North Dakota
DataCentersExposed tracks 12 AI data centers in North Dakota — 5 operating and 2 in the pipeline — across 5 counties, drawing 1.5 GW of reported power demand from 1 tracked corporate operator. North Dakota's data-center tax break cost the state $19.4M in forgone revenue in FY2024 — $40.9M cumulatively.
Sources: Methodology, Coverage scorecard
Reporting by Eric Keller · Updated May 29, 2026
North Dakota at a glance
The largest footprint in North Dakota belongs to Applied Digital Corporation, 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: Cass County leads North Dakota with 3 facilities and a composite risk score of 6/100. Dickey County and Stutsman 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.
North Dakota is not done growing. 2 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: 1 state bill mentioning data centers and 6 recent news items are tracked for North Dakota 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 North Dakota 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 48 campuses (1.7 GW). For scale, we currently track 12 real data centers in North Dakota (1.5 GW of reported power).
- Low growth6216 MW · ~209 M gal/yr cooling water
- Moderate growth8288 MW · ~279 M gal/yr cooling water
- High growth23828 MW · ~801 M gal/yr cooling water
- Higher growth481.7 GW · ~1.7 billion gal/yr cooling water
The model assigns ~100% of these campuses' cooling to evaporative water cooling in North Dakota (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 North Dakota
The taxpayer price tag
“The reported tax for the sales tax exemption for technology equipment and computer software used in a qualified data center totaled $12,359,395 in tax years 2021 and 2022 combined, $9,147,273 in tax year 2023, and $19,390,865 in tax year 20…”
Program-wide cost of North Dakota'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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cass County | 3 | 1 | 6 |
| Dickey County | 1 | — | 4 |
| Stutsman County | 1 | — | 4 |
| Williams County | 2 | — | — |
| Burleigh County | 1 | 1 | — |
Pipeline & proposals
All tracked facilities
| Facility | Operator | Status | County | MW |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aurum Capital Ventures | — | Proposed | Burleigh | — |
| Applied Digital: Polaris Forge 2 | — | Under construction | Cass | 280 |
| Project Fighting Pike | Critical Data House | Williams | 455 | |
| Applied Digital / Ellendale Data Center | Applied Digital Corporation | Dickey | 400 | |
| Atlas Power | — | Williams | 240 | |
| Apld Jamestown Datacenter | — | Stutsman | 100 | |
| 702 Communications - Fargo, ND | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Applied Digital | — | Mapped (unverified) | Cass | — |
| DCN Dakota Carrier Networks Bismarck | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Dakota Carrier Network | — | Cass | — | |
| Midco Fargo | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |
| Midco Grand Forks | — | Mapped (unverified) | — | — |