Nebraska
DataCentersExposed tracks 25 AI data centers in Nebraska — 1 operating and 3 in the pipeline — across 4 counties, drawing 1.4 GW of reported power demand from 5 tracked corporate operators. Nebraska's data-center tax break is projected to cost the state $5.7M in forgone revenue in FY2025.
Sources: Methodology, Coverage scorecard
Reporting by Eric Keller · Updated May 29, 2026
Nebraska at a glance
The largest footprint in Nebraska belongs to Alphabet Inc., behind 8 tracked facilities. Meta Platforms, Inc., TierPoint, LLC, and Lumen Technologies 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: Sarpy County leads Nebraska with 15 facilities and a composite risk score of 37/100. Douglas County and Buffalo 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.
Nebraska is not done growing. 3 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 Nebraska 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 8 standardized 36 MW campuses in Nebraska by 2035 — roughly 288 MW of new electricity demand and ~279 M gal/yr of cooling water. Under the higher-growth scenario (15%/yr) that climbs to 49 campuses (1.8 GW). For scale, we currently track 25 real data centers in Nebraska (1.4 GW of reported power).
- Low growth6216 MW · ~209 M gal/yr cooling water
- Moderate growth8288 MW · ~279 M gal/yr cooling water
- High growth24864 MW · ~836 M gal/yr cooling water
- Higher growth491.8 GW · ~1.7 billion gal/yr cooling water
The model assigns ~100% of these campuses' cooling to evaporative water cooling in Nebraska (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 Nebraska
The taxpayer price tag
“5. Data Centers Statutory citation: 77-2704.62 ... Estimate: $5,667,000 Data source: U.S. Census Bureau, Economic Census”
Program-wide cost of Nebraska's data-center tax incentive(s), reported by the state — not attributable to a single facility. “Proj” = the state's own forward estimate; all other figures are realized/audited. Each links to its primary source.
County risk leaderboard
| County | Facilities | Pipeline | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sarpy County | 15 | 1 | 37 |
| Douglas County | 7 | — | 12 |
| Buffalo County | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Lancaster County | 1 | 1 | — |
Pipeline & proposals
All tracked facilities
| Facility | Operator | Status | County | MW |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Papillion | Alphabet Inc. | Under construction | Sarpy | 600 |
| Google Lincoln Data Center | Alphabet Inc. | Under construction | Lancaster | — |
| Sequitor Edge Kearney | Sequitor Edge | Under construction | Buffalo County | — |
| Meta Papillion | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Sarpy | 480 |
| Alphabet Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Douglas | 198 | |
| Yahoo | — | Mapped (unverified) | Sarpy | 17 |
| 1623 Farnam | — | Douglas | — | |
| Binary Net Vault | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Compute North | — | Mapped (unverified) | Buffalo | — |
| Fireball Group LLC Data Center | — | Mapped (unverified) | Sarpy | — |
| Fidelity | — | Mapped (unverified) | Sarpy | — |
| First National Technical Center | — | Mapped (unverified) | Douglas | — |
| Alphabet Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Sarpy | — | |
| Alphabet Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Sarpy | — | |
| Alphabet Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Sarpy | — | |
| Alphabet Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Douglas | — | |
| Alphabet Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Douglas | — | |
| Level(3) Bellevue | Lumen Technologies | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| LightEdge Omaha (OMA1) | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Lincoln Data Centers | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Meta Sarpy Data center | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Sarpy | — |
| Meta Sarpy Data center | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Sarpy | — |
| Meta Sarpy Data center | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Sarpy | — |
| Meta Sarpy Data center | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Sarpy | — |
| Meta Sarpy Data center | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Sarpy | — |
| Raven Northbrook LLC | — | Mapped (unverified) | Sarpy | — |
| Scott Data Center Omaha | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| TierPoint Omaha - Bellevue | TierPoint, LLC | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| TierPoint Omaha - Midlands | TierPoint, LLC | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Travelers Insurance | — | Mapped (unverified) | Sarpy | — |
| Union Pacific Jack Koraleski Technology, Research & Development Center | — | Mapped (unverified) | Douglas | — |
| Verizon Wireless | Verizon Communications Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Douglas | — |