Alaska data centers
Every proposed AI and cloud campus in Alaska, the land it wants, the power it needs, and who gets to say yes.
Where this beat stands
Alaska AI tracks 8 decisions on this beat, each one with the documents it was verified against. None are open for public comment right now, which is worth knowing before assuming there is still a door open. The bodies deciding on this beat include Alaska DNR, Division of Oil and Gas, Department of the Air Force, Enhanced Use Lease program and Alaska DNR, Commissioner John Crowther.
Decisions on this beat
STAK Energy's North Slope AI campus lease
Pending decision · Alaska DNR, Division of Oil and Gas
A preliminary decision would give STAK Energy a 50-year lease on 715.4 acres of state land about 26 miles south of Deadhorse for a gas-fired AI and cloud campus its developer pegs at more than $10 billion, with 1 to 3 gigawatts of on-site generation. More than 500 public comments arrived before the first deadline; fewer than a dozen supported the project.
4 sources on file · the full record
Air Force land leases for AI data centers at JBER, Eielson and Clear
Pending decision · Department of the Air Force, Enhanced Use Lease program
The Air Force offered about 4,700 acres across 12 parcels at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Eielson AFB and Clear Space Force Station for privately financed AI data centers. Residents near the five Eielson-area parcels raised noise, permafrost and grid concerns, including one parcel less than a mile from North Pole Middle School.
13 sources on file · the full record
AIDEA's free state land for a Mat-Su data center park
Pending decision · Alaska DNR, Commissioner John Crowther
A DNR preliminary decision would transfer about 19,950 acres, roughly 31 square miles, of state land about two miles north of Houston in the Mat-Su to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority at no charge, a state subsidy meant to seed a multi-use industrial and energy district that AIDEA's own development plan describes as including scalable data centers, advanced manufacturing pads and a logistics hub on the Parks Highway and the Alaska Railroad, about 60 road miles north of Anchorage. Written public comment was to close August 19th, DNR extended it to September 14th, and it is now closed. The decision sits with the department.
17 sources on file · the full record
Anchorage data-center zoning ordinance AO 2026-27
Decided · Anchorage Assembly
On March 27th, 2026 the Anchorage Assembly adopted ordinance AO 2026-27 in a 10 to 2 vote, defining data centers in the municipal zoning code for the first time. It confines them to commercial and industrial zones, requires landscaping buffers and enclosed power equipment, and requires written statements from electric and water utilities that the grid has sufficient system capacity before a project proceeds. Members Scott Myers and Keith McCormick voted against it.
3 sources on file · the full record
HB 259, state utility standards for large data centers
Closed · Alaska Legislature (House Energy Committee)
HB 259, introduced by Rep. Donna Mears in January 2026, would have set utility rate-setting guidelines and community benefit agreement standards for large energy use facilities such as data centers, and given the Regulatory Commission of Alaska new duties over them. The House Energy Committee heard it twice, on January 29th and February 3rd, 2026, taking testimony from Greensparc, GCI, the Alaska Municipal League and former Rep. Paul Seaton. It never advanced out of that committee, and it carried a second referral to House Community and Regional Affairs it never reached. The bill died with the 34th Legislature at sine die on May 20th, 2026. Alaska still has no statewide cost-allocation rule governing how a large data-center load is billed against other ratepayers, which leaves that question with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska and with individual utility boards.
3 sources on file · the full record
The AI ratepayer pledge, and which Alaska utilities have signed it
Watching · Each Alaska electric utility board, including the Railbelt cooperatives
The White House Ratepayer Protection Pledge asks AI companies, utilities and data center developers to commit that new data center load pays for its own generation and delivery instead of shifting the cost onto households. USA TODAY and POWER both describe it as voluntary and non binding. Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed the governors addendum on July 23rd, 2026, one of 23 governors. The signatory list has grown from 281 when it was first read here on July 26th, 2026 to 324 on October 10th, and across that growth exactly one Alaska entity appears on it, Cordova Electric Cooperative, a 1,566 customer cooperative that is not connected by transmission line to any other community. No Railbelt utility has signed.
5 sources on file · the full record
The executive order that lets big data centers skip the usual federal review
Watching · The President, carried out by the Council on Environmental Quality and the Interior, Energy and Defense departments
Executive Order 14318, Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure, directs federal agencies to speed approvals for data centers adding more than 100 megawatts of load or costing at least 500 million dollars. It tells agencies to find and create categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act, and directs Interior and Energy to offer federal sites while Defense may competitively lease military land.
3 sources on file · the full record
The University of Alaska's 829 acres at Port MacKenzie, leased to the coal plant's campus
Decided · University of Alaska Land Management signed the lease; any lease of the borough's own port land would need the Mat-Su Borough Assembly
Terra Energy signed a 20 year lease with the University of Alaska in late May for 829 acres near Port MacKenzie, four parcels in Township 14 North, Range 4 West, Seward Meridian, for what the lease calls the Terra Energy Center Campus, a large-scale industrial park. The project is part of affiliate Flatlands Energy's plan for a coal plant near Skwentna, which the Department of Energy selected for $89 million in engineering funding and whose described loads include data centers. Rent is $20,000 in the first year, $60,000 a year in the second and third, and $586,000 a year once operations begin, targeted for 2030, with a 2 percent annual adjustment. Borough officials expect Terra to pursue about 1,000 acres of borough port land as well.
4 sources on file · the full record
Every one of these is also in the full Alaska AI Docket, published as open data at /data/ under CC BY 4.0.
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Data centers · Power and the grid · Land and permitting · Defense and federal · Research and science · Data sovereignty · State policy