Google plans $17 billion in Wyoming data centers, starting with a gas fuel-cell campus near Cheyenne

Google confirmed on Thursday that it will build its first data center in southeast Wyoming, and that the buildout could reach $17 billion. WyoFile reported the plan, which sits near Terry Ranch Road in Laramie County, outside Cheyenne. Reuters and Bloomberg carried the same $17 billion figure in their headlines. Google has not said, in anything we could read, when the first facility will open or how long the full buildout would take.

The first phase is a power plant as much as a data center

According to WyoFile, the first step is a 702-megawatt facility powered by fuel cells that turn natural gas into electricity, with the generation emissions to be sequestered deep underground. Google named four partners: pipeline company Tallgrass Energy, utility Black Hills Energy, American Electric Power and developer Related Digital. It said the site will be air-cooled "to minimize strain on local water resources," and that it will "pay for 100% of the power we use."

The 702 megawatts matches a project AEP announced on October 14. In that release, AEP said it plans to invest about $4 billion in a Bloom Energy fuel-cell facility near Cheyenne under a 20-year power purchase agreement with Google. The plant company, Cheyenne Fuel Cell, would be about 92% owned and controlled by AEP and nearly 8% owned by funds advised by Basalt Infrastructure Partners. AEP said construction would begin in 2026, full operation is expected by the end of 2028, and carbon capture is planned.

The number behind the number

Divide AEP's $4 billion by 702 megawatts and you get roughly $5.7 million per megawatt, for the generation alone, before a single server is installed. If that $4 billion sits inside the $17 billion total, as the partnership suggests but neither company has stated in what we read, power would be about 24% of the headline figure. That is the real cost of building AI capacity away from an existing grid: the buyer is paying for its own electricity supply, and the utility is financing it on a 20-year contract.

That structure answers the question that has dogged data centers all year, which is who pays for the power. Our reporting on Tuesday's ballot measures and the Ohio town bans showed voters rejecting projects in most places they got a say. A company that finances its own generation is answering that objection directly.

Wyoming is not an easy room

WyoFile says Cheyenne already has 10 data centers operating and more than a dozen planned. A University of Wyoming poll published last week found only 30% of residents support allowing more large AI data centers, and Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who is headed to Congress, has opposed new ones. Cheyenne Councilman Larry Wolfe told the outlet that local officials have talked with Google for a year and that Tallgrass has already begun some dirt work. "We're not easily dazzled anymore," he said, adding that $10 billion or $20 billion projects have made the city cynical about anything smaller.

Who it touches

• Electricians, pipefitters and excavation contractors in the Cheyenne area face a construction schedule that AEP puts at 2026 through the end of 2028, competing with the dozen-plus other projects on the books.
• Ratepayers of Black Hills Energy are the group to watch. Google's promise to cover its own power and the infrastructure its growth drives is a commitment, and the details will sit in utility filings, not in the announcement.
• Investors in Alphabet are looking at one more multibillion-dollar line in a capital plan already under scrutiny; the stock is down 29.8% from its May peak on our chart data.

What to watch

Three things would turn this from an announcement into a project: Google naming a timeline for the first building, regulators approving the carbon-sequestration plan, and the other sites in the $17 billion getting identified. Until then, $17 billion is a ceiling Google described as "potential," and the one number with a signed contract behind it is the $4 billion power plant.

Sources: WyoFile (Nov. 5); American Electric Power release, "AEP Advances Innovative Energy Solution for Google with 702MW of Bloom Fuel Cells" (Oct. 14, text via Stock Titan); Reuters and Bloomberg headlines of Nov. 5; Alphabet chart data from Yahoo Finance. The per-megawatt figure is our own arithmetic. This is market information, not investment advice.