Montana
DataCentersExposed tracks 13 AI data centers in Montana — 1 operating and 5 in the pipeline — across 6 counties, drawing 2.6 GW of reported power demand from 1 tracked corporate operator.
Sources: Methodology, Coverage scorecard
Reporting by Eric Keller · Updated May 29, 2026
Montana at a glance
The largest footprint in Montana belongs to Cogent Communications, behind 1 tracked facility. 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: Yellowstone County leads Montana with 3 facilities and a composite risk score of 4/100. Custer County and Cascade 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.
Montana is not done growing. 5 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 Montana 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 1 standardized 36 MW campus in Montana by 2035 — roughly 36 MW of new electricity demand and ~35 M gal/yr of cooling water. Under the higher-growth scenario (15%/yr) that climbs to 7 campuses (252 MW). For scale, we currently track 13 real data centers in Montana (2.6 GW of reported power).
- Moderate growth136 MW · ~35 M gal/yr cooling water
- High growth3108 MW · ~104 M gal/yr cooling water
- Higher growth7252 MW · ~244 M gal/yr cooling water
The model assigns ~100% of these campuses' cooling to evaporative water cooling in Montana (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 Montana
County risk leaderboard
| County | Facilities | Pipeline | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yellowstone County | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Custer County | 1 | — | 4 |
| Cascade County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Missoula County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Richland County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Silver Bow County | 1 | — | — |
Pipeline & proposals
- Proposed1.0 GWQuantica Big SkyQuantica Infrastructure · Yellowstone County County
- Proposed1.0 GWQuantica LLC Big Sky CampusMeta, Google, Amazon · Yellowstone County
- Proposed500 MWTAC Data Centers: Project CardinalOperator unknown · Cascade County
- Proposed10 MWKrambuOperator unknown · Missoula County
- ProposedRichland County Data CenterOperator unknown · Richland County
All tracked facilities
| Facility | Operator | Status | County | MW |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quantica Big Sky | Quantica Infrastructure | Proposed | Yellowstone County | 1,000 |
| Quantica LLC Big Sky Campus | Meta, Google, Amazon | Proposed | Yellowstone | 1,000 |
| TAC Data Centers: Project Cardinal | — | Proposed | Cascade | 500 |
| Krambu | — | Proposed | Missoula | 10 |
| Richland County Data Center | — | Proposed | Richland | — |
| Butte Data Center | Sabey Data Centers | Withdrawn | Silver Bow | 50 |
| ACT Colstrip | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Cogent Billings | Cogent Communications | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Montana Opticom | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Parsec Data Management | — | Yellowstone | — | |
| State of Montana Data Center | — | Mapped (unverified) | Custer | — |
| iConnect Billings Fiber Hotel | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| iConnect Missoula | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |