Iowa
DataCentersExposed tracks 53 AI data centers in Iowa — 7 operating and 10 in the pipeline — across 13 counties, drawing 2.7 GW of reported power demand from 8 tracked corporate operators. State and local governments have granted those operators $36M in tracked tax abatements.
Sources: Methodology, Coverage scorecard
Reporting by Eric Keller · Updated May 29, 2026
Iowa at a glance
The largest footprint in Iowa belongs to Meta Platforms, Inc., behind 8 tracked facilities. Microsoft Corporation, Alphabet Inc., and Cologix, Inc. round out the most active operators in the state. Many of these sites are filed under shell or project names rather than the parent's — our operator column resolves them back to the real corporate parent wherever the chain is documented.
Geographically, the buildout clusters: Polk County leads Iowa with 16 facilities and a composite risk score of 43/100. Pottawattamie County and Dallas County follow. Our county risk score weights project exposure (40%), power demand (30%), water draw (15%), and land footprint (15%); the full breakdown is shown on each county page.
Iowa is not done growing. 10 facilities are in the pipeline — proposed, permitted, or under construction — which is where residents still have a say at zoning hearings and in rate cases. Each pending project is a decision about land, water, electricity prices, and tax revenue that hasn't been finalized.
We also surface the accountability trail: 4 state bills mentioning data centers and 6 recent news items are tracked for Iowa below, pulled from LegiScan and GDELT and refreshed automatically. Legislation is linked to the counties and operators it names; news is classified by community sentiment.
2035 Buildout Outlook
Under the model's moderate-growth scenario (5%/yr annual load growth), PNNL's IM3 model sites about 14 standardized 36 MW campuses in Iowa by 2035 — roughly 504 MW of new electricity demand and ~487 M gal/yr of cooling water. Under the higher-growth scenario (15%/yr) that climbs to 76 campuses (2.7 GW). For scale, we currently track 53 real data centers in Iowa (2.7 GW of reported power).
- Low growth9324 MW · ~313 M gal/yr cooling water
- Moderate growth14504 MW · ~487 M gal/yr cooling water
- High growth371.3 GW · ~1.3 billion gal/yr cooling water
- Higher growth762.7 GW · ~2.6 billion gal/yr cooling water
The model assigns ~100% of these campuses' cooling to evaporative water cooling in Iowa (the rest to mechanical/air cooling), a split it derives from local water stress and wet-bulb temperature.
These are modeled candidate sites, not announced or permitted facilities. PNNL's IM3 model places identical 36 MW unit-campuses at feasible locations under each scenario — it shows where demand could concentrate, never a specific parcel. Figures use a market-gravity weight of 50. How the model works.
Top operators in Iowa
Per-deal tax breaks on record
- Council Bluffs data center incentives$36M
Specific incentive records we have matched in Iowa (state certified-exemption lists, agreements, and disclosures) — most have no public per-site dollar value, so a count is shown rather than an invented figure.
County risk leaderboard
| County | Facilities | Pipeline | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polk County | 16 | 1 | 43 |
| Pottawattamie County | 9 | 2 | 17 |
| Dallas County | 4 | — | 12 |
| Warren County | 2 | 1 | 9 |
| Scott County | 1 | — | 4 |
| Johnson County | 1 | — | 4 |
| Linn County | 3 | 2 | — |
| Clinton County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Madison County | 1 | — | — |
| Black Hawk County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Jones County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Adair County | 1 | 1 | — |
Pipeline & proposals
- Proposed200 MWApplied DigitalOperator unknown · Adair County
- Proposed200 MWEdged Data CenterOperator unknown · Pottawattamie County
- ProposedClinton Data CenterOperator unknown · Clinton County
- ProposedProject WestTract · Warren County
- ProposedSimple MiningOperator unknown · Dubuque County
- ProposedSimple MiningOperator unknown · Black Hawk County
All tracked facilities
| Facility | Operator | Status | County | MW |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applied Digital | — | Proposed | Adair | 200 |
| Edged Data Center | — | Proposed | Pottawattamie | 200 |
| Clinton Data Center | — | Proposed | Clinton | — |
| Project West | Tract | Proposed | Warren | — |
| Simple Mining | — | Proposed | Dubuque | — |
| Simple Mining | — | Proposed | Black Hawk | — |
| Edged DSM01-1 Data Center | — | Under construction | Polk | 13 |
| Google Council Bluffs expansion | Google LLC | Under construction | Pottawattamie County | — |
| QTS Cedar Rapids | QTS Realty Trust, LLC | Under construction | Linn County | — |
| QTS Fairfax Data Center | — | Under construction | Linn | — |
| Meta Altoona | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Polk | 540 |
| Google Council Bluffs | Alphabet Inc. | Polk | 480 | |
| Microsoft West Des Moines | Microsoft Corporation | Mapped (unverified) | Polk | 360 |
| Alphabet Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Pottawattamie | 284 | |
| Microsoft | Microsoft Corporation | Mapped (unverified) | Polk | 200 |
| Microsoft | Microsoft Corporation | Dallas | 106 | |
| Microsoft | Microsoft Corporation | Mapped (unverified) | Warren | 100 |
| US Signal IA01 - Des Moines | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | 2 |
| 713 Nebraska | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Apple | Apple Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Dallas | — |
| Apple Waukee | Apple Data Services LLC | Dallas County | — | |
| Aureon | — | Polk | — | |
| Bluebird Quad Cities Data Center | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Cologix DSM1 | Cologix, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Cologix DSM2 | Cologix, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Connect Des Moines | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| CyrusOne OCB1 Council Bluffs | CyrusOne LLC | Mapped (unverified) | Pottawattamie | — |
| Dubuque Data Center | Windstream | Dubuque | — | |
| Enseva Cedar Rapids | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Facebook Altoona Data Center 1 | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Polk | — |
| Facebook Altoona Data Center 2 | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Polk | — |
| Facebook Altoona Data Center 3 | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Polk | — |
| Facebook Altoona Data Center 4 | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Polk | — |
| Facebook Altoona Data Center 5 | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Polk | — |
| ForceAmp.com | — | Mapped (unverified) | Johnson | — |
| Gable CORP | — | Mapped (unverified) | Pottawattamie | — |
| Geneseo Communications Inc | — | Mapped (unverified) | Scott | — |
| Alphabet Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Pottawattamie | — | |
| Alphabet Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Pottawattamie | — | |
| Alphabet Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Pottawattamie | — | |
| Alphabet Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Pottawattamie | — | |
| Google Cedar Rapids | Google LLC | Mapped (unverified) | Linn | — |
| IP Pathways DSM1 | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| InfoBunker | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Lightedge Des Moines 1 | — | Polk | — | |
| Lightedge Des Moines 2 | — | Polk | — | |
| Long Lines Data Center | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Meta | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Polk | — |
| Meta | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Polk | — |
| Microsoft | Microsoft Corporation | Mapped (unverified) | Polk | — |
| Microsoft | Microsoft Corporation | Mapped (unverified) | Dallas | — |
| Osmium Data Center | — | Mapped (unverified) | Madison County | — |
| Router12 - Brick and Tile | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| SFN IA-Davenport | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| SFN IA-Emery | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| SFN IA-IowaFalls | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| SFN IA-Urbana | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| SFN IA-Waterloo | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| South Spencer Aureon hut | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Usshc | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| ark data centers - Cedar Rapids ,IA | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |