Kentucky
DataCentersExposed tracks 27 AI data centers in Kentucky — 5 operating and 10 in the pipeline — across 16 counties, drawing 2.8 GW of reported power demand from 1 tracked corporate operator.
Sources: Methodology, Coverage scorecard
Reporting by Eric Keller · Updated May 29, 2026
Kentucky at a glance
The largest footprint in Kentucky belongs to Flexential Corp., behind 2 tracked facilities. 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: Jefferson County leads Kentucky with 3 facilities and a composite risk score of 6/100. Lee County and Floyd 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.
Kentucky 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: 5 state bills mentioning data centers and 6 recent news items are tracked for Kentucky 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 3 standardized 36 MW campuses in Kentucky by 2035 — roughly 108 MW of new electricity demand and ~104 M gal/yr of cooling water. Under the higher-growth scenario (15%/yr) that climbs to 20 campuses (720 MW). For scale, we currently track 27 real data centers in Kentucky (2.8 GW of reported power).
- Low growth272 MW · ~70 M gal/yr cooling water
- Moderate growth3108 MW · ~104 M gal/yr cooling water
- High growth9324 MW · ~313 M gal/yr cooling water
- Higher growth20720 MW · ~696 M gal/yr cooling water
The model assigns ~100% of these campuses' cooling to evaporative water cooling in Kentucky (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 Kentucky
County risk leaderboard
| County | Facilities | Pipeline | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jefferson County | 3 | 1 | 6 |
| Lee County | 1 | — | 4 |
| Floyd County | 1 | — | 4 |
| Shelby County | 1 | — | 4 |
| Hopkins County | 1 | — | 4 |
| Oldham County | 3 | 1 | — |
| Meade County | 1 | — | — |
| Mercer County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Pike County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Barren County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Simpson County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Boyd County | 1 | 1 | — |
Pipeline & proposals
- Proposed645 MWMercer County Data CenterJones Lang Sallee · Mercer County
- Proposed500 MWMuskie Data Campus Data CenterTeraWulf Inc. · Boyd and Greenup County
- Proposed480 MWTeraWulf Data CenterTeraWulf Inc. · Hancock County
- Proposed400 MWFortune 500Operator unknown · Mason County
- ProposedCave City Data CenterOperator unknown · Barren County
- ProposedDartPoints Lexington Data CenterOperator unknown · Fayette County