Wyoming has never had a gigawatt-scale data center. That changed on paper on June 17, 2026, when the Uinta County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to grant Prometheus Hyperscale a conditional use permit for a 1.25-gigawatt AI campus on 506 acres of ranchland near Evanston — with company statements putting construction within six months of final permitting.
That clock puts mobilization around the turn of 2027, and it makes Evanston — a town of about 12,000 in Wyoming's southwest corner — the next test of whether the AI buildout can be delivered from a rural labor market.
What happened
The June 17 commissioners' vote followed a unanimous recommendation from the Uinta County planning board on May 28. Both were notable for what didn't happen: in a year when data center opponents have blocked or delayed roughly $130 billion of projects nationwide, the Evanston campus cleared both hearings without a single dissenting vote.
Two design decisions likely explain the smooth ride. First, the campus is fully islanded — it generates its own power on-site with high-efficiency natural gas engines and turbines and draws nothing from the public grid, removing the rate-impact argument that has fueled opposition elsewhere. Second, the founder is local: Trenton Thornock's family has ranched the land for generations, and he has publicly instructed his contractors that a Wyoming-licensed firm wins any hiring tossup.
Project scope
- 506-acre site near Evanston, along the I-80 corridor about 80 miles east of Salt Lake City
- 1.25 GW initial buildout, phased over 48 to 60 months from construction start
- Expansion potential to 5 GW — which would put the site among the largest campuses in the country at full build
- On-site generation plant sized to carry the full campus load — effectively a utility-scale power project and a data center program on one site
The power plant is the half of this project the construction industry shouldn't overlook. An islanded 1.25 GW gas fleet means engine halls, turbine pads, fuel infrastructure, switchgear, and medium-voltage distribution — heavy mechanical and electrical scope that runs ahead of and alongside the data halls, similar in shape to the substation boom already reshaping grid construction.
Construction cost and investment
Prometheus has not published a program cost. The University of Wyoming's Center for Business and Economic Analysis projects $3.1 billion in economic impact through 2032, with $184 million in state tax revenue during construction and about $53 million annually once operational. For scale, comparable grid-served campuses have run $8-12 million per MW all-in; an islanded campus carries the generation plant on top of the data hall math — see our cost-per-square-foot breakdown for how those numbers decompose.
Permits and approvals
The conditional use permit is granted. Remaining steps before ground-breaking are final permitting items (building permits, air-quality permitting for the generation fleet through Wyoming DEQ, and water/septic approvals). The company's stated trigger — construction within six months of final permitting — is the date to watch. Wyoming levies no corporate income tax, and its sales-tax treatment of data center equipment is among the most favorable in the country (state-by-state incentives here).
Who's building it
No general contractor, architect, or engineer has been publicly named. What is public is the hiring posture: Wyoming-licensed contractors get preference in any tossup, per the founder's own statements — unusual, and a real signal for regional subs from Salt Lake City to Cheyenne. The project expects 3,800 construction jobs, in a county whose entire labor force is roughly 9,000 people. Traveling crews, camp-style housing, and per-diem economics are a structural certainty, the same dynamic driving data center construction wages nationally.
Schedule and construction status
- May 28, 2026 — unanimous planning board recommendation
- June 17, 2026 — unanimous conditional use permit from county commissioners
- Next — final permitting (building, air quality, water); construction committed within six months of completion
- Buildout — 48 to 60 months to full 1.25 GW, delivered in phases
If final permits land this fall, sitework starts in the first half of 2027 and the first data halls energize around 2029.
Power and infrastructure
Islanded microgrids are becoming the pattern for rural AI campuses — Sulphur Springs' Matrix Campus is running the same play with fuel cells in Texas. The construction consequence is that the critical path runs through power equipment lead times (engines, turbines, switchgear) rather than utility interconnection queues. Gas supply also means pipeline lateral construction — linear civil work across ranchland that will need its own easements and environmental clearances.
Contractor opportunity
Nothing is publicly out to bid yet; the GC selection is the gate. For positioning:
- Civil/earthwork — 506 acres of high-plains sitework, roads, and a gas lateral
- Mechanical/power — engine and turbine installation, fuel systems, heat rejection
- Electrical — generation switchgear through data hall fit-out, the largest package by value (the electrician's guide)
- Structural — phased data hall shells over four to five years
Wyoming licensure is explicitly favored. Regional subs should track the GC announcement — we'll update this article when it lands, and the project appears in our running data center permit tracker.
Why this matters
Evanston is the strongest evidence yet that the buildout's second wave is running to power, not to fiber hubs. Wyoming offers cheap gas, cold air, no corporate income tax, and counties that will permit a gigawatt campus in two unanimous votes — while established markets fight moratoriums and Virginia debates every substation. For contractors, the frontier markets are where the next $28.5 billion of data center construction gets less crowded.
What happens next
Three markers: final permits (watch Wyoming DEQ air permitting for the generation fleet), the GC announcement (with the Wyoming-preference rule shaping the sub roster), and mobilization — committed within six months of final permitting. We track all of it in the permit tracker and on the national buildout map.
Sources and methodology
Facts are drawn from Prometheus Hyperscale's announcement and PRNewswire release, Uinta County hearing coverage (Cowboy State Daily, KPCW, TownLift), and Data Center Dynamics, all linked in the fact box. The University of Wyoming CBEA figures are as reported in those sources. Cost-per-MW context is Buildermuse analysis and clearly marked; undisclosed facts are listed as not publicly disclosed rather than estimated.
