company is not moving forward with plans in Natrona or Converse counties.
He said Prometheus is still moving forward with its plans for a $32 billion campus in Uinta County, and is looking at better spots in the state for more development.
“We are thrilled with our progress in Evanston with Uinta County and believe other additional locations in Wyoming offer a clearer path to permitting and community support,” Neilson said.
The central Wyoming proposals aimed to build massive, liquid-cooled computing facilities spanning nearly 1,000 acres near the Natrona-Converse county line.
At full scale, the footprint was projected to bring thousands of temporary construction jobs, roughly 150 permanent roles, and tens of millions in annual property tax revenue.
‘Kind Of A Shock’
Natrona County Commissioner Dave North told Cowboy State Daily he was among the last to know about the change in plans.
“That was kind of a shock,” North said.
He said Prometheus Hyperscale has typically been good about communicating with county commissioners. That’s why the news of the company’s abrupt withdrawal came as a surprise.
"I can’t tell you anything or speculate on their reasoning but I will tell you that I’m sure it wasn’t anything the county said,” North said. “We haven’t asked for anything specifically and the requirements we did ask for were things they would have had to adhere to anyway.”
North said Natrona County commissioners were largely supportive of the project, though community response was a different story.
Residents near the proposed sites raised alarms over round-the-clock generator noise, light pollution, air emissions, increased truck traffic and declining property values.
Public skepticism was further inflamed by plans for a temporary "man camp" housing complex to support thousands of construction workers.
Some of the opponents were quite vocal about their concerns, North said, but he would be surprised if that played a big role in the company’s decision to withdraw.
“I think it was something else,” North said. “With the conversations that I’ve had with them, the vocal citizens were never anything that they brought up. That’s the reason why I don’t think that was it.”
Ultimately, North acknowledged he might never know the real reason for the withdrawal. But he said some more clarity would have been nice.
“My part that I’m more disappointed about than anything else is that we didn’t have any indication that they were going to do this,” North said. “Not that they have to consult us on their business decisions.
"But it sure makes it a lot nicer for everyone if you have an idea of what’s going on so you don’t get blindsided.”
North said he was far more bothered by being caught off guard than by losing out on the project's projected tax windfall. Because the development was still in its early stages, county officials hadn't yet begun factoring those hypothetical revenues into future budgets.
“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, I’m a firm believer in that,” North said. “It’s always nice to discuss things. But until it’s finalized and stuff starts coming in, you don’t ever count that revenue until it’s here.”
‘No Application’
The project was in such early stages that it hadn’t even submitted an application with the county, Natrona County development director Sabrina Kemper told Cowboy State Daily.
“There’s no application,” Kemper said. “So it’s not like they withdrew an application because there was no application to withdraw.”
It’s not the first time a potential project has fallen through. Last fall, Radiant Nuclear was looking to Natrona County for a potential project but ended up choosing Tennessee instead due to more favorable regulations.
Kemper said in that case the company was talking more with the city of Bar Nunn than with the county, so she doesn't know if its withdrawal was as abrupt. With Prometheus, however, she learned the company was pulling out at the same time as everyone else.
“We weren’t told anything,” Kemper said.
Still, North said the owners of the land where Prometheus planned to build are proceeding with rezoning that would have allowed for the project. That rezoning, North said, isn’t an indication of anything concrete but leaves the door open for development.
“We have zoning changes all the time,” North said. “That doesn’t mean that we know what their plans are.”
Plans For Evanston
While central Wyoming operations stall, Prometheus Hyperscale’s ambitions in southwest Wyoming remain on track.
The flagship 1.2-gigawatt campus near Evanston, located on family ranch land owned by founder Trenton Thornock, has cleared several regulatory hurdles since it was pitched in 2020.
In February, county commissioners sent letters of support to tech giants Microsoft and Meta to attract them to the site.
Addressing local worries over resources at a crowded May town hall, executives emphasized that the off-grid campus would rely on on-site natural gas generation and a closed-loop cooling system rather than municipal water or the power grid.
Uinta County planners unanimously recommended approval for the project’s conditional use permit later that month with 13 environmental safeguards.
After a state district judge tossed an administrative challenge from opponents in August, the multibillion-dollar project cleared its path to proceed.
Emma Jane Jackson can be reached at emma@cowboystatedaily.com.
